 Visitor Reviews |
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Reader supplied reviews for Pop!_OS
Average rating
7.9 from 286 review(s)
Version: 22.04
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-11-28
Votes: 1
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I honestly can’t live without Pop!_OS’s Tile Windows feature. It’s the main reason I stick with this OS, even though I actually prefer Linux Mint for its stability and how well it works out of the box. With Pop!_OS, I have to manually update my older NVIDIA driver to fix suspend/sleep issues, and I need to install extra packages just to get video thumbnails working.
Pros:
Tile Windows is incredibly useful for multitasking on a large display. It automatically arranges all open windows, and although occasional gaps appear between them—which can be a bit annoying—it generally works very well.
Cons:
Having to manually install packages for video thumbnails and update the NVIDIA driver.
The GNOME desktop feels more intuitive and offers better universal file search indexing, something the COSMIC desktop in Pop!_OS currently lacks.
Overall, I am happy it works for my needs so far. I will test drive it daily and see if something else breaks and perhaps hop to another distro...
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Version: 24.04-beta
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-11-28
Votes: 2
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This is a really strange situation with PopOS_beta_24.04 development. The beta version is out a few months, and during this time period there is nothing like significant progress.
1. many, I mean really many, bugs remains still unresolved
2. announced excellent performance is still a dream, not a reality
3. many apps does not work at all
4. some basic functionality is still missing ... mounting ISO file via file manager
5. graphic glitches, instability, etc
6. many standard apps complain on graphic engine incompatibility
7. etc, etc ...
In general, PopOS_COSMIC_beta 24.04 is still in development phase and there is no chance to use this OS on regular basic as is announced by many people here.
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Version: 24.04-beta
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-11-25
Votes: 1
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Tested on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 Intel Core i9-12900H, 64GB, NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti.
Unfortunately, I experienced a couple of bugs with Bluetooth (the system tries to re-acquire the device every couple of minutes, so I can't connect my headphones to my smartphone - Pop!_OS just keeps re-acquiring them back). I also had issues with system apps often crashes, overall app speed is slow despite super huge amount of resources.
Firstly, I installed 22.04, when I experienced those bugs I think maybe upgrade will fix them, I upgraded to 24.04-beta, but the experience with system apps became worse. As I understand problem lies in new DE, slow system apps become slower, but less crashes to be honest.
List of things I was frustrated with:
1. Software sources could be managed from the Pop Shop in 22.04, but in 24.04 only Flathub sources can be managed.
2. COSMIC Files app performance is super poor; I had to switch back to the Files app from the previous version.
3. The Bluetooth bug is still there.
4. The sound bar doesn't display when I change volume from the keyboard.
5. Telegram application stops working entirely after upgrade.
On the positive side, Alacritty works perfectly well with Neovim; I can program and run my Docker apps comfortably. The Nvidia card works great — from my experience, training models is actually faster now. Also, LM Studio works well with GPT OSS 20B; no bugs spotted there.
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Version: 24.04-beta
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-11-24
Votes: 0
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Pop OS Cosmic is a nice change to the repetitive linux distros full of Gnome and KDE spins. Customizing feels comfortable and the DE is easy to navigate. My only complaint (though it's still in beta) is that it does not have night time settings and currently I can't use Input Leap/Barrier/Desk Flow. I think it's due to wayland. I use 2 PCs. One for gaming and one for recording and producing videos. I need to be able to share my mouse and keyboard between the PC's to get stuff done. Once this is resolved I can see myself running this as my daily. I'm looking forward to their final release. Good job so far PopOS team!
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Version: 24.04-beta
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-11-22
Votes: 0
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I really like the work they've done with Cosmic. I am not a Gnome fan, and it looks like they've taken what I don't like about Gnome and tweaked it to the point where I can easily consider it a drop-in replacement. For example, the full screen menu in Gnome reminds me entirely too much of Windows 8.x - and I never could tolerate that. Whether it's 22.04 or 24.04's beta, I like the fact that they've made categories for Office, etc. It reduces clutter considerably! Even more so than Ubuntu too. My personal choice is between this, Zorin or Mint if you're going to stay in the Ubuntu family. This does have a few issues since it's beta, but I am confident that it will iron out the incongruities prior to launch. I'm keeping a close eye on this one!
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Version: 24.04-beta
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-11-14
Votes: 15
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After years switching between distros like Ubuntu, Red Hat, Zorin, and Fedora, Pop!_OS Cosmic really surprised me in a good way. The design brings solutions that many others never implemented. The translations to other languages, especially Portuguese Brazil, are very well done. Features like smart window resizing and customizable colors, which should be standard in every distro, are already included here.
Since it’s a beta version, there are still a few things to fix, especially for people using more than one monitor. Even so, Pop!_OS Cosmic looks very promising.
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Version: 24.04-beta
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-10-30
Votes: 5
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I've been thoroughly impressed by the overall polish and refinement of this distro, it's clear that a lot of care and attention has gone into its development. The new COSMIC desktop environment, in particular, stands out as a major highlight. It’s not just visually appealing, but also thoughtfully designed: the interface feels clean, modern, and intuitive, and the responsiveness is excellent. Navigating through tasks is smooth and snappy, and the streamlined layout makes it easy to stay focused without unnecessary distractions.
COSMIC brings a fresh energy to the Linux desktop experience, and I genuinely enjoy using it. From the subtle animations to the well-organized settings, everything feels cohesive and purposeful. It’s a great example of how user experience and performance can go hand in hand.
That said, there is one noticeable issue in this version that I hope gets addressed before the final release: battery life. Even when running on integrated graphics, the system seems to drain power faster than expected. For users on laptops or mobile setups, this could be a significant drawback, especially if you're working remotely or traveling and need to rely on extended battery performance.
