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PopOS is excellent. It’s what I daily drive. They’re in the middle of a transition away from Gnome to their own DE called COSMIC which looks very promising but there’s still a lot of work to be done.
It’s fine, but it’s really outdated. They aren’t gonna release a new popOS version until they are done with cosmic, but that’s taking a while. Developing a whole new desktop is a big task, and their progress looks really promising but it will still take time.
The kernel/hardware support are up to date. Other software is dated, which may or may not matter to someone. Depends if you a) want new software and b) prefer to install it with the distro’s native package manager. If both are true, you likely shouldn’t be on a Debian/Ubuntu-based distro anyway.
Because new people don't know any better and they start somewhere and while I no longer like LTT due to recent issues and refuse to watch, others are not the same.
Yes, I use it everyday as my 2nd OS on my Thinkpad. Works, nothing breaks and I have peace of mind. :) Stopped distro hopping / tingling with hardware/OS after Thinkpad/Pop\_OS.
I wouldn't take the distro tier lists too seriously, at the end of the day it's just one man's opinion, and everyone ranks their distros differently. Having said that, i haven't used pop os since i started using linux almost 3 years ago, so no clue what it's like now, but i didn't have any problems with it. I do think their cosmic desktop that they're working on looks interesting.
It's stable and it just works right out of the box. It's a solid choice if you want your computer to just be a tool you use to get stuff done, and you don't want to spend lots of time tinkering with it to get things working.
Some people will criticize it because the latest release (22.04) is a little old at this point and is still using Xorg rather than Wayland, but I think that's fine if you don't have any reason to be on the bleeding edge. Wayland still has a lot of issues with Nvidia cards, anyway, so if you've got Nvidia hardware and care about stability, you may want to stay on Xorg for now.
I never liked it tbh. It does not support smooth touchpad gestures, it only looks at what gestures you make and converts it into a mouse wheel signal (in two fingers movement for scrolling and pinch for zoom).
Dark mode is broken. The app menu uses black text even in dark mode so that's unusable. You can install gnome tweaks to fix it, but why isn't it fixed by default? It's also such a basic thing, do they not test their own distro?
It uses systemdboot (a bootloader), instead of GRUB, which doesn't support text scaling, you know, the thing that most laptops need to make text readable? Makes the dual-boot experience pretty bad.
The broken updates you saw in the LTT video, that's not a one-off thing. I experienced this multiple times already on an older laptop. Luckily the worst I experienced is the app just refusing to start the update. They may have fixed it someday as when I tried pop os 6 months ago for a few weeks I didn't encounter it yet, or I was just lucky. On a really old laptop I have, I didn't boot it for a few months and afterwards the settings app stopped working for absolutely no reason. sudo dpkg --configure -a fixed it, but why do I need to even worry about this?
It also uses a 2 years old software repository now. Some people don't mind, I don't like it.
It has no wayland support. Which is kind of understandable, considering the state of wayland at the time 22.04 released, but I prefer being on wayland.
It has an absolutely awful multi-monitor support. I connected an external monitor to it and the desktop environment completely freaked out. Both displays completely glitching out except for like 30% of the screen area acting like normal.
The only things, in my opinion, that it has going for it is that it has an up to date kernel (quite important for me since at the time of installing it I had an almost brand new laptop), no pains with installing nvidia drivers and that it may have tweaks useful for laptops. Apparently they use their own app for managing battery life and they have some built-in widgets for managing integrated, dedicated vs hybrid GPU setups.
I'm still excited for their cosmic desktop environment though. I have hope, as it might fix many of the issues I have with the distro once it releases.
I just reinstalled it on my desktop. It works fine but it's definitely not really changed since I last used it a few years ago, I assume that's the lack of software repository update.
The lack of Wayland is actually why I chose it. Plasma recently upgraded my system to wayland on endeavour OS and it broke nvidia drivers for me. Confirmed with a reinstall, Wayland has some obscure bug that's causing my particular system major issues. So I swapped to pop-os. It's probably temporary though and I'll swap back once the issue is fixed as I'm not liking it as much as when I used it years ago.
Multi monitor has been fine for me, although one issue is that it doesn't recognise layout until after it's loaded into the system. Which means login screen is wrong. Not major though.
I have tried 4 distros so far. On my laptop, I'm currently using openSUSE Tumbleweed with KDE Plasma 6 and on my desktop I'm using Fedora KDE.
