Blog

First and foremost, we’d like to take the time to welcome all the new users to Peppermint. And, to a large section of you welcome to Linux. We really appreciate all the positive feedback and we are glad that you are getting such solid performance with Peppermint running on your machines. During our ‘Launch Week’ which officially ends today, Peppermint OS One was downloaded directly from our servers 25,000 times !! That’s awesome !!

There were lots of write-ups and reviews last week and all have been extremely positive, outside of a couple of instances of misunderstanding from a small section who, no matter where you post the information or how you say it, can’t seem to stop rambling long enough in order to simply see the answers under their nose. And, here at Peppermint headquarters, since we’ve decided to do things a little differently than everyone else on the block, we are going to address things head on.

What today’s post boils down to is that Peppermint is different. We know that, we planned it that way, and it was intentional, for many reasons. We did this to free you as a user to take Peppermint and create with it the environment that suits you the best. We remain small, sleek and fast as lightning with many many options available to you.  How we differ the most is by offering Freedom. And, when you are not used to Freedom, getting a taste of it gets a little confusing for some. Let’s take a look and address these one at a time.

Cloud? Web? Desktop? What the….?

Peppermint is a Hybrid Operating System. It is a fully featured desktop environment yet can step in and deliver cloud and web-based applications when they are needed.  Simple.

Desktop? Laptop? Netbook? How can you possibly….?

Are you a desktop PC user? Great. Peppermint will be a small footprint on your machine, it will be faster that what you are currently running AND you have over 30,000 free software applications to install, if that’s your thing. Please, go ahead and fill up your Terabyte hard drive with every last one of them and make yourself happy. Peppermint can handle it.

Are you a laptop user? Great. You will probably not want as many pre-installed programs. We knew that when we built Peppermint. Got a monster hard drive? Load it up with software if you want to. Its your machine. Like to be sleek, mobile and utilize web and cloud based applications instead? You are set to go. Peppermint can handle it.

Are you a Netbook user? Great. Peppermint is going to flat out cook whatever operating system you have installed right off the hard drive. You probably won’t want a ton of pre-installed software either. We knew that when we built Peppermint. Adding your favorite Cloud and Web based applications is not complicated and super easy to manage. Peppermint can handle it.

Again, Peppermint is your canvas. Paint on it what you will…

Applications? Default Applications? What are you trying to……?

Default Applications: Like I just expressed above. There are 30,000 software applications, two clicks away, from being installed on your Peppermint system. We decided on a couple of obvious choices for you like a CD burner, Bit Torrent client, simple Text Editor, just the basics to get you started. Build what you want, that’s why we designed it.

Default Cloud / Web Applications: These were chosen as pre-loads onto Peppermint simply as an example of how to operate Prism as a cloud application launcher only. You don’t want them? Delete them. Add more. Make them a picnic and take them to a movie. Use them or Lose them…. its your machine, not ours, you won’t hurt our feelings :)

Firefox? Chromium? Opera? We think that this browser is….!

Why we chose Firefox: Firefox, time and time again, is the most popular and most stable browser that we have tested. However, you may not think so, and we respect your opinion. Please, use your two clicks and install whatever you want. You won’t hurt our feelings, we promise. Here at Peppermint we are forward thinking and open to anything. Who knows what the default Peppermint browser will be 5 years from now? Default makes no difference, install what you like.

Chromium browser, in our opinion, is still buggy and has a tendency to crash. Is it fast? Heck yes it is! Does it integrate seamlessly with Google Apps? Darn straight it does! Then please use your two clicks, install Chromium and enjoy the thrill of combining it with the speed of Peppermint. A match made in heaven if that’s what heaven looks like…. to YOU! :)

And, for the record, I have Chromium installed on MY Peppermint machine…. So there. I used my two clicks and did whatever I wanted. I am happy :)

Final Note

What it all boils down to is that we created Peppermint easy on your processor, easy on your RAM, super fast, and an open book for you to write your own story. If this is confusing to you we can completely understand how other corporate operating systems have narrowed some peoples thought processes down to blindly accepting the inability to offer Freedom to its users. If pouring your money into Microsoft and Apple’s pockets brings you solace and the co-dependent relationship you have with them makes you feel good, then please have fun on that side of the valley….

We can’t wait to bring you more cool stuff.  Please look for a Community Forum coming soon. That’s our next order of business.

Have a great day – Team Peppermint