LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) 5 Beta Is Now Available for Public Testing

The upcoming LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) 5 operating system release is now available for public beta testing ahead of the final release in March 2022.

Based on the Debian GNU/Linux 11 “Bullseye” operating system series and powered by the long-term supported Linux 5.10 LTS kernel series, the LMDE 5 “Elsie” distribution comes with the updated software stack present in the Linux Mint 20.3 “Una” release and the latest Cinnamon 5.2 desktop environment by default.

Work on LMDE 5 kicked off in early January 2022, shortly after the release of Linux Mint 20.3, which is derived from the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) operating system series, but it’s built on top of a Debian GNU/Linux 11 base mostly for Linux Mint developers to test the compatibility of their own software stack with Debian GNU/Linux in preparation for the next major Linux Mint release, Linux Mint 21.

But besides the Debian Bullseye base and the newer Linux 5.10 LTS kernel, there’s literary no difference between LMDE 5 and Linux Mint 20.3, as you can see from the quick look video I’ve posted below.

“The result is a little bit underwhelming because it just looks and feels like Linux Mint 20.3. Under the surface, though, it features a Debian 11 base whose software is more recent than Ubuntu 20.04 and which gives us a preview of some of the challenges we’ll face in Linux Mint 21,” said Clement Lefebvre.

Without further ado, if you want to take the LMDE 5 beta release for a test drive, you can download the official live ISO images for 64-bit or 32-bit systems right now by clicking on the download links below. However, please keep in mind not to install this pre-release version on a production machine!