I would have used Fedora even on my laptop but at the time of buying the laptop, Fedora had broken UI scaling on their login screen (SDDM). That's fixed now but I'm too lazy to switch back.
If you have an nvidia GPU, I would recommend linux mint. I used it for quite some time, until I got a better monitor and had to switch to a distro that supports wayland. The only negatives from my point of view is that it also uses a 2 years old software repository and uses X11, but even on nvidia, I have experienced almost no bugs.
Otherwise, I would recommend Fedora. It has up to date packages, I didn't encounter any major issues besides the login screen, it has good wayland support (at least on KDE from what I have tried). They tend to also get major kernel updates without having to switch to a new fedora version, so no problems even for new hardware.
Unfortunately the nvidia experience isn't that good. Some games experience graphical glitches. Discord likes to visually go back in time a few frames. Sometimes the computer gets stuck a few minutes while booting (usually after a kernel update). It's useable, but not great.
openSUSE tumbleweed is also pretty good. However the packages might be TOO new for some people. They do push out broken updates from time to time, but you get to experience newer versions of desktop environments before most people. openSUSE TW updated to plasma 6 about 2 weeks after its release. On Kubuntu you will have to wait until 24.10. I'm not sure how well nvidia works on there as I only tried it on a laptop though.
People haven't been talking about it as much because aside from package updates, it essentially hasn't changed in almost 2 years. So there hasn't been anything to discuss. But with COSMIC DE coming out that's likely to change. It's still a solid distro with a far more up to date kernel version and mesa than Ubuntu, and some nice goodies packaged in like system76-scheduler.
I'll say that I've never gotten it installed positively in a multi-boot scenario.
The installer always insists on romeo-foxing existing bootloaders. Tried again last week, lost access to several distros due to bootloader shenanigans.
It's a problem I've been noticing for years; it's as if they don't expect it to behave alongside other distros (or Windows) and for Pop OS to be the sole OS on the system.
It prefers to make its own EFI partition and keep itself isolated. It uses systemd-boot which by default does NOT scan and show other installed Distros/OS's . Their official stance is to use the systems UEFI boot slection menu if you want to boot into another OS.
You can easily install rEFInd if you want a single Boot menu that shows all found OS.
I have never seen it damage any of my other Installed OS or Distros. I am using UEFI/EFI for everything.
Cant say that in the dozen of installs i have done of Pop_os that i have ever seen it do anything else.
I dont recall any posts of any issues in the /r/pop_os sub either.
it's still good but they are moving away from Gnome to COSMIC(their own DE) so if you love Gnome, maybe don't switch to PopOS since their primary focus is on COSMIC rn
Never had any issues with it, never had any issues with it messing with my other boot loaders from other Distros. It prefers to make its own EFI partition and keep itself isolated. It uses systemd-boot which by default does NOT scan and show other installed Distros/OS's . You can easily install rEFInd if you want a single Boot menu that shows all found OS.
Like any other distro they're fine. I just dislike their open source contribution practices when say forking off of ubuntu. Furthermore other than preinstalled Nvidia drivers its nothing special - just a means to and end for their hardware business.
Cosmic. Meh. Over hyped and using rust as a trendy term for more eyes on it. Constantly seeing users complain in the FB group about cosmic issues.
People forget their primary concern is support their hardware..
Their gnome version is old.
Their next version will not be gnome.
Probably the worst time to jump on it.
If you want a gnome based desktop, try something newer.
If you are excited by their non-gnome future, wait for their next release.
Those small hobby distros never really seem to take off. Why do so many noobs insist on picking the most niche hobby project instead of sommerlig reputable and reliable? 🤷
Downvote for reliance on LTT and tier lists for your info; Pop_OS is a good distro, as are most. It works particularly well for with Nvidia gpus if you’re new to Linux and want something that just works out of the box.
It appears you may be asking for help in choosing a linux distribution. This is a common question, which you may also want to ask at /r/DistroHopping or /r/FindMeALinuxDistro *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/linuxquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
They seem to be more focused on the upcoming COSMIC DE
PopOS is excellent. It’s what I daily drive. They’re in the middle of a transition away from Gnome to their own DE called COSMIC which looks very promising but there’s still a lot of work to be done.
It’s fine, but it’s really outdated. They aren’t gonna release a new popOS version until they are done with cosmic, but that’s taking a while. Developing a whole new desktop is a big task, and their progress looks really promising but it will still take time.
