LMDE Survival Guide

Just Last night I Installed Linux Mint (debian edition) on my computers.
Why you may (or may not) be asking..

I've been an avid user of Ubuntu Linux since the second half of 2005, and I have learned allot about using Linux over the last 7 years. However, in the last 2 the Ubuntu developers have decided to take a different path and have moved away from what I would consider to be a traditional desktop. And while I admire their pioneering spirit, I personally consider their new Unity desktop to be some what of a drag on the more traditional computer (mouse and keyboard) and to me at least the Unity desktop seems more equip for the Touch Screen market.

Gnome 3 also seems to be tipping off in to an obscure tangent, and would appear to have discarded what some may consider to be common sense, for a new path that at least so far seems a step backwards rather than an evolutionary move forward.

So I (reluctantly at first) decided to move to a new distribution, and after some digging, decided i would give Linux Mint a go.

So why Linux Mind Debian Edition?
Well, I must be honest, it's not just the new GUI I find distasteful in recent versions of Ubuntu Linux, allot of things also appear to have 'regressed' in the base system too, mostly where drivers and general system stability are concerned.
So knowing that Linux Mint 'Lisa' was based on Ubuntu, and having seen it in action and sporting Gnome 3 on another machine at work, i decided it wasn't for me either, and thus decided to give LMDE a try instead.

So.. Things Encountered while installing LMDE over Ubuntu.

The first thing you may find (and apparently this is in favour of the general compatability and 'just get it working first' approach) The default kernel installed on LMDE is the '486' Generic PC Kernel.
the '486' is compiled for the Intel Pentium 1/Pro or equivalent, and doesn't support any of the features/extensions in modern processors (Such as SSE/2, PAE and Multi-core etc.) and you are likely to see a large drop in overall performance (especially in games)

Fortunately this problem is easily remedied, You can install the '686' based kernel from the package manager, (or though apt)

Simply click on the Mint menu and select 'Package manager' from the list.

The package you want to look for is 'linux-image-3.2.0-2-686-pae' (the version number will likely change over time)

When you find it in the list, you can tick it ('mark for installation')

Additional note: If you use nVidia Graphics, you will also want to install the 'kernel headers' so that the driver module can be compiled for your card.
so you may wish to mark 'linux-headers-3.2.0-2-686-pae' for installation also.

(optional)
To do both these in the terminal, as root you may type:
apt-get install linux-image-3.2.0-2-686-pae linux-headers-3.2.0-2-686-pae

(more will be added to this as I go along)