this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2026
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Linux Mint's success also means maintainer stress - The Register (www.theregister.com)
submitted 4 days ago by WebleyFrog@piefed.social to c/linux@programming.dev
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[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Which is why LMDE exists.

~~Too bad LMDE is based on Sid. Some stuff can break on occasion.~~

I few months ago I helped an older lady at a repair café to replace her Win10 with LMDE (because that's what she wanted). Installed just fine but didn't boot after reboot. Installed LMDE 2 or 3 additional times, to make sure I didn't overlook something. Same result.

Then installed Fedora and it just worked.

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I have never had a problem with LMDE. My mother has been using it for about a year now. I used to have to come solve Windows problems for her a couple times a year but she had never asked me for any help with LMDE.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

It's unlikely that an already properly installed bootloader just breaks. ~~The base is Sid, Debian Unstable.~~

~~Just because breakage doesn't happen all the time, there is still a higher than average chance. Sid is Debian's beta test branch, not a rolling release distribution.~~ It just wasn't the right choice for the lady at the repair cafe.

I was corrected that LMDE is not based on Sid. I redact that part of my comments. The experience I had installing LMDE on a lady's laptop at a repair cafe was as described, though.

[–] CafeFrog@lemmy.cafe 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

LMDE is not based on Sid, it's based on Debian Stable. LMDE 7 is currently based on Debian 13 Trixie. You sure you had the right ISO?

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

LMDE is not based on Sid, it’s based on Debian Stable

Oh wow, you're right. Did that change at some point and I just didn't pay attention? My bad!

You sure you had the right ISO?

I had the correct ISO and the experience with the lady's notebook was as described. Maybe the notebook needed newer kernel code?

[–] CafeFrog@lemmy.cafe 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

It's always been based on stable, AFAIK.

Maybe the notebook needed newer kernel code?

If it was able to boot the Live USB to install it, I figure that means the kernel is new enough to actually run the laptop properly. I can only guess something in the installer itself was messing up somehow? Or perhaps it wasn't making an entry in the boot table? That's an odd one for sure.