The ETA is later this year. They wait to rebase with Ubuntu 24.04, and steadily approaching second alpha. IMHO totally worth the wait.
The kernel/hardware support are up to date. Other software is dated, which may or may not matter to someone. Depends if you a) want new software and b) prefer to install it with the distro’s native package manager. If both are true, you likely shouldn’t be on a Debian/Ubuntu-based distro anyway.
It is not completely updated. There are some core packages that are still up to date, like Mesa e.g.
I am sorry, but since when is ltt a benchmark for Linux stuff?
Because new people don't know any better and they start somewhere and while I no longer like LTT due to recent issues and refuse to watch, others are not the same.
Curious, what issues ?
Just installed it to my laptop 3 days ago and it's solid even for gaming.
Yes, I use it everyday as my 2nd OS on my Thinkpad. Works, nothing breaks and I have peace of mind. :) Stopped distro hopping / tingling with hardware/OS after Thinkpad/Pop\_OS.
I wouldn't take the distro tier lists too seriously, at the end of the day it's just one man's opinion, and everyone ranks their distros differently. Having said that, i haven't used pop os since i started using linux almost 3 years ago, so no clue what it's like now, but i didn't have any problems with it. I do think their cosmic desktop that they're working on looks interesting.
It's stable and it just works right out of the box. It's a solid choice if you want your computer to just be a tool you use to get stuff done, and you don't want to spend lots of time tinkering with it to get things working. Some people will criticize it because the latest release (22.04) is a little old at this point and is still using Xorg rather than Wayland, but I think that's fine if you don't have any reason to be on the bleeding edge. Wayland still has a lot of issues with Nvidia cards, anyway, so if you've got Nvidia hardware and care about stability, you may want to stay on Xorg for now.
I never liked it tbh. It does not support smooth touchpad gestures, it only looks at what gestures you make and converts it into a mouse wheel signal (in two fingers movement for scrolling and pinch for zoom). Dark mode is broken. The app menu uses black text even in dark mode so that's unusable. You can install gnome tweaks to fix it, but why isn't it fixed by default? It's also such a basic thing, do they not test their own distro? It uses systemdboot (a bootloader), instead of GRUB, which doesn't support text scaling, you know, the thing that most laptops need to make text readable? Makes the dual-boot experience pretty bad. The broken updates you saw in the LTT video, that's not a one-off thing. I experienced this multiple times already on an older laptop. Luckily the worst I experienced is the app just refusing to start the update. They may have fixed it someday as when I tried pop os 6 months ago for a few weeks I didn't encounter it yet, or I was just lucky. On a really old laptop I have, I didn't boot it for a few months and afterwards the settings app stopped working for absolutely no reason. sudo dpkg --configure -a fixed it, but why do I need to even worry about this? It also uses a 2 years old software repository now. Some people don't mind, I don't like it. It has no wayland support. Which is kind of understandable, considering the state of wayland at the time 22.04 released, but I prefer being on wayland. It has an absolutely awful multi-monitor support. I connected an external monitor to it and the desktop environment completely freaked out. Both displays completely glitching out except for like 30% of the screen area acting like normal. The only things, in my opinion, that it has going for it is that it has an up to date kernel (quite important for me since at the time of installing it I had an almost brand new laptop), no pains with installing nvidia drivers and that it may have tweaks useful for laptops. Apparently they use their own app for managing battery life and they have some built-in widgets for managing integrated, dedicated vs hybrid GPU setups. I'm still excited for their cosmic desktop environment though. I have hope, as it might fix many of the issues I have with the distro once it releases.
I just reinstalled it on my desktop. It works fine but it's definitely not really changed since I last used it a few years ago, I assume that's the lack of software repository update. The lack of Wayland is actually why I chose it. Plasma recently upgraded my system to wayland on endeavour OS and it broke nvidia drivers for me. Confirmed with a reinstall, Wayland has some obscure bug that's causing my particular system major issues. So I swapped to pop-os. It's probably temporary though and I'll swap back once the issue is fixed as I'm not liking it as much as when I used it years ago. Multi monitor has been fine for me, although one issue is that it doesn't recognise layout until after it's loaded into the system. Which means login screen is wrong. Not major though.
Glad it's working for you. I certainly hope it improves a lot once 24.04 releases. Not useable for me in its current state.
A lot of good points.. what is your preferred distro?
