Peppermint 9 review

Peppermint 9: June 2018

A new Peppermint release is always welcome; we've all been at this for a while now.

I began my linux adventure with Linux Mint Bianca [back in February 2007] and dual-booted with Peppermint Ice [2010 https://www.geek.com/…/peppermint-ice-a-faster-lighter-clo…/]... now we're up to Peppermint 9. Great stuff.

Is it any good?

Well, yes, it is. It's fast, lightweight, reliable, and (so far) works straight from the box. I haven't yet found a problem with this release (3 days now) but there will always be something to fix when you're updating distros. Which, paradoxically, is actually another advantage of Peppermint and its big daddy, Mint, on which it's based (Mint, in turn, is based on Ubuntu). Linux is all about community and sharing, so there's a large, worldwide, usually friendly and helpful bunch of people willing to help if you have a problem and are prepared to ask.

I use my distros for lots of things, like most people and, like most people, I have my favourite programs so there's always a bit of setting-up that needs to be done with any new installation. I'm a novelist, editor and musician so I always add programs like Mixxx, Calibre and Sigil, SoundConverter, Handbrake and FocusWriter to whatever is already there. I did that, installed and ran the programs, and everything was and still is hunky dory. Using Mixxx I created a new smooth jazz mix for Mixcloud; with Calibre I turned an epub into a mobi [I'll tweak it with Sigil]; with Handbrake I converted an old DVD movie into an mkv file; and I wrote the first draft of this article using FocusWriter.

As you can see from this screenshot, connecting to the net and downloading from the repos was straightforward; the connection was strong and fast.

Peppermint differs from Mint in more ways than one. It's not, and never was intended as, a cut-down version; no, Peppermint was conceived as a cloud hub back in the early days of big data and the promise of cloud computing. Originally the OS was called Ice after the little site-specific cloud apps that are Peppermint's characteristic feature.

An Ice dialog. This is where you add the URL for your SSB app. Once set up you will see your app listed in the menu.

Cloud Apps

Peppermint comes pre-loaded with useful cloud apps like Google's Drive, Calendar, and Mail; Microsoft's online suite of Office tools, including Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Skype; graphic editing is handled by Pixlr, etc. Obviously the included apps are only a suggestion and because Peppermint is based on Mint, based on Ubuntu, based on Debian, etc there's an incredible wealth of free software available for download. With Peppermint, customisation is only limited by your imagination and skill.

Verdict

Peppermint 9 is a winner.

A highly-recommended instalment in an ongoing series, it can do most of what you want with considerable ease.

{Ken Rowley}

Peppermint 5: I'm disappointed

I was an early adopter of Peppermint OS, and a big fan. This was in the days when Peppermint was not numbered, but known as Ice, and other innovative browsers like Flock were recognising that the mushrooming of social media sites and the emergence of cloud computing were going to take us all into regions that we hadn't even thought of. Ice had a small footprint, the Ice app, cloud-centric design, and was fast -- even on under-powered machines. I loved it. I loved One, Two, and Three as well. But then came Peppermint Four and Peppermint Four was ultimately too finicky and frustrating for me to use. I I always seemed to have problems with panels and the Chromium browser the OS was built on. Well, I was triple-booting as usual, so I just stuck to Mint and whatever else I was running as an alternative. I was sad to lose Peppermint but content. Yet I wanted Peppermint to do well.

Recently Peppermint Five was released, to some acclaim. Most reviewers wrote as if Peppermint Five was a new OS, not a revamped one, and I was encouraged enough to download the ISO and run it. The live CD worked well and so I installed it...

But for me the same problems are there. Compared to Mint and elementary Freya (my current first choices) Peppermint 5 is sluggish, crash-prone, unreliable and user unfriendly. It doesn't help that Mint (Cinnamon) and elementary Freya look better too.

I'm very disappointed, especially since I believe the real mobile revolution is not in hardware but a move away from desktops to browsers (as in Google's Chromebooks) and Peppermint could be a real leader here.

One final word. On Mint and Freya I use Mozilla's Firefox, and with the power of its add-ons, these have become very browser-centric for me and easy to sync with my android phones. Perhaps Peppermint could try using Mozilla again?

Peppermint vs Jolicloud

Ok, I've been trying out these two implementations of a Cloud-based OS, and I like them both. It's amazing how quickly my thinking has adjusted to their different designs. My verdict right now is to use Peppermint for laptops and Jolicloud for networks--but that decision is based primarily on the fact that I can't get Jolicloud to install on anything other than my Samsung NC10, where it works just fine.

Both use online suites of apps-- Google's; and, in Jolicloud's case, Adobe's air.

They differ in interface design and underlying technologies.

Both are built on Ubuntu, but Jolicloud looks more like an iPhone desktop than Ubuntu. Peppermint looks like Linux Mint. Rather than a browser, dedicated panes are used to run web applications: Peppermint uses Mozilla's Prism; Jolicloud uses Google's Chrome.

I have had no problems at all so far with either system (although I'm using the Peppermint respin rather than the initial buggy offering).

Which will be the winner? probably something else entirely, but these are showing the way to go. Recommended.

Google's Caffeine

There has been widespread (worldspread) concern about Google's collection of data and many are already viewing Google as the 21st Century's Big Brother. I'm personally not so concerned; I'm aware, so I reduce the risks: I don't use credit cards nor do I use Internet Banking and so on. Even so, my footprint is all over the web and there's no way I can ever be anonymous. I'm also aware that a remote computer (running windows, which I don't) can be hacked within 15 minutes of logging on to the net. And Google analytics is running in the background, all the time.

In short, I'm neither naive nor paranoid; I believe the Cloud is a good thing and I embrace it.

But still, I'm staggered by the figures released by Google regarding their new Caffeine engine:
* Caffeine will constantly monitor the web to search, store and index information
* It will process information in parallel, not in linear fashion (which means thousands of
pages--like this one--at once) every second
* the database can hold 100 million GB of information