I have used Lubuntu and lets be honest, the LXDE sister of Ubuntu, is not that catchy to look at. So, if you want to have a good replacement of Lubuntu, without compromising on the performance (lower resource usage) or functionality, and at the same time looking really good, here is Peppermint Linux for you.
I downloaded the 32-bit ISO from
Peppermint site. The 560 MB ISO is lighter than Lubuntu 12.04 ISO (683 MB). So, definitely a good start for Peppermint!
Boot up in virtualbox was quick and red white interface is really cool to look at.
Applications
The application set provided by default in the ISO is somewhat different from Lubuntu. Peppermint relies more on internet rather than having a physical app in the system. For example, Abiword and Gnumeric are done away with and replaced by Google docs. You can save all your documents online and can retrieve from anywhere. I really liked it. Google docs is really good and better than Abiword/Gnumeric. Still users, who prefer to have the documents in their system and/or doesn't have a high speed internet connection may not prefer this arrangement. However, you can always hit the Ubuntu repository and download LibreOffice or Abiword/Gnumeric.
Chromium is the default browser and Flash support is out of the box. Dropbox is there to share your files and you have bit torrent client as well. There is a media player and a music player, Guayadeque music player quite good - you can connect to online radio or play podcasts in addition to playing music files in your computer.
In addition to the default apps provided, you can always download more apps like VLC, Firefox, etc. from the Ubuntu Software repository. It is the same as in Lubuntu. Rest of the stuff are pretty similar to Lubuntu. Through preferences you can adjust monitor settings, screensaver, network connections, etc.
CPU and RAM Usage
It is similar to Lubuntu 12.04 in terms of RAM and CPU usage and is also on the lower side. Around 130-140 MB is the RAM usage with only task manager running, pretty perfect for all netbooks and low resource computers.
Overall
I would recommend Peppemint Linux 3 as a good substitute of Lubuntu or Xubuntu. It is comparable in performance to Lubuntu, has a smaller ISO and looks more jazzy but offering the same functionality. Also, Windows XP users may find at home with Peppermint or Lubuntu as the desktop environment is quite similar.
You can find more screenshots at my Picasa album.
