this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2026
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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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[–] pmk@piefed.ca 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day 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).
[–] AlexSage@piefed.social 4 points 1 day ago

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.