Peppermint seems awesome!

buster · April 18, 2019, 09:33:55 PM

Tried Peppermint for the first time. It's in vmware. Really impressed. More later. It's bedtime.

fox · April 19, 2019, 07:45:23 AM

I haven't used it in awhile, but I do think it's an excellent distro, and one with some unique features. It's heavily cloud-based in the sense that most of its apps are on-line. One program they use, "ice" allows one to create launchers for internet apps, and they are integrated into the xfce menu. I wish I could get ice for Ubuntu because launchers for google apps either don't work at all or they keep asking you to sign in, negating their benefits. So for me to launch Google Calendar and Contacts, I now have to do it from within a browser. Maybe when you're testing Peppermint, you can try to make launchers for those apps with Ice (if they're not already made) and see if they can launch without requiring a sign-in each time.

buster · April 19, 2019, 09:38:28 AM

I'll keep it short -

Usual 2 gig ram, 2 cores, 50 gig hd in vmware.
Install easy with no surprises.
Added qBittorrent, Kpat, TuxRacer, Clementine, and a necessary open-vm-tools-desktop.
Over 200 updates that went smoothly and pretty quickly.

System very responsive. Kpat and Tux tests A+. Fonts excellent. Full screen, drag and drop perfect. Wallpaper choices good. Easy to understand desktop environment. Can put launchers on desktop or bottom panel with a mouse click.

Sorry Mike but my calendar is on our kitchen wall, so couldn't test apps, but Peppermint didn't interfere with our calendar, if that helps.

So far seems a super app for virtual.

Jason · April 19, 2019, 03:11:12 PM

Quote from: buster on April 19, 2019, 09:38:28 AM
Sorry Mike but my calendar is on our kitchen wall, so couldn't test apps, but Peppermint didn't interfere with our calendar, if that helps.

Yes, but did it sync with your kitchen wall calendar?

Jason · April 19, 2019, 03:12:49 PM

Thanks for the short but sweet review. Peppermint is a cloud-centric distro if I recall correctly although of course you don't have to use any of that.

fox · April 19, 2019, 05:04:55 PM

You are correct, Jason. I gave a review of it at one of our PLUG meetings several years ago. When you install Peppermint, most of the applications are cloud apps. It doesn't even include libreOffice. However, it is based on Ubuntu and you can easily install anything in the Ubuntu distros.

buster · April 19, 2019, 05:56:43 PM

"When you install Peppermint, most of the applications are cloud apps."

Very true - no Libreoffice until you download it. Even the Internet is online.

Jason · April 19, 2019, 06:35:44 PM

I think eventually that will be delivery system of apps, the cloud. A local OS, but even that can get smaller and smaller and have more of it in the cloud as the internet gets faster.

buster · April 21, 2019, 01:20:55 PM

"A local OS, but even that can get smaller and smaller and have more of it in the cloud as the internet gets faster."

Over the last few years I'm used to spending about 3 months in areas with no Internet. Even Gmail doesn't work for Pete's sake. I like having my stuff on a hard drive. You urban types are fine with this idea.

And I also think it's good to be away from the virtual world once in awhile. It's often just a time waster, like testing yet another distro. This means you Harry.

Jason · April 21, 2019, 04:37:12 PM

Note that I said delivery. You can have apps that are updated through the cloud and get their data from it where necessary but still have local storage (when you choose to have it) and apps that work without Internet access. This is basically how phone and tablet OSes work.

For example, you can use Gmail with local email clients if you wish (no extra charge even), even download those emails. But the data is synced to the cloud. I believe there is also an option in Gmail to cache emails locally for 30, 60, 90 days.

Also, that is not the meaning of virtual world. I know what you mean but as somebody who has actually tried out virtual worlds, it pains me to hear it used that way

I think "off the grid" might be a better way of putting it.

buster · April 21, 2019, 10:14:28 PM

"I know what you mean but as somebody who has actually tried out virtual worlds, it pains me to hear it used that way"

You're right, but to me, radio, tv, phone calls, novels, movies, internet etc are all 'virtual' worlds as opposed to the world you experience when swimming, walking, talking to neigbours, chopping down a tree, catching a fish, eating a meal and on and on.

One is the real world, and the others are facsimiles to various degrees. I don't try to defend my view of the modern world. In fact I seldom discuss it. But personally, I am more connected to an existence that lets rain fall on my head, and roots make me trip.