A new Linux distro is officially hitting its 1.0 release today, but you’ll have to forgive me for not being too excited. Peppermint OS is now out, with the aim of being a fast, cloud focused Linux operating system.
A quick look under the hood reveals that it’s mostly a mashup of technologies that are available (and I’m already running), with an Ubuntu base (by way of the Linux Mint Ubuntu derivative) and leveraging the lightweight LXDE desktop. Ubuntu by default uses GNOME which is bulkier and consumes a larger resource footprint than LXDE.
If you happen to be running Ubuntu today, get LXDE and you’ll notice a difference (especially on older hardware). LXDE also is available in other distro repositories, including Fedora — so if you’re looking for a desktop speed boost and are already running a distro, don’t be too quick to repartition your drive for a peppermint install.
The cloud application part of peppermint also caught my attention, but a look under the hook reveals that it’s also something that existing Linux — and yes even Windows users — are already using with Mozilla Prism.
Mozilla Prism is a Mozilla add-on that creates a standalone browser window for an application. It works very well and I personally have a kiosk type setup in my own environment that is all Prism based.
Google Chrome also offers a similar capability for a standalone browser/app setup and is at the core of Google’s Chrome OS plans which is — a cloud focused OS.
Don’t get me wrong here though, Peppermint OS is an interesting idea and one takes advantage of the current hot trends in computing. Other have kinda/sorta tried this route before (remember gOS?) and it’s certainly a good idea. Just be aware that you don’t necessarily have to switch distro’s to get the benefits of a ‘cloud OS’ though, with a few tweaks you may be able to leverage what you’re already using.
