LMDE is a Linux Mint project and it stands for “Linux Mint Debian Edition”. 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.

There are no point releases in LMDE. Other than bug fixes and security fixes Debian base packages stay the same, but Mint and desktop components are updated continuously. When ready, newly developed features get directly into LMDE, whereas they are staged for inclusion on the next upcoming Linux Mint point release.

Important info:

The release notes provide important information about known issues, as well as explanations, workarounds and solutions.

To read the release notes, please visit:

“Release Notes for LMDE 3”

System requirements:

1GB RAM (2GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
15GB of disk space (20GB recommended).
1024×768 resolution (on lower resolutions, press ALT to drag windows with the mouse if they don’t fit in the screen).
Notes:

The 64-bit ISO can boot with BIOS or UEFI.
The 32-bit ISO can only boot with BIOS.
The 64-bit ISO is recommended for all modern computers (Almost all computers sold since 2007 are equipped with 64-bit processors).
Upgrade instructions:

This BETA release might contain critical bugs, please only use it for testing purposes and to help the Linux Mint team fix issues prior to the stable release.
It will be possible to upgrade from this BETA to the stable release.
Bug reports:

Bugs in this release should be reported on Github at https://github.com/linuxmint/lmde-3-cinnamon-beta/issues.
Create one issue per bug.
As described in the Linux Mint Troubleshooting Guide, do not report or create issues for observations.
Be as accurate as possible and include any information that might help developers reproduce the issue or understand the cause of the issue:
Bugs we can reproduce, or which cause we understand are usually fixed very easily.
It is important to mention whether a bug happens “always”, or “sometimes”, and what triggers it.
If a bug happens but didn’t happen before, or doesn’t happen in another distribution, or doesn’t happen in a different environment, please mention it and try to pinpoint the differences at play.
If we can’t reproduce a particular bug and we don’t understand its cause, it’s unlikely we’ll be able to fix it.
Please visit https://github.com/linuxmint/Roadmap to follow the progress of the development team between the BETA and the stable release.