Pop_OS

Linux hijinks, Part 6 or so: Pop!_OS first impressions

First, the name is twee and annoying to type, so I give them some credit for so effortlessly mimicking one of the worst aspects of Apple. But it is a superficial aspect, so let’s move on.

Installation

I have a spare 1 TB M2 SSD (holy initialisms1Yes, I am finally learning to stop using ‘acronym’ when the letters don’t actually make a pronounceable word, like SCUBA or NASA, though I suppose there might be someone out there who pronounces SSD as ‘sssdee”, Batman) in an enclosure and attached to my PC via USB 3.0, so transfer speeds are not terrible. I chose Advanced options during install and was able to get the OS in place without consulting any documentation. Victory!

What I didn’t realize at the time is that Pop!_OS doesn’t install a boot manager when you install it alongside another OS, so every time I restart my PC, it automatically boots into Pop!_OS, which is nice for it, but bad for me, because my primary operating system on the PC is still Windows 11. The interim fix is to tap F8 while rebooting, then select the Windows drive. Windows 11 loads normally after this. There are methods of creating a boot manager with Pop!_OS, but none are exactly simple, so I’ll probably leave it for now.

This does mean that removing the OS later will be simpler, since all I’ll need to do is boot into Windows 11’s recovery mode and execute this command at the command prompt:

bootrec.exe /fixmbr

As mentioned in a previous post, I kept getting pop-ups that the OS wasn’t working during install and had to keep dismissing them. This was annoying, but only added a bit of time to the install. Once done, it was simple enough to download my most-used apps from the Pop app store:

  • Thunderbird
  • Signal
  • Discord

Some apps I use are already included, most notably Firefox, but the list of apps I use that aren’t available at all in Linux remains a little too long:

  • Diarium (daily journal)
  • TickTick (to do list/reminders)
  • Affinity Designer (vector drawing)
  • Affinity Photo
  • Pixelmator Photo
  • Media Player (yes, I like it and use it!)

There are other apps I use, but haven’t installed yet. I used the Pop!_OS ISO with Nvidia drivers included, so this in theory means gaming should be simpler to set up. I’ll find out when I install Steam.

Built-in applications

Other than Firefox, you get the LibreOffice suite and a bunch of usual utilities like a calculator and such. I may tinker with LibreOffice to see how well it works with Word and Excel files (which I regrettably still use with others).

A lot of the included applications are more like applets–minimal, but functional. There is a built-in weather app, but it’s much simpler than the one in Windows 11 (though it doesn’t run ads, which the one in Windows 11 now does, to my noted chagrin). I may have more thoughts on these as I poke around.

User Interface and Design

The closest comparison to the GUI Pop!_OS uses is probably macOS. There is a dock, and also a bar that runs atop the display, reminiscent of the menu bar on Macs. It offers a decent amount of customization and in the end it didn’t feel like it was blatantly copying macOS. The “super” key (Windows key) defaults to a command line launcher, which is one of those handy things I now miss when it’s not available in any OS.

The system defaults to dark mode, but I’ve recently become a light mode convert, and switching over is easy. The title bars on windows still remain dark, which is a style choice I’m not sure if I agree with. I haven’t looked too much into customization here, so I’ll definitely have more thoughts on this later.

The system itself felt reasonably responsive, with moving windows, clicking and dragging all feeling zippy enough. My hardware was all configured automagically, including:

  • Bluetooth
  • Wi-Fi
  • Brother printer
  • Mouse (settings for this are minimal, we’ll see how that works out)

More to come

The fun par comes the next time I restart the PC and see if Pop!_OS loads smoothly or blows up. I’ll post more thoughts then, from within the OS itself (yes, I am being all ironic by writing this post on the Windows 11 side of things).

Uh oh, Linux (Part 5 or something)

I got in a silly mood again and decided to mess around again with Linux. That can only lead to trouble!

This time I decided to swap out of Linux Mint and try Pop_OS, a distro made by System76, a company that sells PC hardware with the OS pre-installed, so you know they’re committed!

I made a boo boo when removing Mint. The proper order is:

  • Remove the GRUB bootloader that gives you a menu to choose Mint or Windows when restarting the PC
  • Remove or format the Linux partition (in this case, a separate SSD)

I did this in the reverse order, which meant I had to do a bunch of other stuff to fix things. Thank you, internet, for still being at least useful enough to provide the steps to take!

Once I had Linux Mint gone, I booted from the Pop_OS USB stick and the installation went fine-ish. I would keep getting “Pop_OS has stopped working” pop-ups during the process and would have to wait before I could click them away. They would often come back multiple times, but in the end it was annoying and didn’t kill the process or anything.

I’m typing on Pop_OS now!

Why did I switch? A few reasons, but mostly to try something different as a point of comparison, and also because Pop_OS is different. Mint follows a lot of Windows conventions, for better or for worse, where Pop_OS does things a little differently with its UI. It’s maybe a bit more Mac-like, but not really Mac-like. It’s more its own thing, and I like that they are trying something a little different.

Now, the scary part: I haven’t rebooted to see what happens. In theory, I should get a menu and be able to choose Windows or Pop_OS. If that doesn’t happen, I may need to do the old bootrec.exe /fixmbr again, or other trickery to get Windows to load, because as nice as Pop_OS might be (I perhaps have a few more reservations than initially), it ain’t gonna replace Windows. Not yet, anyway.

In my next Linux update, I’ll talk a bit about new apps I’m testing to replace some of the Windows and Mac apps I regularly use. Fun! Sort of!