14 DAY TRIAL // Linux Mint's Clement Lefebvre announced the release of the Linux Mint Debian Edition 3 "Cindy" Cinnamon Edition operating system based on the latest Debian GNU/Linux technologies.
Continuing the dream of offering users an alternative to the standard, Ubuntu-based Linux Mint editions, Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) 3 "Cindy" Cinnamon Edition is now available to download and ships with the latest Cinnamon 3.8 desktop environment and it uses the repositories of the latest stable Debian GNU/Linux operating system.
Besides the usual bug fixes and security updates imported from Debian, the base packages stay the same in Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) 3 "Cindy" Cinnamon Edition, which follows a rolling release model where users install once and receive updates forever. As such, all of its desktop components are updated continuously.
"Its main goal is for the Linux Mint team to see how viable our distribution would be and how much work would be necessary if Ubuntu was ever to disappear. LMDE aims to be as similar as possible to Linux Mint, but without using Ubuntu. The package base is provided by Debian instead," said Clement Lefebvre.
How to upgrade from LMDE 2 to LMDE 3
If you're using the LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) 2 Cinnamon Edition operating system series, you can now upgrade to Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) 3 "Cindy" Cinnamon Edition by launching the Update Manager utility, clicking on the "Refresh" button to refresh the APT cache and apply all available updates. Then install the Linux Mint upgrade tool with the following command.
sudo apt install mintupgrade
To download all the packages required for upgrading to Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) 3 "Cindy" Cinnamon Edition, run the first command listed below in the terminal app. Then, apply the upgrades by running the second command below. That's it, reboot your computer once all packages are successfully installed, and you can finally enjoy Linux Mint Debian Edition 3.
mintupgrade download
mintupgrade upgrade
Please keep in mind that Linux Mint Debian Edition 2 Cinnamon Edition will only be supported until January, 1, 2019, so make sure you take the time to upgrade to Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) 3 "Cindy" Cinnamon Edition until then. Also, please note that Linux Mint Debian Edition 2 MATE Edition has been deprecated and it cannot be upgraded.