The Pop!_OS operating system is often recommended to beginners along with Linux Mint and the original ("vanilla") Ubuntu. Our task is to figure out whether this product can really be recommended to beginners.
First, it should be said that, you can download from the official website of the System76 company a version for computers with nVidia video cards (the ISO image is marked so) or for others, equipped with normal graphics, including Intel (the ISO may not be marked in any way). It is best to download both, in case someone in the neighborhood urgently needs to install it.
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| The Pop!_OS interface "out of the box" |
After the launch, we see a dull interface with boring wallpapers, but a very responsive one. Incredibly responsive, fast to the point of dizziness. Faster than the well-known desktops that have had a long-time reputation for being lightweight, but now they are made crudely, "in a slapdash way".
Of course, this is nothing but Gnome Shell with standard settings, but with a slightly expanded number of them. For example, in Pop!_OS you can immediately assign the number and behavior of workspaces. So that they would not multiply automatically. You can even leave only one, if you do not connect a second display.
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| Setting up workspaces |
Or, for example, the clock, located in the center of the eternally half-empty and therefore unnecessary top panel, can be moved to the right or left. It doesn't help much, the panel is still half-empty and hardly useful, but in this case at least some little change gives a hope for a trend towards other changes.
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| Customizing the Dock |
Just like in Ubuntu, you can move the Dock panel, which is initially at the bottom, to the left or right. And reduce the thickness. (If you put it on the left, you will get the layout that is familiar to users of "vanilla" Ubuntu.)
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| Overview mode with only one workspace |
Although in order to assign a keyboard shortcut for switching the layout, you still need to use the third-party Gnome Tweaks configurator, since the default "Windows(Super) + space" may not be a very convenient option.
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| Enable the on-screen keyboard |
As for the virtual keyboard required for touchscreen devices, the Gnome Shell standard one is enabled in the Acessibility settings section. However, it is not convenient. Like the extra top panel, it uses space very irrationally. It is better to install Onboard and specify stretching to the entire width of the display in its settings.
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| The standard Gnome on-screen keyboard is not burdened with convenience |
However, let's talk about it in detail. To assign a layout, go to the system settings section with the obvious name Keyboard. Remove the English options (click the three vertical dots opposite the item in the list), leaving only the American one. Click the "plus" to add the desired one.
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| Let's delete unnecessary entities and add the necessary ones |
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| Click View and Customize Shortcuts |
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| Typing |
In this very Typing, "Switch to next input" source will open, which, as you can easily guess, you also need to click on.
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| Switch to next input source |
A window will pop up asking you to press some other combination instead of "Super + space". However, the most familiar and popular ones will not work. You can assign Alt + space, these keys are alongside, at least. And "Super + space" can be deleted if desired, using the menu under the button with the vertical dots opposite the combination.
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| You can remove unnecessary key combinations |
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| Gnome Tweaks |
Keyboard & Mouse section — a barely noticeable button Additional Layout Options — Switch to another layout. Now it's really convenient. Why can't the Gnome Shell developers do this "out of the box"? One can suppose that it's because they are slightly indifferent to a user comfort. Or even not slightly.
Before we leave Tweaks, let's look at the Windows section and activate Center New Windows. This is what users do in Ubuntu with a tricky command in the terminal. But, as we can see, it is possible this way.
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| Center New Windows |
Regarding privacy, we return to the standard system settings program and go, of course, to the Privacy section. On the Connectivity tab, we deactivate the "Connectivity Checking" produced with some third-party server. As follows from the explanations, this extra entity checks the connection to the Internet. As if the user himself does not see whether there is a connection.
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| Turn off Connectivity Checking |
Now on the File History & Trash tab, deactivate the switch at the top and activate the two ones at the bottom. So that it would look exactly like in the picture below.
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| File History & Trash |
Now the Gnome Shell spy functionality for collecting information about your actions is disabled, and trash cleaning is enabled.
All that's left is to go to the Sound section and disable the annoying sounds of all sorts of system notifications. This is active by default in almost all desktops. Indeed, you need to bother and pester with something. How could you possibly do without it, especially in Gnome Shell, let's ironically ask this rhetorical question.
