LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) is a very exciting distribution, targeted at experienced users, which provides the same environment as Linux Mint but uses Debian as its package base, instead of Ubuntu.
LMDE is less mainstream than Linux Mint, it has a much smaller user base, it is not compatible with PPAs, and it lacks a few features. That makes it a bit harder to use and harder to find help for, so it is not recommended for novice users.
LMDE is however slightly faster than Linux Mint. Life on the LMDE side can be exciting. There are no point releases in LMDE 2, except for bug fixes and security fixes base packages stay the same, but Mint and desktop components are updated continuously. When ready, newly developed features get directly into LMDE 2, whereas they are staged for inclusion on the next upcoming Linux Mint point release. Consequently, Linux Mint users only run new features when a new point release comes out and they opt-in to upgrade to it. LMDE 2 users don’t have that choice, but they also don’t have to wait for new packages to mature and they usually get to run them first. It’s more risky, but more exciting.
LMDE 2 Betsy Cinnamon Edition
LMDE 2 received many updates in the last 2 years, including many improvements which were ported from Linux Mint as well as all the new versions of MATE, Cinnamon and the Xapps.
This release provides a new set of installation images for LMDE 2 which includes all these updates.
System requirements:
512MB RAM (1GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
9GB of disk space (20GB recommended).
Graphics card capable of 800×600 resolution (1024×768 recommended).
DVD drive or USB port.
Notes:
The 64-bit ISO can boot with BIOS or UEFI.
The 32-bit ISO can only boot with BIOS.
The 64-bit ISO is recommend for all modern computers (Almost all computers sold in the last 10 years are equipped with 64-bit processors).
Upgrade instructions:
No upgrade is needed. If you are running LMDE 2, you already have access to all the updates included in this re-release.
Therefore, today's LMDE 2 "Betsy" ISO images come with up-to-date components and the Cinnamon 3.2 desktop environment by default for the live session, allowing you to install the operating system without having to download hundreds of updated packages from the repositories after installation.
For now, the new ISOs are offered as Beta, which means that they might need a little polishing before they can be fully recommended for mass deployments. You can download either the 64-bit (for UEFI and BIOS machines) and 32-bit (only BIOS PCs) ISO images of LMDE 2 "Betsy" Cinnamon Edition Beta right now from our website.
The Linux Mint team recommends users to install the OS using the 64-bit ISO, if they own a modern computer. In the meantime, the developers are preparing to release Beta images of Linux Mint Debian Edition 2 "Betsy" with the more lightweight and customizable MATE desktop environment, which should be out any moment now.
See the release announcement
Login and password for the live session
The Live session should log you in automatically. If it doesn't, or if you need to login manually, you can use the following credentials:
For the username, type "mint"
For the password, if asked, just press Enter.
Multi-core and multi-CPU support in 32-bit kernel
To guarantee compatibility with non-PAE processors, the 32-bit versions of Linux Mint Debian come with a 586 kernel by default. This kernel does not support SMP, and as a consequence is only able to detect one core and one CPU. If your CPU has multiple cores, or if you have more than one CPU, simply install the 686-PAE kernel and reboot your computer.
Type the following commands and reboot the computer:
apt update
apt install linux-headers-686-pae linux-image-686-pae
Download links
Cinnamon: [32-bit] [64-bit]
MATE: [32-bit] [64-bit]