Pop!_OS Review - System76's Linux Distribution Tested

In the past, I had seen people mention Pop!_OS on Reddit and how much they enjoy it. So I wanted to test it out and see if I liked it too. System76, the company who created Pop!_OS, is also making hardware now, and it looks like they've got a back to school sale going on laptops.

FYI Microsoft Office can be used in the browser Lets you visit pages on the internet, examples are Safari, Edge, Firefox, or Brave. if it's required for school for some reason, or local files can be opened in Libre Office and uploaded to OneDrive.

Pop!_OS has a good reputation for the following:

• games support,
• supporting a lot of different hardware out of the box,
• has NVIDIA support if you have a graphics card, and
• some people really like their COSMIC desktop environment. It's very customizable, so you can make it just how you like.

COSMIC is created by System76, the organization that created and maintains Pop!_OS. It's different from GNOME and Xfce that I've mentioned in previous posts.

Pop OS page

I'll refer to it as "Pop OS" in the rest of this post.

People say that Pop OS is solid, reliable, beginner friendly, and the way they set up the "workspaces" feature almost has me thinking about converting from Zorin.

I'll walk you through the checks I did from this post about testing linux An alternative to Windows or MacOS on computers. from a live boot usb. Here, I installed Pop OS on a USB and ran it on my computer to test Pop OS without installing or wiping my hard drive.

I back up my important files, and I recommend you do the same.

A quick note about definitions, there's a top Panel and a bottom Dock. The top Panel has settings menus and the applications and workspace buttons. The Dock is the task bar along the bottom, and can also have those same settings present there if that's what you prefer.

Try or Install - Try Demo Mode

When you initially boot up Pop OS, you only have one choice, "Try or Install," and it will automatically start the operating system The core software that manages a computer and lets applications run. This would be Windows or MacOS on computers, Android or iOS for phones, for example. after a set time.

You get a few screens once you see the desk top, starting with a "choose your language" screen.

But after a few, you'll be met with a screen that suggests you install. There's a small button on the bottom left of the window that says "Try Demo Mode," and you'll want to select that. It's small and difficult to see so I highlighted it with a red square:

Using demo mode means you're not making any permanent changes.

**Also be careful of the "Install" button in the Dock. **I would right click and unpin it first thing. If you accidentally click on it, you can right click the icon in the dock and "quit" or turn off the computer.

Tests

I tested different features to get a sense of whether everything worked out of the box with this distro Bundles the Linux kernel with other software components for a complete operating system . Everything did that I mention below.

USB mouse

I typically have my USB mouse connected to my laptop, and that worked right away. The right click worked as expected, giving me a menu on the desktop with shortcuts to appearance settings.

Settings

The Applications shortcut (at the top Panel or the 9-square icon in the Dock) gets you to the settings menu. You can also use the "COSMIC settings" icon in the dock at the bottom of the screen.

Natural scrolling with touchpad gesture

The default touchpad scrolling gesture works the opposite of what I like, so I changed it by going to "natural scrolling."

Applications > COSMIC settings > Input Devices > Touchpad > Natural scrolling and click that to "on"

In settings, you'll see "Input devices" on the left navigation.

Select Touchpad and scroll down to "Scrolling" where you'll find "Natural scrolling" as an option.

Applications menu

The word "Applications" is in the Panel across the top of the screen. It can be found on the far left next to "Workspaces." By default, it's also in the Dock across the bottom of the screen.

It's not immediately apparent how to add apps to the apps menu. As of writing, it's not a right click integrated feature.

You can use something called "Menu Editor" to do that. Download it from the COSMIC app store.

If you're comfortable, you can create a .desktop file, it's a text file with a special format, and save it to the home directory the main folder assigned to your user account, where your Documents, Downloads, and other personal folders live. Often shown as the tilde symbol (~) (~) in ~/.local/share/applications

For more information on how to create .desktop files. See this post from Baeldung.

Workspaces

The word "Workspaces" is in the Panel across the top of the screen. It can be found on the far left. By default, it's also in the Dock across the bottom of the screen.

Bluetooth

I connected my headphones, and those worked fine.

The settings like bluetooth and wifi have shortcuts in the Panel on the far right side. You can also get to them from the settings menu.

Wifi works

You'll see below that the printer and browser Lets you visit pages on the internet, examples are Safari, Edge, Firefox, or Brave. show the wifi works.

Printer works

I opened Libre Writer, which came with the distro Bundles the Linux kernel with other software components for a complete operating system . I typed a little bit to make sure the keyboard works as expected "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" uses every letter key. I deleted that and then typed a message for my partner since the printer is in his office. I printed it to test the printer and it worked fine.

You can see my Canon color printer appearing in the printers. My Brother one isn't connecting to the internet today, so I would need to plug it in directly to use it.

Here's my post about Libre Office if you're interested in knowing more about that.

Sound, video, and browser Lets you visit pages on the internet, examples are Safari, Edge, Firefox, or Brave.

I opened my video on youtube about Graphene An alternative to Android or iOS on phones. OS, and I could hear the sound and see the video.

Camera app and microphone

I downloaded the GNOME camera app from the COSMIC app store, and tested it. My built-in camera and microphone work.

I took a photo to demonstrate.

As an aside for troubleshooting cameras and microphones:
My Surface laptop camera didn't work with Linux An alternative to Windows or MacOS on computers. , because those drivers a software that allows the hardware (like WiFi) communicate with a system are proprietary to Microsoft. If you have some similar issue, you can use a usb webcam. I had one lying around, and that's what I used for my Zorin Surface so my son could join Teams meetings for school. There are also usb microphones if you have a built-in microphone that doesn't work with a distro Bundles the Linux kernel with other software components for a complete operating system .

Gaming

Since one support for gaming is one of the selling points, I wanted to mention that Pop OS has their own page touting how well gaming on Steam works in their distro.

Should you try Pop!_OS?

I was impressed by it and can see the appeal. If you like it, it might not be a bad choice for a beginner. The way the applications are set up may take getting used to, but with Menu Editor and search, I don't see why not. If you're on the fence, try demo mode first to test drive it. There's no commitment or install required. Best of all, it's free!

How to try Linux

Back up your files.