LTS

[#1]

Not sure if I have understood this correctly but are the LTS versions of Mint more stable than the other versions of Mint ?

[#2]

LTS stands for Long Term Support.....
Generally most mint releases ( or any distro ) are supported until the next release, which in the case of ubuntu based distros can be every 6 months.
LTS releases are supported for longer periods.
eg Linux Mint 13 Maya is supported until April 2017
As to more stable, like any software the longer it is supported, the more chance there is of the developers ironing out any bugs, but LTS distros don't always have the latest versions of software

[#3]

LTS means slightly more stable...
But its such a pain reinstalling Mint that I would wait a few months and you can install 14.04.

[#4]

Quote from: vilefoxdemonofdoom

But its such a pain reinstalling Mint that I would wait a few months and you can install 14.04.

HOW?
You can do an ubuntu style upgrade but it is not recommenced.
I installed 16RC in a separate partition for testing, about 15min needed to install, then test - days ...
Upgraded my M15 install by backing up my important bits (for me) fstab, my repository list and a few shell scripts to install stuff.
Fresh install, keeping my /home partition took 15 min, re-installing all the s/w took about another hour.
LTS can be thought of as good for those who like a stable system and don't want to update/upgrade regularly. You will get all the important fixes but not necessarily the latest versions of the apps. Me I prefer the clean and re-install every 6-8 months, but I have Mint Debian Edition on my laptop so I can just leave it running 24/7 and it is still up to date. (Rolling release)

[#5]

If I was to move to a Mint Debian rolling update instead of Cinnamon LTS system,
would I notice any user interface difference?
It's important that other family members don't have anything to whine about. 
Having the latest, greatest program version isn't important.
Actually - I just found the answers to those questions!
I have several bits of software which may not be Ubuntu but are "Ubuntu compatible"
also I have a couple of PPA's which would need to be supported.

Quote

LMDE in brief     Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) is a semi-rolling distribution based on Debian Testing.     It’s available in both 32 and 64-bit as a live DVD with MATE or Cinnamon.     The purpose of LMDE is to look identical to the main edition and to provide the same     functionality while using Debian as a base.

but...

Quote

FAQ 1. Is LMDE compatible with Ubuntu-based Linux Mint editions? No, it is not. LMDE is compatible with Debian, which isn’t compatible with Ubuntu.

Quote

4. How does LMDE compare to the Ubuntu-based editions? Pros:     You don’t need to ever re-install the system. New versions of software and updates are continuously brought to you.     It’s faster and more responsive than Ubuntu-based editions. Cons:     LMDE requires a deeper knowledge and experience with Linux, dpkg and APT.     Debian is a less user-friendly/desktop-ready base than Ubuntu. Expect some rough edges.     No EFI, GPT or secureBoot support.

[#6]

I use a couple of ppa's on my LMDE system, but not all that are on my main box. Depends on whether they rely on Ubuntu changes.
What ones do you need, or try it in a VM.
LMDE with Cinnamon should be the same as LM 13 might even have the newer CInnamon (v2)

[#7]

ppa.launchpad.net/texlive-backports/ppa/ubuntu is a must-have (it's LaTeX 2012).
Also my printer driver seems to be RPM based - so that must work to.
I don't use Wine - but I can use Dropbox to communicate with a tiny Windows 7 partition on a switched off netbook.
Does LMDE use Nemo - I don't like Nautilus (any more)?
Since it's impossible (in practice) to start a new /home, I think I will need to wait until I get a
new PC - which is likely to be a long time.

[#8]

Why is it impossible to start a new /home ?
I have all the partitions with their own /homes for testing. Or if I want to use the real /home I add a different user.
Printer driver no difference, just install alien.
Dropbox no issues, install from the deb from the web site.
Nemo is standard on Cinnamon I think?
WRT Latex I think it is already in Debian. See this https://www.tug.org/texlive/debian.html

[#9]

My home contains a lot of hidden files, some containing user preferences built over many years.
There are 75,000 files (not counting cache entries)!
(system wide and default preferences are in the /etc directory of course).
Since /home contains 4 users each with different preferences, I think that migration to LMDE may prove impossible.
So I would (probably) need to run two parallel Linux systems, each with their own /usr, /etc, /home...
I'll try a DVD trial of LMDE though. 

[#10]

I use the same /home on all my main distros.
700K files in it, thats files not the size 
As to different users, note their user_id's and recreate them with the same id and it should be fine.

[#11]

Does this mean that installing LMDE would automatically upgrade my Mint Cinnamon 12.04 LTS?

[#12]

Nope, you would have to reformat and re-install. Test it in a live cd or a vm.

[#13]

OK Mr McBiker - I'm going to give this a try.
I shall be replacing everything but my /home
My partitions are currently a bit scattered
so I shall be moving my /home so it's a bit nearer (physically) to /usr etc
Such fun. 

[#14]

Why bother moving it, only asking for problems moving partitions about.
Good luck with the test. Back up your app list first and copy the /etc folder to some where so you can see what extra's you setup.

[#15]

My only reason for moving the /home partition is that the order of partitions is:-
/
/video (about 700GB)
/home (about 200GB)
So I get lots of head movement on my 1TB disk.
I don't usually bother backing up /etc - just things like passwd, fstab and crontab's
/etc seems like a good idea anyway.