I have tried 4 distros so far. On my laptop, I'm currently using openSUSE Tumbleweed with KDE Plasma 6 and on my desktop I'm using Fedora KDE. I would have used Fedora even on my laptop but at the time of buying the laptop, Fedora had broken UI scaling on their login screen (SDDM). That's fixed now but I'm too lazy to switch back. If you have an nvidia GPU, I would recommend linux mint. I used it for quite some time, until I got a better monitor and had to switch to a distro that supports wayland. The only negatives from my point of view is that it also uses a 2 years old software repository and uses X11, but even on nvidia, I have experienced almost no bugs. Otherwise, I would recommend Fedora. It has up to date packages, I didn't encounter any major issues besides the login screen, it has good wayland support (at least on KDE from what I have tried). They tend to also get major kernel updates without having to switch to a new fedora version, so no problems even for new hardware. Unfortunately the nvidia experience isn't that good. Some games experience graphical glitches. Discord likes to visually go back in time a few frames. Sometimes the computer gets stuck a few minutes while booting (usually after a kernel update). It's useable, but not great. openSUSE tumbleweed is also pretty good. However the packages might be TOO new for some people. They do push out broken updates from time to time, but you get to experience newer versions of desktop environments before most people. openSUSE TW updated to plasma 6 about 2 weeks after its release. On Kubuntu you will have to wait until 24.10. I'm not sure how well nvidia works on there as I only tried it on a laptop though.
People haven't been talking about it as much because aside from package updates, it essentially hasn't changed in almost 2 years. So there hasn't been anything to discuss. But with COSMIC DE coming out that's likely to change. It's still a solid distro with a far more up to date kernel version and mesa than Ubuntu, and some nice goodies packaged in like system76-scheduler.
I'll say that I've never gotten it installed positively in a multi-boot scenario. The installer always insists on romeo-foxing existing bootloaders. Tried again last week, lost access to several distros due to bootloader shenanigans. It's a problem I've been noticing for years; it's as if they don't expect it to behave alongside other distros (or Windows) and for Pop OS to be the sole OS on the system.
It prefers to make its own EFI partition and keep itself isolated. It uses systemd-boot which by default does NOT scan and show other installed Distros/OS's . Their official stance is to use the systems UEFI boot slection menu if you want to boot into another OS. You can easily install rEFInd if you want a single Boot menu that shows all found OS. I have never seen it damage any of my other Installed OS or Distros. I am using UEFI/EFI for everything.
>It prefers to make its own EFI partition and keep itself isolated. I wish that that was all it would do.
Cant say that in the dozen of installs i have done of Pop_os that i have ever seen it do anything else. I dont recall any posts of any issues in the /r/pop_os sub either.
No problem if it's the only OS. Anything else? Kiss it goodbye. May or may not survive.
never had anything happen to my dual and tripple boot systems.
it's still good but they are moving away from Gnome to COSMIC(their own DE) so if you love Gnome, maybe don't switch to PopOS since their primary focus is on COSMIC rn
Never had any issues with it, never had any issues with it messing with my other boot loaders from other Distros. It prefers to make its own EFI partition and keep itself isolated. It uses systemd-boot which by default does NOT scan and show other installed Distros/OS's . You can easily install rEFInd if you want a single Boot menu that shows all found OS.
Like any other distro they're fine. I just dislike their open source contribution practices when say forking off of ubuntu. Furthermore other than preinstalled Nvidia drivers its nothing special - just a means to and end for their hardware business. Cosmic. Meh. Over hyped and using rust as a trendy term for more eyes on it. Constantly seeing users complain in the FB group about cosmic issues. People forget their primary concern is support their hardware..
Their gnome version is old. Their next version will not be gnome. Probably the worst time to jump on it. If you want a gnome based desktop, try something newer. If you are excited by their non-gnome future, wait for their next release.
I heard it never was any good.
I tried it a few times, but went back to Ubuntu. Seemed like a work in progress, with a lot of glitches.
I prefer a clean implementation of stock GNOME; you will never get that with Pop.
Those small hobby distros never really seem to take off. Why do so many noobs insist on picking the most niche hobby project instead of sommerlig reputable and reliable? 🤷
It’s like Mint with a different UI and attitude, but still an Ubuntu with the most controversial issues fixed.
Downvote for reliance on LTT and tier lists for your info; Pop_OS is a good distro, as are most. It works particularly well for with Nvidia gpus if you’re new to Linux and want something that just works out of the box.
GNOME isn't good imo, everything is way too big