The first testing images for the upcoming Linux Mint Debian Edition LMDE 4 release were made public on the 21st February for both 32 and 64 bit amd/intel architectures. As usual there's only one testing image with the Cinnamon desktop available. LMDE is of course Linux Mint based on the latest Debian Stable release, as opposed to the usual Mint releases that are based on Ubuntu.LMDE is trying to implement more or less the same experience on a Debian base. Debian Stable as a whole is considered to be a bit more stable than Ubuntu, but that also goes hand in hand with a few rougher edges. Lore goes that LMDE also acts as an emergency option if one day Ubuntu should not be found suitable anymore. Or maybe it's just that some people in the development team prefer tinkering with an unadulterated Debian base? Whatever the reason, LMDE appears consistently faster and more efficient as it is lacking certain abstractions introduced in Ubuntu that mainline Linux Mint inherits. The Mint team are also introducing more layers of their own like the hardware driver assistant to their flagship consumer product, which makes overall for a much more complex, resource hungry and heavier end-product. Therefore if you prefer a cleaner base LMDE makes sense.
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| Boot menu |
The upcoming version will be based on Debian 10 `Buster', which now has apparmor, a Linux kernel security mechanism that provides Mandatory Access Control, enabled by default. Options have been added to the boot menu to boot with proprietary Nvidia graphics drivers which are now part of the image or to boot in compatibility mode which should get around all other problems with graphical boot. This is really a convenience to save people having to manually enter nomodeset.
Other changes worth mentioning that go beyond updated applications or a change in default applications is that ability to encrypt the users home directory has been added to the installer as well as support for Btrfs and updated looks and a slideshow to make it look more like the Ubiquity installer employed in the main Linux Mint line.
Apart from the above the beta also includes a new round Mint icon that makes it blend in better with modern flat looking icon themes - as announced here in January- and an update to Cinnamon 4.4.8 at the core of the desktop experience which is a quite significant upgrade from Cinnamon 4.2.4 in LMDE 3 for which many of the natively offered desklets have stopped working.
Most of the included applications have stayed the same, with the notable exception of Celluloid, another video viewing frontend for the GNOME desktop, replacing MPV. In LMDE 3 the Gnome-Player frontend did not work for me and had to be swapped out for VLC. The rest of the application set have received the usual updates. Still in the menu is also a shortcut to painlessly and quickly install multimedia codecs.
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| Showcasing the desktop and background choices |
In general the changes to LMDE will bring it more in line with their latest Ubuntu based offering, Linux Mint 19.3 'Tricia', which means it is just as up to date and shiny as the main line and becoming ever more a real alternative.
However, be advised that if you prefer other init systems sadly LMDE will not be for you as trying to replace systemd wants to remove the Cinnamon desktop as well as all GNOME utilities, gvfs, all mint tools like mintupdate and even the Synaptic package manager if installed.
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| Trying to change init |
LMDE 4 is more of the same with a refreshed package base, with only small evolutionary changes, mostly to the initial boot and install process. It oozes stability which I would wager is what users of a Debian stable base want, paired with a more polished Cinnamon desktop and overall user experience than in Debian proper.
It is supposed to be released before Linux Mint 20 which is pencilled in for the summer. This beta has come surprisingly early, but perhaps this time we'll also see a release candidate or two so I wouldn't want to bet on when the full official release might be.