I understand that this is still a pre-release version, and optimizations are likely ongoing. Hopefully, the development team is already aware of this and working on improvements. If they manage to resolve the battery efficiency concerns, this distro could easily become one of the top choices for both casual users and professionals looking for a sleek, responsive, and modern Linux environment.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-27
Votes: 2
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I've been using various distributions for years, and Pop!_OS has been one of the most comfortable ones in terms of productivity and stability. Its UX setup aligns perfectly with the experience I look for in a Linux desktop distribution. I really enjoy and support this journey. I hope their own desktop environment will further enhance the user experience they’ve built so far. I wanted to list a few disadvantages here as well, but honestly, I couldn’t find any. I know experiences with Linux distributions can vary greatly from user to user and from one hardware setup to another, but Pop!_OS performs exceptionally well on the PCs I own, even under heavy workloads.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-24
Votes: 8
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I have tried every gaming distro on my existing hardware for gaming and the results went from not even booting to running one game from my steam library and no more.
I even tried my opensuse for games but the result was tedious, long and ultimately a failure with most games failing to open.
Now popos made installing steam EASY. And steam is running ALL my games.
I was using windows 10 but it has developed a "activate" watermark on every screen.
And windows 10 was great.
I think popos has a better frame rate.
I tried it as a joke having written off linux for gaming as needing expensive hardware.
I dont use windows for anything much and have been a linux convert for a couple of decades now so using microsoft for anything violates my comfort zone.
Popos is sooo easy to use and intuitive to understand.
As for upgrading popos, i will never do that because it just works, if it is not broke I do not fix it.
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Version: 24.04-beta
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-23
Votes: 25
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After years switching between distros like Ubuntu, Red Hat, Zorin, and Fedora, Pop!_OS Cosmic really surprised me in a good way. The design brings solutions that many others never implemented. The translations to other languages, especially Portuguese Brazil, are very well done. Features like smart window resizing and customizable colors, which should be standard in every distro, are already included here.
Since it’s a beta version, there are still a few things to fix, especially for people using more than one monitor. Even so, Pop!_OS Cosmic looks very promising.
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Version: 24.04-beta
Rating: 7
Date: 2025-10-22
Votes: 0
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I tied out the Comic beta version. It's nice but needs a bit more work. I ran it in Virtualbox so maybe I didn't get the real feel for the OS. In the VM every opened application stacks up in the ram usage even after closing the applications. For some reason I couldn't download anything from the Cosmic app store or via terminal. My last issue was that there is no night light setting. Night light is a deal breaker for me. That is the only reason I don't run Ubuntu Unity too.
This a newly developed desktop environment, so I'll stand back and watch how it grows up before trying again. I appreciate their effort though. I'm so sick of looking at KDE, Gnome, XFCE, and Cinnamon. Unfortunately, China is leading the way with innovation within Deepin and Kylin desktop (I ran Deepin for a month with no issues...but trust). Wish there were more DE environments being developed with a solid base.
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Version: 24.04-alpha7
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-12
Votes: 9
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As MS IT Technician, I have decided to test after approx. 10 years one linux distro which spoke to me on this site. I took EoL T580 from our company and initiated install from USB flash drive. I am amazed how far the linux went and I like this one very much. Cosmic UI is finally something that doesn't look like a kindergarden project and I miss nothing from Win or Mac OS. Every feature works out of the box, no issues nor errors. I will continue to test this amazing OS and if it will survive a week of testing, I will make it a main.
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Version: 24.04-alpha7
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-01
Votes: 7
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Everything just works out of the box. Davinci Resolve just works on Linux out of the box, no customization needed. I got a nice NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 and it worked perfectly out of the box because they have a special Pop_OS! .iso that caters to desktops with NVIDIA cards.
Sharing over my network has been simple, I didn't even have to set my printer up it was just there and working when I needed it. Everything just works.
It does seem to be resource heavy, with gnome-shell regularly taking up 2-4GB of resources, but I have 64GB of RAM so it doesn't ever slow me down.
When it comes to theming.. it doesn't really have much in the way of theming. THANK YOU! Whenever I tried KDE I spent hours, and days, and weeks just customizing and tweaking how everything looked and felt but with Pop_OS! it was pretty much just "Dark" or "Light" and I really appreciate how much time and energy this saves me and how much more productive I have become since I started using this Distro back in March.
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Version: 24.04-alpha7
Rating: 2
Date: 2025-09-30
Votes: 2
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I just tested as vmware virtual guest latest beta version PopOS 24.04, and I must say, that this project is still very far from acceptable state. Many, really many, things does not work as expected. Maybe the beta version is not well compatible with virtualization. But the fact, that some basic apps does not work well or does not work at all (double commander, guake, drop-down terminal, iso mounting via desktop environment, etc., etc.) is really terrible.
After very long time of development ... and this the nearly final beta version???
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Version: 24.04-alpha7
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-09-30
Votes: 1
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Why do they even bother?
Its laggy, its resource hungry which ia amazing considering Cosmic was created in RUST so they must have done some really bad coding.
There is no way to add the actual day to the bar, and when you ask you get attitude from their very unfriendly forums.
If anything I would say they lost their way by trying to create another DE that nobody actually wants.
You can do everything they claim Cosmic does in Gnome, with a much lower memory hog and of course undfer Gnome you can add the day of the week to the bar.
I have to say its a failed OS that just needs to look at itself and start again.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-27
Votes: 0
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I switched to Linux in 2017 and ran Solus Budgie until that project team disappeared and stopped updating. Afterwards I tried Fedora, Debian, Rocky, Ubuntu Budgie, then one day I said, "Hey, let me give this Pop_OS! thing a try!"
So I downloaded Pop_OS! 22.04. Best decision I ever made.
Everything just works out of the box. