Peppermint OS is a Linux distribution with a 13-year history. It has two editions, based on the Debian stable branch and Devuan.
It’s a minimalistic distribution, betting on the Xfce desktop environment, that demands fewer hardware resources, thus an excellent choice for the older machine.
Yesterday, the new version of Peppermint OS finally became available, so let’s dive in and see what’s changed.
What’s New in Peppermint OS Debian Edition
The latest Peppermint Debian edition was released in February 2022, based on the Debian 11 “Bullseye” codebase. Now, almost a year and a half later, things look different.
The newly released version is now rebased on last month’s Debian 12 “Bookworm” release, including all its benefits.
Users get the Linux kernel 6.1 LTS, the PipeWire audio server by default, and a wholly updated graphics stack that includes X.Org Server 21.1, Wayland 1.21, and Mesa 22.3. In addition, owners of NVIDIA GPUs will find the updated 525.105 version of the driver.
The new Peppermint Debian edition includes the most recent release to the lightweight desktop environment Xfce 4.18, which brings exciting new features such as file highlighting, Thunar file manager improvements, an enhanced Settings Manager, and many more. More information on them can be found here.
Of course, Peppermint has kept its minimalist spirit, and the base installation includes only the most essential system and tools. This means the distribution does not come with a preinstalled web browser, office suite, media player, etc.
Instead, developers have left it up to users to decide what to install on their system, allowing them to tailor it to their specific needs and preferences. An approach that we like.
Of course, the well-known tools Peppermint Welcome App and Peppermint Hub, with their handy and intuitive graphical user interface, are here to make this task a breeze.
Update to the Latest Peppermint OS Release
And now, let’s turn to another important question concerning users of the previous Peppermint OS release, based on Debian 11, who want to upgrade to the latest one. They must follow the regular Debian upgrading procedure between two major releases.
Don’t know how to do it? Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. Our comprehensive guide, “Upgrading to Debian 12 from Debian 11: A Step-by-Step Guide,” will assist you in easily completing this task.
On top of that, Peppermint developers are currently working on their upgrade tool to perform this migration, which is expected to be available soon.
You can refer to the announcement for detailed information about all changes in this Peppermint OS release. As always, the Debian-based edition uses systemd, while the systemd-free Devuan-based one is betting on using SysVinit.
System Requirements & Download
Finally, to install Peppermint OS on your system, you need 4GB of RAM and at least 10GB of available disk space. While you can install it on a 1GB RAM system, 4GB is recommended for a relatively smoother experience.
So, you can grab the ISO installation image from the project’s website to perform a fresh installation.
