this post was submitted on 09 May 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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It’s an Ubuntu downstream maintained by Linux box maker System76 which is targeted for both general usability and design/media applications. They will soon be debuting their own home-spun desktop environment, Cosmic DE, which is highly anticipated by the Linux community.

How does the community here feel about this distribution and the company that has brought it to us? How do you feel about the projects that they’re working on, and their goals for the distribution moving forward?

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 5 months ago (6 children)

I really don't like that underscore.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 5 months ago (2 children)

The correct way of saying it out loud is "pop exclamation point underscore O S"

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (5 children)

And I thought it's popos which is German and stands for asses

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago
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[–] [email protected] 28 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I wish they based it on Debian. It definitely earns my personal recommendation for default distros alongside LMDE

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I dont understand why they didnt. Debian with gnome is essentially the same imo.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Ubuntu is Debian with more up-to-date packages and a lot of additional third party packages. There's a lot of companies who produce development toolkits, frameworks, and applications that are explicitly built for the Ubuntu base. Some governmental agencies and organizations also require access to packages and repositories that have been audited by security agencies, which Ubuntu has gone through the process of getting certification for certain kernels and their Ubuntu Pro repositories. All of which are useful for real world customers.

Regardless of shortcomings in Snap, Pop does not rely on Snaps, and offers its own packaging for things that would otherwise require Snap on Ubuntu.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Made the switch to Pop!_OS from Win10 half a year ago, and my machine's been purring like a happy cat ever since. All my games still run (thanks, Proton!) and some even had a significant performance boost (RDR2 being the best example) with a 3090. Only problem I had was getting DaVinci Resolve to work properly, but I caved and bought the Studio version which runs perfectly.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

Your story is almost a carbon copy of mine. Really enjoyed using Pop.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I like their window manager, pop-shell, and use it on Fedora. I used to daily Pop but just can't stand Ubuntu.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

As someone newer who has only used Ubuntu and Mint, what do you get elsewhere?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Why can’t you stand Ubuntu?

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (5 children)

I think their current modified gnome is the best desktop that exists anywhere. Cosmic is a full desktop environment with an actual (auto) tiling window manager... a combo I think should be more common in desktops. The way they implement the tiling makes it really easy for beginners to use because you can turn it on/off by keyboard shortcut or clicking the plugin icon, and because you can just drag n drop windows to change their tiled positions (along with keyboard shortcuts if preferred). It's hard to go back regular "window managers".

The System76 devs have good ideas, they seem really cool, and sane! They have been a net positive for the Linux community and desktop development IMO. I am SO hyped for the new Cosmic DE!

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago

I generally find it to be a family friendly sheen on top of ubuntu so I've been installing it for friends and family lately. I would prefer debian based but shrug. They'll probably get there eventually.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago

POP is an excellent distro for a number of use cases. I can't speak to System 76 hardware but Pop is definitely one of the good Distros. I have used it for about 5ish years to run Davinci Resolve on video editing laptops and workstations. Another use case for POP was for breaking Mac OS acclimated relatives out of their walled gardens. Relatives as old as 80 have had very little problem adjusting to it after having help installing it. Looking forward to Cosmic but I will make sure I have backups and other stuff to tinker with during the transition - was the same way during Wayland transition on my other machines.

Positives

  • Davinci Resolve working with a little bit of fiddling and continues to run solidly.
  • No hassle with Nvidia drivers on editing laptop.
  • 4-5 years daily driver on Thinkpads (t460,13) and other older laptops (daily use)
  • Gaming on Nvidia good.
  • Elder folks adjust easily from Mac OS. Its basically Macbuntu for them without the complete pile of shit that is Snaps.

Negatives

  • POP Shop was kinda shite. Had a few problems years ago. Wasn't patient during upgrades or used terminal. A couple of shitty things happening recently but looking forward to testing out everything Cosmic (I have a rock solid edit station that will remain AMD on Endeavour OS to make sure I can still work).
  • Name doesn't bother me, but would be better as just POP OS
[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It was too far from the metal for me. But it is a great distribution. Especially if you're looking for fancy pants gaming ability or just turn-key ready to roll MS alternative.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

😀 I sure sound like it. Debian these days though. I'm too lazy for Arch anymore.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Right? I’m ok with my computer being a bit of a hobby, but it shouldn’t be a side-job unless I’m getting paid, goddammit.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Absolutely! When I was 20ish and new, yeah. But it hit me about 3years ago thats ALL I do professionally is automate as much as I can to make life easier for users and companies. Why am I not doing that for me?

On a side note, I'm seriously loving the immutable distributions. I'm thinking that's my new direction.

