Aug 19, 2011 13:27 GMT  ·  By

The latest update to the Debian edition of Linux Mint has arrived. The team has now published release candidate ISOs for what is called Linux Mint Debian 201108, for both the Gnome and the Xfce edition, the only two officially supported.

"The team is proud to announce the release of LMDE 201108 RC with updated ISOs for Gnome and Xfce," the Linux Mint Debian team announced the update.

Linux Mint Debian 201108 RC is based on the very latest packages available in Debian Testing.

The ISOs contain all you need to get your system going, but once it's running you won't have to install it ever again, since all packages will be updated as new versions come in.

This is one of the main differentiating factors between the regular Linux Mint, based on Ubuntu.

Because it's a rolling update distribution, in theory, you only need to install it once and you'll always have the latest packages, as long as you update regularly.

Which is why the new Update Manager comes in handy, but there are also update packs now, for bulk updating.

Linux Mint Debian 201108 RC boasts that it now includes all Linux Mint 11 features and updates, in most cases, it should be fairly indistinguishable from the Ubuntu-based version.

The installer has been updated and now provides more flexibility, for example: keyboard variants, locale, bug fixes and UUID in fstab.

The latest update to the Debian flavour of Linux Mint also has compatibility with both GTK2 and GTK3 themes.

Linux Mint Debian 201108 RC comes with four ISOs, 32-bit and 64-bit versions with either Gnome or Xfce as the default desktop environment.

If you've been using Linux Mint, or Ubuntu for that matter, there are a few things to consider if you're thinking of switching to the Debian version.

One advantage is that you get an experience closer to what the app makers intended, and this goes for the desktop environment as well, though it's been customized with Linux Mint versions.

You also get constant, rolling updates, so you'll always be running recent packages which could mean more bugs and less stability.

Also, if the choice of desktop environments seems limited, a KDE and a Fluxbox version of Linux Mint Debian is coming.

Linux Mint Debian 201108 RC is available for download here.

Linux Mint 11 LXDE is available for download here. Linux Mint 11 is available for download here.