Peppermint Linux OS

Peppermint

Peppermint OS One
Company / developer	Peppermint, LLC
OS family	Linux
Working state	Stable Release
Source model	Open source
Latest stable release	Respin 01042011
Kernel type	Monolithic
Userland	GNU
Default user interface	LXDE
License	Mainly the GNU GPL / various others
Official website	peppermintos.com

Peppermint | Linux OS is a cloud-centric OS based on Lubuntu, a derivative of the Ubuntu Linux operating system that uses the LXDE desktop environment.^[1]

Design Principles

Peppermint OS ships with few native applications and a traditional desktop interface. In place of traditionally native applications for common tasks (word processing, image editing), it ships with the custom Ice application to allow users to create site-specific browsers (SSB's) leveraging web applications available over the Internet (e.g. Google Docs, pixlr). Some example SSB's are provided ready made with the distribution.

It is nonetheless possible for users to install applications natively from Ubuntu compatible repositories. Peppermint OS ships with mintInstall and Synaptic to facilitate this.

Peppermint's developers have written about the philosophy underlying these principles in terms of providing a familiar environment for newcomers to Linux which requires relatively low hardware resources to run.^[2]

Nomenclature

Peppermint's namesake is Linux Mint. The developers originally wanted to make use of configuration and utilities sourced from Linux Mint coupled with an environment that was less demanding on resources and more focused on web integration. They felt that the concept was a "spicier" version of Mint so the name Peppermint was a natural fit.^[3]

History

Peppermint OS was initially conceived at the Black Rose Pub in Hendersonville, NC, USA during a night of drinking and discussion about the future of desktop Linux. Peppermint was originally designed to be a social media-centric distribution.

Pre-alpha development builds consisted of a wide array of potential directions before the decision to fork Lubuntu was made. There was quite a bit of experimentation with KDE, E17, Adobe Air, and several different code bases during January and February 2010. Alpha builds using the Lubuntu 10.04 code base started in March 2010. Peppermint was released to a small group of private beta testers in April 2010 where it remained private until the first public release.

Peppermint OS One was released to the public on May 9, 2010.^[4] In less than a week, it received over 25,000 downloads.^[5] It soon outgrew its web host and switched to VPS.NET. VPS.NET became the first official sponsor of the Peppermint project.^[6]

On June 20, 2010, Peppermint Ice was released to the public.^[7] It sported Chromium as the default browser and featured a blue and black theme to distinguish it from Peppermint One.

On June 10, 2011, Peppermint Two was released to the public.^[8] Combining aspects from the two previous editions, it packaged Chromium as its default browser alongside the Ice application for creating Site Specific Browsers. It was also the first edition of Peppermint to be available in both 32 and 64 bit versions.

Team

• Shane Remington - Co-founder, Project Leader, and COO of Peppermint, LLC
• Kendall Weaver - Co-founder, Lead Developer, and CTO of Peppermint, LLC
• Nick Canupp - System Tester, Kernel Developer, Package Maintainer, Forum Admin
• Scott Anderson - Support Leader, Forum Admin, Package Maintainer
• Zach Nielsen - Community Support, Forum Moderator, Package Maintainer
• cxexa - Community Support, Forum Moderator
• Jason Chappelear - Community Support, Forum Global Administrator, Moderator
• Ikey Doherty - Developer
• Thomas Beckett - Legal Support

Packaged software

Cloud Applications

• Editor by Pixlr (Image Editor)
• Express by Pixlr (Photo Editor)
• Pixlr-o-Matic (Photo Filter App)
• Last.FMSSB
• Seesmic Web
• The Cloud Player
• YouTube
• eBuddy
• Google Calendar
• Google Docs
• Gmail
• Google Reader
• Peppermint Bug Tracking
• Peppermint Forums

Native Applications

• Chromium Web Browser
• Dropbox
• Guayadeque (Music Player)
• Ice
• X-Chat (IRC Client)
• Transmission (Torrent Client)
• Gnome-Mplayer (Media Player)

Release history

Peppermint OS uses a hybrid release schedule. Updates are rolled out as needed in a rolling release fashion. Periodically a re-spin is released which incorporates minor bug fixes and recent updates pre-installed.

Peppermint Two

• Initial Release June 10, 2011

Peppermint One

• Initial Release May 9, 2010
• Respin 05222010 - Released May 22, 2010
• Respin 06172010 - Released June 23, 2010
• Respin 08042010 - Released August 9, 2010
• Respin 01042011 - Released January 4, 2011

Kernel updated to 2.6.35, HAL completely removed, Screenshot app replaced with PyShot, some low level utilities and user level apps updated (GNU Coreutils, Samba, PCManFM, LXTerminal, Firefox, and others).

Peppermint Ice

• Initial Release July 20, 2010
• Respin 10012010 - Released October 2, 2010
• Respin 20110302 - Released March 7, 2011

The LFFL repository was added. Some region specific SSBs, such as Hulu and Pandora, were removed from the default installation. Some space saving optimizations were made to the .iso.

See also

Free software portal

• Linux Mint
• Lubuntu

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lubuntu

• Peppermintos.com Homepage
• Peppermintos.net Community Forum

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