Few distributions have had the ups and downs of Peppermint OS [1] (Figure 1). Founded in 2010 during a pub discussion in North Carolina, Peppermint OS enjoyed initial success only to decline after the death of one of its founders. A few years ago, the project had shrunk to a single maintainer, but the last few years have seen a resurgence of effort with the development of a closely knit and active community.

Figure 1: Peppermint OS's default desktop.

Throughout its history, though, Peppermint's releases have shown several points of continuity. Its source has always been a Debian derivative – currently, Debian and Devuan. In addition, it has always had a minimal installation in which standard apps such as LibreOffice are not included by default. Instead, a variety of options are offered including six different web browsers (Figure 2), a choice of init tools, and a selection of Snap, Flatpak, and AppImage packages repositories. At every point user choice is stressed – for instance, which LibreOffice modules to install – even though the space saved is minimal. As a bonus, Peppermint OS's security is enhanced, because users know exactly what is installed. The result is one of the fastest distributions I have installed, aided by the default Xfce desktop and extensive use of Qt for development.

Figure 2: Peppermint leaves the choice of most applications to the user, including the web browser.

Peppermint began with the goal of producing a hybrid of desktop and cloud services. That goal is most obvious in its site-specific browsers (SSBs) [2], which convert URLs to desktop objects. Originally, this conversion was done by an application called ICE, which has since been replace by Kumo (Figure 3).

Figure 3: SSBs create a desktop object for a URL.

Requests for information about Peppermint OS produced answers from cavy, the communications spokesman, and Tommy, the development lead, with input from other main developers.

Linux Magazine (LM) : How has Peppermint evolved over the years?

cavy: There have been four distinct eras:

• 2010-2014: The Shane Remington and Kendall Weaver period. Shane and Kendall picked up LXDE from Linux Mint, who had dropped it from their desktop range. In May 2010, their goal was to produce a mini desktop with only system tools and allow the user to choose what software and apps they would want to have. Soon after in June 2010, they released Peppermint ICE (SSB) to distinguish it from their initial release.
• 2014: During this period LXDE saw a gradual demise, slipping into a dormant state, due to most of the LXDE maintainers leaving to join the Qt-oriented team that went on to develop LXQt. PCNetSpec (Mark Greaves) carried out numerous experiments with VinDSL and other lead members of his front-line team to test and determine which components could or would perform successfully within the modular LXDE desktop environment as it gradually evolved into a functional hybrid environment.
• 2019-2021: A transition period, beginning the initial attempts to build a working desktop utilizing LXDE and Ubuntu. Both had their foibles, making this task harder, due to the Canonical decision to insist snaps be the de facto software solution. Determining neither was a viable approach, then began the long and contentious debate [about whether] to employ and use the Debian base with the Xfce desktop.
• 2021: Our goal at this point was to produce a tribute release to PCNetSpec, one of the original founders and a long-time leader. At this point, we managed to overcome several late issues that we faced with changes to improve the Calamares theme, technical gremlins, and that nagging issue of an Ubuntu fan base unable to accept the migration to Debian. Even after our launch was welcomed by the wider public, that received critical praise from the Linux news media.
• Circa May 2022: We began to look at our image to place our stamp on Peppermint OS. We rebranded ourselves for Debian Bookworm, with new icons and name banners. We also released our network install ISO, and both Debian and Devuan ARM iterations. A server is our next objective.

LM: What are the advantages of Kumo and SSBs?

Tommy: Kumo allows for easier backup and restore needs, as well as sharing apps with other Kumo users. For many users, having a single web view of a site that they use is, in some ways, helpful for a user to focus on the content. What I hear from some users is that SSBs are useful for banking, for example, and not getting distracted by other tabs of the browser.

LM: Peppermint has been described as a hybrid between the LXDE and Xfce desktops. What does it borrow from each? What is original with Peppermint?

cavy: Originally Peppermint was a mini LXDE. Later when the LXDE team left to join the LXQt team, it was left in a dormant state, with little being done to it between 2015 and 2020. PCNetSpec introduced various Xfce, MATE, and Cinnamon components in an attempt to prolong the LXDE base and created what became our signature custom look for Peppermint. Today, apart from the tribute to PCNetSpec in February 2022 with the custom component of the Nemo file manager, we have reverted to a full blown Xfce.

LM: How is Peppermint OS associated with the Portugese distribution AcorOS [3]?

Tommy & cavy: Manuel Rosa is a part of the Peppermint team as well as the project lead for AcorOS. Peppermint has a concept of choice as the value that we provide. Therefore, the things that we ship with sometimes do not fully fit that out-of-the-box experience that some users may want. AcorOS fills that missing link, due to its focus on an out-of-the-box fully functional experience, with preinstalled applications, configurations, and settings that some users may prefer. In many ways our build processes are similar enough that we are able to work together and help each other's communities, as well as collaborate with ideas and testing.

LM: How is Peppermint organized? How are decisions made?

Tommy: Peppermint does have a structure, with a project lead, a spokesman, a webmaster, and a group of core developers. Features, issues, and direction are openly discussed in the community on many occasions, but mainly with the core team. Sometimes things are voted on for decisions. If agreements cannot be met, compromises are proposed to help meet that middle ground.

cavy: Even with all the good will in the world, being a benign dictator is the only course of action.

LM: Who is the target audience?

Tommy & cavy: Anyone who has an interest in wanting a choice of how they equip their computer, like the option of either a systemd or a non-systemd-init OS.

LM: Why should users try Peppermint OS?

cavy: It is intuitive and straightforward to use. It puts you in control of what goes into your computer.

LM: Can you provide any stats about the distro, such as the number of downloads or commits?

cavy: Peppermint OS averages approximately over 20,000 downloads per month, with 60,775 in the last three months, from September 5 to December 3, 2023.

LM: Is there a future roadmap?

Tommy: The goal from the beginning in the transition from Ubuntu to Debian has been to provide maximum choice where acceptable – in other words, not so minimum that lots of time is consumed to build the system, and not so many packages that a user is losing time undoing the things we implemented. There are not really too many distributions out there that give a user that nice in-between; they either focus solely on new users or solely on the veteran user.

Really, Peppermint is not just a desktop distro at all. It is a starting point for what the user needs, be it desktop or server – not too much stuff installed where time is lost removing things but just enough stuff to generally have a plug-and-play working system to get them going.

We value choice. The user should be able to do the following with general ease:

• Use Peppermint as a server system if they want. We are currently working to help users deploy Peppermint as a server environment.
• Use Peppermint as a desktop and build it with ease to the user's specs.
• Spin their version of Peppermint using the ISO build tools we have.
• Choose init systems, hence the Devuan spin.

We believe that these principles will help Peppermint OS's community grow and continue as we roll into the future.