On the home computer that I personally use the most (HP Pavilion). I used to install and run Ubuntu Studio for a year or so. However, I find that Ubuntu was resource hungry on this machine as sometimes I heard the CPU high speed fan kicked on when the CPU usage is very high (it is a three-core machine). After I upgraded to Ubuntu 10.10 beta, it got even worse.

So I switched to Linux Mint 9 which runs pretty well on several other computers in our house and business. It helped a lot after this switch.

But then I heard about this Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) that people love and talk a lot about. Besides the advantage of installing once for all and upgrading in the rolling fashion, most people say it runs much faster than Linux Mint 9 which is based on Ubuntu. Having heard so many comments about it, I decided to give LMDE a try even though it is the first and a rough version rushed by the Linux Mint team.

You know what?

The install went smoothly (luckily I know how to use GParted) and indeed this system runs extremely fast – faster than any version of Ubuntu out there and even faster than Linux Mint 9! Now my HP Pavilion CPU fan does not need to be kicked on and the machine is quite and happy running LMDE

I highly recommend Linux Mint Debian Edition. Click here to learn more about this linux operating system and download the live DVD ISO file. If you think the comments on the previous link are too many, click here to check this consolidated LMDE feedback and reviews.

Note 1: If you plan to use a language other than English as another locale, I suggest that you do that after install using the default English language because the installer may not install the fonts for any languages other than English. You need to use Synaptic and search for “your language” afterward to install fonts needed. To set the default language locale, you have to use the terminal to do it. Issue this command “dpkg-reconfigure locales” to start the process (remember, it is not Ubuntu anymore; it is a real Debian environment) and then select the locale(s) you want to generate. At the very end, you’ll be asked to pick which language to be the default. If you like me, do not know how to select a language listed after running the “dpkg-reconfigure locales“, then you type this “sudo gedit /etc/locale.gen” in terminal to open the file and comment out the languages you to have. After saving the change(s), use “sudo locale-gen” to let LMDE to generate those locales. Reboot and you should be able to read files and web pages in those languages. If you want to be able to input in any language(s) other than English, you have to use Synaptic to install your favorite input platform and methods.

Note 2: I do find one thing I cannot do in LMDE which can be done in Ubuntu and Linux Mint 9 (or lower versions). That is to assign this computer to a fixed and static IP. As our Telus Gigaset SE567 router does not allow me to assign IPs to all the network computers from the router admin area, I have to find a way to do it from within LMDE. I have tried to edit the file “/etc/network/interfaces” just like in the cases of Ubuntu and Linux Mint 9, but this did not work. I have tried to manually set the IPv4 Settings via the “Edit Connections…” link on the right-click menu of Network Manager, still no luck – I could set an fixed IP but then I lost the internet connections. If any of you know how to do it, please let me know by adding the solutions to the comment area below. Thanks!

Good News! Got the static IP set up after reading this thread on Linux Mint Forums. Basically I forgot to enter an IP (same of the gateway IP) in the field of “DNS Servers” for the Manual IPv4 Settings.

Anyway, right-clicking on Network Manager to “Edit Connections…” is certainly the easiest and simplest way to assign a fixed IP to your computer! See the screenshot for this simple step. BTW, after you make the changes, you should use this terminal command “sudo /etc/init.d/network-manager restart” to reset the network. The “sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart” command does not work for LMDE as it is for Ubuntu and Linux Mint 9.

Installing applications using the .deb files are not straight forward as in Ubuntu or Linux Mint 9. You have to install the gdebi utility using Synaptic and then issue the terminal command “sudo gdebi whatever_file.deb” – I used this method to install Skype for Debian Lenny although my LMDE Debian version is in fact Squeeze. Someone called “tomac” shared the following to make edebi open all files that end with .deb:

As for gdebi, you can set up nautilus in such way that double clicking on .deb file will open it in gdebi, just like in Ubuntu. After having gdebi installed, right-click on some .deb file, then click Properties -> Open With tab -> and from application list select gdebi, then Ok.

Now I am facing the next challenge if not the last one, that is to install Google Earth in LMDE. I tried a few approaches found by googling around but all failed. I did get it installed but it crashes whenever I start it. If you know how to do it, let me know by using the comment area. Thanks!