Sorry to rattle on lol

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I like their company and what they do for Linux. I wish I had a use for a laptop but then I would be stuck between system76 or framework.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

And tuxedo. Depending on your country.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

I suspect it will replace Ubuntu as the new noob distro, which is a good thing. Doesn't run as fast on older hardware as mint w cinnamon, but that's not a big deal. I'm hoping the new DE will improve that.

Love how feature rich it is, especially love the switch to toggle tiling windows on the desktop.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago

Use it on my lenovo carbon x1 flawlessly. Love it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago

Solid but occasionally buggy

COSMIC looks cool

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (13 children)

A semi-rolling distribution, with access to Ubuntu's many PPA's, and easily removable extensions that reveal the lovely vanilla Gnome experience, it's great!

Also they are making a Rust desktop, which I am currently running, though not daily driving.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Visuals were striking, but on non-System 76 hardware the thing as a whole broke several times cuz updates. Would love to try out some System76 hardware one of these days though.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

Ive had good success across three non system 76 machines. It is Ubuntu under the covers. I'd expect most of it to work as well as ubuntu does.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Personally, I’ve installed it on at least a couple of dozen machines that definitely weren’t from system 76, and not one of them them had a problem.

I’m curious, what sort of issues did you have?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

I use pop for my nvidia laptop and it works great. System76 seems to be on the right track and I‘m curious what they have in store for the future.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Their new COSMIC desktop is generating a tonne of buzz. It may spill over to the distro in general.

I am not a PopOS user but, watching the evolution of COSMIC, System76 seems very user focussed and makes sensible decisions. That bodes well for the overall OS.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

I'm interested to try their Cosmic desktop later this year.

Overall, seems like a solid company, I've heard good things about their laptops, although I've never had one myself.

Pop_OS as a distro, heard generally good things about. The few times I've messed around with it have been fine. The folks that stick with it seem to like it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

I have used it on my Lenovo X1 Extreme as my daily driver for years. Bulletproof.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

I’m a pop_os enjoyer, the window manager is great especially on a small laptop screen. Also have it running in the living room on a media pc (streaming, light gaming, music etc) and it’s been fantastic for that application as well. Excited for the upcoming switch to cosmicDE, think that will be chef kiss for me.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

I installed this on my touchscreen laptop after trying and failing to get many other distros to work with the touchscreen.

With Pop! it just worked.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (5 children)

I have a Gazelle 16 laptop, and was in PopOS for a while too, even before this laptop, when I had a 17" Alienware. However, I've moved on to Fedora now, and can't go back to anything Ubuntu or Ubuntu based again. Fedora is just too great a balance between stable and cutting edge, Ubuntu feels old real quick, and so do all it's derivatives and downstreams.

I loved the Gnome based Cosmic, best Tweak of Gnome ever in my opinion, but other than that, I just can't leave Fedora behind anymore. Even Ublue distros are amazing.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

It is where i started my linux journey 3 years ago. And where i stayed all this time. It had a nice environment setup and for me with cuda accelerated ML it is amazing with the easy drivers.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I love the fact that System76 is an American company pushing Linux forward (well to certain degrees, anyway). I know they use hardware produced in other countries (for chassis at minimum, not sure about the rest of the components), but it’s still nice to see.

Next time I’m in the market for a laptop, I’ll certainly give them a solid look (hopefully the form factors of the more powerful systems will be less…girthy…by then).

Pop!_OS is quite solid. I’ve used it from time to time. However, I’m partial to Arch because I like to be closer to the bleeding edge (currently using Garuda for my gaming rig).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

Is good, I got bored though as they haven't released a major update since 2022. On opensuse tumbleweed now.

Not having the bugs of using gnome extensions for customisations is nice.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I like it! It was the first distro I used when I started using Linux full time. It just works most of the time, (other than the Pop Shop) and fixes most of the issues I have with Gnome. I'm looking forward to seeing how Cosmic works once it is ready to go, and I'm hoping their new shop I just read about works well!

When I first started using it I wanted something that was far away from the Windows look, and it does it well. Maybe it's weird, but having it look wildly different from Windows put me in a different mindset and helped me learn the Linux way of doing things rather than trying to make Linux work like Windows.

I'm still running it on my main gaming rig, but I've been doing a lot of experimenting on my other computers. I've gotten to really like both Budgie and Plasma since then, and I'm using distros with those DEs on them on two of my other computers.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

I really like it. I tried several distros for my first dedicated desktop Linux machine and pop was the one that clicked. I like that it's not trying to mimick windows UI, and only sorta behaves like macOS. Everyone else was too close to win10. Which I understand is a selling point, so to speak, but I'm so sick of windows that I wanted it to look and act differently.

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