Basically the title
Pop!_OS is definitely worth considering as it’s one of the few distros that goes as far as providing a recovery partition and offers one of the best experiences for those with Nvidia GPUs. Furthermore, Pop!_OS’ maintainers (read: System76) are actually financially incentivized to make their distro very polished and newbie-friendly as their distro is used on the hardware they sell.
On the flip side, Pop!_OS is currently in a major overhaul to replace GNOME with COSMIC; their own homebuilt Desktop Environment. As the Desktop Environment is arguably the most important contributor to how one experiences their Linux system, the eventual change might disrupt your workflow and you might even be too accustomed to GNOME to consider COSMIC at that point. The ongoing work on COSMIC has even meant that Pop!_OS has missed three major releases and are still clinging on their release from April 2022; thankfully it’s based on Ubuntu’s LTS (read: Long Term Support) release, so they aren’t particularly in rush to get a new release out and can rely on Ubuntu for security updates.
Regardless, COSMIC’s unsure future does leave a lot to be desired and does pose the question if perhaps other options should be considered more seriously instead.
Therefore, my personal recommendation would be either one of the following:
- If you just really like what you see from Pop!_OS, then just install its 22.04 release and you should be good until April 2027. As time goes on, you might be deprived from new developments and features; but at least updates etc will not be able to (potentially) corrupt/break your system in the meantime.
- Wait until April next year; when they’re supposed to release a new version. If you like what you see and the update and the changes are well-received by the community, then consider installing that one instead. It should be supported for 5 years, which is plenty to not worry about your system in the mean time.
- Go look elsewhere. There are hundreds of actively maintained distros out there. While not all of them are worth considering, there are at least a dozen of them that are worthy contenders. In case you’re interested to get the community’s help in finding a distro, consider answering the following questions:
- Do you use an Nvidia GPU?
- How would you rate your tech savviness on other operating systems?
- How eager are you to learn and/or invest time to use your Linux system?
- Do you prefer to have up-to-date software at all times even if that means daily/weekly updates that might potentially break some functionality?
- Security or convenience?
- Opinionated or blank slate?
A shortlist of distros worth considering for a beginner (from easiest to hardest): Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Debian/Fedora/openSUSE and Arch.
just install its 22.04 release and you should be good until April 2027
I think this is a really great point. A lot of the Linux community really like distrohopping and running bleeding edge systems, but if you want to just use your machine to get stuff done you can’t go wrong with the LTS versions of stable distros.
Pop 22.04 has been rock solid for me and I won’t be switching to cosmic until the issues are ironed out, my work laptop will be staying on Ubuntu 22.04 (with pop-shell) until the next LTS has been out for a while.
Not having to worry about whether a rolling upgrade will bork your system is really nice. I think we should be suggesting LTS to all newbies as standard as it’s a much smoother experience.
To OP: Pop is a great distro and the tiling window manager it comes with is absolutely fantastic. If you want a beginner friendly system which gets out of your way and let’s you actually use your computer it’s a fantastic choice. Getting used to the way gnome/pop-shell works and the workflows takes a little getting used to at first, but once it clicks it’s really hard to think of using anything else.
Top tip: if you hit an issue with pop and googling for pop solutions isn’t working, 99% of the time just search for Ubuntu and you’ll find plenty of info about it.
Yes, though this is true of a lot of the easier distros.
I’d argue for a basic use case most distro’s would work well, right? All come with a browser, a PDF reader, and some word doc/spreadsheet program. I truly hate using windows at school, so I just plug in a USB, restart, and boot from the USB. Otherwise Firefox always needs updating, which results in freezing 1/10 times, and I need to make an adobe account to simply read a PDF.
All come with a browser, a PDF reader, and some word doc/spreadsheet program.
Strictly speaking, “All” is a bit of a stretch - Arch doesn’t come with any of those by default, neither does Gentoo, or for that matter, nor do any of the minimal/netinstall/server variants of other distros.
Touché, you’re right for sure. I should have stayed with saying most and not said all. But that’s where my head was at least.
PopOS is definitely a great first choice distribution. I would recommend Linux Mint over it for people coming from windows who wants something rock solid with a great community
After trying Linux repeatedly for some 20 years and always returning to Windows for various reasons, Pop! OS finally seems like a Linux distribution I can use as a daily driver. The amount of useful and concise documentation is great, my hardware is all supported and automatically configured, i.e. I don’t have to mess around with obscure config files to get either audio or wifi working, it works on first boot.
I’m glad to hear it. Linux in general has gotten way better in that regard. I haven’t had to fix any driver issues in years just install and it works.
Definitely yes! Pop OS is one of the best distros for starters, along with Linux Mint. Basic tasks like web browsing, playing games, and writing docs all work well on Pop OS. If you have familiarity with macOS, you’ll notice that Pop OS is very similar when it comes to layout and certain multi-touch gestures.
Absolutely, Pop!_OS is literally made to just work™. I would recommend it in a heartbeat to anyone looking to get into Linux. The out-of-the-box experience is probably second-to-none.
Pop is the distro that finally made me a Linux full-timer after 15 years. I don’t use it anymore but I’ll always be grateful to the devs at system76.
Yes. I just switched full time to Pop and I love it.
I was a Pop user since it first shipped until this year when I switched to Fedora. I still use the Pop Shell extension for GNOME as, IMO, it’s the best tiling extension. Full stop. It’s easy to install and use and is well organized. If you have Nvidia, choose the ISO with the drivers pre-installed. My switch to Fedora was predicated on the fact that I generally use enterprise laptops and 2in1 devices, which is one of Pop’s blind spots when it comes to reliability. Fedora is just dead stable on whatever I put it on, whether its a Latitude 7200 2in1 i7 8th gen or a ThinkPad T400s Core 2 Duo.
I guess Fedora’s an option, too 🤣
Yup, that and Mint are your best options for distros that just work out of the box.
Yes. I switched to PopOS a few months ago from Arch seeking a “just works” OS for gaming. It’s been great for me.
I’ve been using Pop!_OS for about a month now and it’s been great! I only had one issue (completely my fault) which caused me to have a black screen upon login after a reboot.
I like pop_os a lot, it’s a high quality distro they’ve assembled. Even on fedora I’ll use the pop shell extension, good QOL upgrade for gnome. So, yes. Great for browsing.
TL;DR yes, popOS is perfect for that
My personal getting started advice is as follows
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use kali Linux in a virtual machine because haha funny 1337 haxor
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install mint/popOS/ubuntu on either a virtual machin, a spare laptop, or dual boot if you have a spare drive
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I used mint for school and random tinkering and just gradually got more familiar with the random things I wanted to do or fix
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this was last year so I’m no where near qualified to talk like a guru of ancient wisdom, take all of this with a grain of salt or possibly just burn it
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I found Mint with Cinnamon to be a better out of the box experience, I can’t stand Gnome anymore.
PopOS is generally fine, though I’d lean more towards Mint in terms of usability and low hassle