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| File History & Trash |
Automatic checking and installation of updates is disabled by default. Do not enable. Never. Noway. Keep your operating system stable and reliable. You are not a guinea pig for testing new technologies.
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| One should never enable the installation of updates |
Next, we will go to Power, turn off Dim Screen and set Never opposite Screen Blank. Because we will decide all by ourselves when we want to turn off and block the screen.
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| We lock the screen when we need it, not when the developers decide to |
The Gnome Software application store is called Pop!_Shop here. According to the software sources, the Flatpak format integration is already there. But Snap is not seen, although support can be installed if you wish. But the best part is that the store is completely and unconditionally closed after closing its window. The process does not hang in RAM, as it always does in the original Gnome Shell. It disappears completely here. (Firstly it was hard to believe in such happiness, even after realizing the fact that automatic installation of updates is not active by default. Anyhow, it is true, this Pop!_Shop really should not ineradicably self-start and devour system resources.)
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| Tiling |
The tiled arrangement of windows (tiling) is performed automatically by pressing the key combination "Windows(Super) + Y", and it is being cancelled in the same way. That means, you no longer need to bother with the right-left arrows, like you do in other graphical shells. It would be very convenient if the windows did not try to remember their previous form when launched again. But this is a trifle, of course. (You can move and resize windows with the arrows after pressing Alt + F7 and Alt + F8. Instead of arrows, you can use the mouse, simply moving the pointer and clicking to stop when needed.)
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| Multimedia codecs |
Multimedia codecs are present only partially. But the installation of the missing ones is offered right on top of the window of the low-quality Gnome Videos player, persistently shoved into all Gnome Shell instances. There is only one checkbox marked, but it is useful to select the other items too.
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| Gnome Videos after installing codecs |
However, if you can't wait to listen to music while working, just add Celluloid player to the system, and you can easily take care about the codecs later. Or, at least, a minimalist basic MPV player.
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| Nice MPV |
Alas, the startup includes Evolution, a mailer and a manager of all sorts of calendars. It eats up about a hundred megabytes of memory. Of course, this is not so much by modern standards. You'll have to accept it, you can't delete it, it's screwed on tightly. Although, of course, it's not a big deal, especially compared to the advantages.
Maybe there was some favorable phase of the moon? Another long test drive was arranged to check. No mistake, Pop!_OS is a healthy kind of Ubuntu. Why has the distribution turned out so good? Probably because the System76 is interested in the acceptable quality of the operating system being installed on the computers they sell.
In other words, if Canonical has been releasing their raw and buggy Ubuntu for twenty years, this company is not losing anything. As it still specializes in servers and cloud technologies. But in the case of Pop!_OS, a poorly functioning laptop, as you might guess, will be returned to the buyer with a scandal. And you can’t explain to that buyer that he needs to wait for updates with fixes, ask for help at forums, try to solve problems himself, compile drivers, edit configuration files, and so on, down the long list of suffering of other distributions' users. The money has been paid, which means the manufacturer is obliged to provide a good product. And that’s it.
Before you start installing Pop!_OS, you should take into consideration that Ubuntu itself and all its derivatives quietly enter Greenwich Mean Time into the computer’s hardware immediately after connecting to the Internet. If another operating system is present in dual-boot, you will have to manually reset its clock each time you use it. Therefore, it is better not to install any Ubuntu next to another OS. For example, you can physically disconnect the disk and use a separate SSD for Pop!_OS.
What else can be mentioned is that Pop!_OS has not yet been noticed attempting to collect user data, to use telemetry or to violate privacy in some other way. No unattended upgrades either.
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| The Pop!_OS installation window |
So, can Pop!_OS be recommended to beginners? Definitely. Moreover, it is a higher priority option than the original ("vanilla") Ubuntu. At least one single fact of maintaining full support for the Appimage format suggests that the developers do not sneeze at users from a high branch. After all, it is no secret that not all people agree to be slaves to repositories. Therefore, lots of users prefer Appimage. They value real freedom, but not what is named "freedom" by marketers.