Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) 6 has been released for public download following a short beta testing period. LMDE is Linux Mint’s backup based on Debian should anything happen to Ubuntu, which the main Linux Mint versions are based on.
LMDE 6 aims to be as close to the main version of Linux Mint as possible but without using Ubuntu, the package base is provided by Debian instead. It’s vital to note that the main version of Linux Mint has already avoided using snap packages and has implemented deep support for flatpaks.
The system requirements for LMDE 6 are quite modern by today’s standards, you will need 2GB of RAM, 20GB of disk space, and a 1024x768 resolution. These are just the bare minimums, more is recommended for comfortable usage.
If you are running LMDE 5, the Mint team has published detailed upgrade instructions here. Annoyingly, you will still have to interact with the terminal to get the Upgrade Tool but this has been kept pretty simple.
If you are using the LMDE 6 beta, you don’t need to upgrade but you do need to run the following commands, you may need to use sudo before each of the commands:
- apt install zstd yt-dlp
- apt remove gnome-font-viewer youtube-dl
If you want to download LMDE 6, you can either get it as a direct download or as a torrent. By downloading it as a torrent, the ISO image is automatically verified to ensure that nobody has tampered with it so this is probably the best way to download it.
If you are still rocking a computer that only supports 32-bit operating systems, you can download a 32-bit version of LMDE 6 via torrent too. Interestingly, this is the only modern version of Mint that is available for 32-bit systems.
In terms of user experience, LMDE 6 aims to be similar to the latest version of Linux Mint, so if you’ve used that, you already know what LMDE 6 will be like, more or less. LMDE 6 is based on Debian 12 Bookworm which came out earlier this year.
Source: Linux Mint Blog