Hey, what’s up?
Today, I wanted to make a review for Pop!_OS and why I’m choosing to stick with it for now.
I’ve been using Pop!_OS every day for about 3 months now. Hopefully, my experience can be useful to you.
WHAT IS POP_OS!
Pop!_OS is a Linux distribution operating system that is free and open source. It is based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian. The OS uses a customized GNOME desktop environment called COSMIC. The operating system is developed by the company System76, which also makes computers.
1- WHAT I LIKE
1.1- FREE & OPEN SOURCE
The first thing that I like is that it is free and open source. Compared to Windows, I know that I can go and look the code by myself. I haven’t felt the need to do it yet, but it gives me a certain feeling of trust and transparency.
1.2- SECURE & PRIVATE
Pop!_OS promotes security, privacy and encryption. On top of that, I don’t have to create an online account link to my personal information, files and
1.3- EASE OF USE & COMPATIBILITY
Pop!_OS is perfect for beginners switching to Linux because everything work amazingly out-of-the-box. Personally, I dislike using the terminal. I really don’t want to use and avoid it as much as I can. So far, I only had to use it once for advanced file manipulations.
For most people and average users, I’m pretty sure you won’t have to use the terminal at all. Everything is easy to use, works fine out-of-the-box, and if you do need a software, you can simply look for it in the softwares store or use Flatpak. Also, since Pop!_OS is based on Debian and Ubuntu, which are really popular distributions, you’ll never have to worry about compatibility and things breaking off.
1.4- COSMIC
Pop!_OS has its own customized GNOME environment. I love the fact that they are building something unique, different and refreshing. To me, it feels colorful, fun, modern, fluid and really like it.
1.5- NVIDIA DRIVER
POP_OS! is one of the few Linux distros that comes the NVIDIA driver out-of-the-box. The current computer that I have was prebuilt with Windows 11 and an NVIDIA GPU, so if you’re coming from Windows or have an NVIDIA graphic card, Pop!_OS makes it easier for you. That being said, if I were to buy a new computer today, I would probably make sure to optimize my computer built for Linux, AMD and avoid proprietary drivers. Maybe a System76 desktop computer, we’ll see.
1.6- GAMERS & CREATIVES
Fundamentally, Pop!_OS is targeted for gamers and creatives professionals. Which is EXACTLY me. I love to play video games and my work mostly consist of using creative softwares for video editing and graphic designing using GIMP, Inkscape, Shotcut, OBS, web browser, etc. Most of my most important softwares are pre-installed out-of-the-box. Because of all these reasons, it just makes me feel at home.
2- WHAT I DISLIKE
2.1- POP!_SHOP
The first thing that I don’t like is the Pop!_SHOP. To me, it’s always loading and checking for updates. I find that a frustrating because it ends up slowing the shop. Now, I get it. You get to have the latest OS and app updates, but I find it annoying. For example, sometimes, I want to look for some new apps to download and will open the shop. Instead of bringing me to the home page to facilitate my searches, it brings me to the currently installed apps and starts looking for updates every time. It feels like a waste of time. I think I would prefer that it always brings me to the home page and to have a refresh button for me to press on if I want to check for updates.
2.2- WINDOW MOVING & SNAPPING
As a print-on-demand seller, I use the window snapping feature extensively. For example, I might use 2 Merch by Amazon windows side by side on my screen to optimize my design uploads and workload. What I dislike about it is that sometimes it feels laggy and on some occasion will freeze. It’s not a big issue as I can just wait a few seconds for the windows to come back to normal, but it’s a little thing that I particularly dislike.
2.3- DEFAULT EMAIL CLIENT & FIREFOX
Geary is the email client that comes by default with Pop_OS!, I used it in the beginning, but at some point, I uninstalled it and installed Thunderbird instead. Geary is a simple email client, and it does the job, but I just prefer Thunderbird for it’s customarily and email tabs.
Firefox is the default web browser that comes pre-installed. It is a good choice if you care about software freedom, privacy and open source. But since I am also a print-on-demand seller, I need unique and niche web browser extensions to facilitate my work. Extensions like Podly and Productor for Mech by Amazon. So far, they are only available in Chromium-based browsers. For this very specific reason, I’m using Brave because it is free, open source and I have easy access to the Chrome extensions.
2.4- POP!_OS BEING A CORPORATION
Another thing to keep in mind about Pop_OS! is that it is not developed by the community-driven, like Linux Mint. Pop_OS! is developed by the corporation called System76. So far, I don’t think that’s a problem, but I’m worried that they might not have the community’s best interests at heart.
For example, a few years ago, Canonical, which created Ubuntu, made a few mistakes where they tried to silently make money from Amazon affiliate links. They are also privacy and data collection issues.
Will System76 make similar mistakes in the future? I don’t know. So far, they respect user privacy, promotes encryption and their business model revolves around selling computers with Pop_OS! on it.
2.5- DEPENDENT ON UBUNTU
Talking about Ubuntu, as already stated, Pop!_OS is based on Ubuntu. Which can be a good thing because I’m assuming it facilities development and features. But since Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, worries me a little bit, I’m not so sure if being Ubuntu based is a good thing. Eventually, System76 might have to do something like Linux Mint and create a Debian edition to their operating system to remove themselves from Ubuntu.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I’m choosing to stick with Pop!_OS for now because I just think the operating system is perfect for me: a gamer and a creative professional. I could obviously try different Linux distributions, but I don’t want to waste too much time hopping through all the different Linux. Pop!_OS seems just fine for me.
It is free, open source, secure, respects my privacy, unique, easy and fun to use, don’t have to use the terminal and works great with my NVIDIA graphic card.
There are a few small things that I dislike about it, like the snapping and the shop, but it’s not that big of a deal. I’m pretty sure they could fix it over time.
What mostly worry me are the corporate interests of System76 and its affiliations with Ubuntu. On the long term, they might not exactly work in my own best interests by doing try shady gimmicks. We’ll see how that goes.
So that’s pretty much it, I hope this was helpful to you. If this blog was valuable to you, you could consider following me on social media and if you have any thoughts or comments, you can leave them below.
I hope this helps, peace!
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