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What would you say is the most reliable, "it just works" distro currently? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 7 months ago by PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works to c/linux4noobs@programming.dev

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Obviously this is somewhat subjective, but I've had a lot of problems in my previous attempts to switch to Linux, so I'd like to create a list of distros to try out, and see what works for me. I'm mostly expecting to be doing basic office work and light gaming via Steam.

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[–] teft@piefed.social 21 points 7 months ago (5 children)

Mint Debian Edition

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[–] pmk@piefed.ca 5 points 7 months ago (4 children)

What's different between LMDE and choosing cinnamon when installing debian? Do they change anything under the hood on the debian base?

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[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 14 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It's the same Debian base under the hood, but has:

A more user-friendly installer (I know Debian's has improved with Trixie, but Mint's is still easier IMO).
A newbie friendly welcome screen that walks them through setting up a snap shot back-up tool, theming, updates, firewall, as well as easily providing a link to help documents, and shows the user the software center exists.
The excellent Mint Software Centre Appstore (I don't think that comes with Cinnamon on a standard Debian install, I think it's just the terminal).

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[–] AlexSage@piefed.social 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

The difference is LMDE uses debian and its packages as a base while the "cinnamon" edition uses Ubuntu as a base. I believe they both actually use cinnamon as the DE.

It's more of a just in case because a lot of the linux community isn't like Conical lately.

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[–] steel_for_humans@piefed.social 1 point 7 months ago (1 child)

The difference is LMDE uses debian and its packages as a base while the “cinnamon” edition uses Ubuntu as a base.

Does that mean that the packages available to LMDE are older?

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[–] AlexSage@piefed.social 2 points 7 months ago

Potentially I honestly don't follow it enough. They might use Debian testing or some for newer packages.

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