The developers are getting closer to a stable release

Nov 17, 2014 12:06 GMT  ·  By

The Linux Mint team is working on a Debian-based version of their distribution and it looks like things are coming along. The devs have made some progress with the Cinnamon integration and users might soon get a real choice.

As you all know, Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu and it's been like this for a long time. The latest versions are actually using the Ubuntu 14.04 LTS release and the devs have already said that only this build will be used for all updates until the next LTS (16.04) is made available. This means that the Linux Mint development cycle is linked to the Ubuntu one. There are many advantages, but developers would probably like a little more liberty in this matter.

Linux Mint based on Debian doesn't provide the same constraints, but it has a number of other limitations. For example, the development cycle for Debian is a lot longer than for Ubuntu, so it will take a long while for a new base to be chosen. On the other hand, Ubuntu is also based on Debian, but it doesn’t have these issues because it's using the Unstable branch, which is updated constantly with the latest packages.

Linux Mint Debian will include systemd

When the developers are ready with the Debian-based Linux Mint, they will also have to make some compromises. The systemd subject is a hot one right now and it will certainly become more important for the Linux Mint community when LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) gets more users. For now, it's still under heavy development, so it's not really an issue.

"On the LMDE side, work is continuing on Betsy. Debian Jessie is getting ever more stable, Cinnamon 2.4 is being ported to it and adapted to components which Linux Mint doesn't use (GTK 3.14, Upower 0.99 and Systemd). This is facilitated of course by the fact that Cinnamon is cross-distribution and that other distributions already used these components."

"Many many thanks to all the people who are supporting us and everyone who contributes in different ways in making Linux Mint better. To the people I work with on a daily basis, moderators and developers in particular, it's a real privilege to be working with you," says Clement Lefebvre, the leader of the Linux Mint project.

The Linux Mint team just released an RC version of the latest 17.1 update, for both the Cinnamon and MATE flavors. Also, if you want to take a look at the Linux Mint Debian, you can download it from Softpedia.

Linux Mint Debian (12 Images)

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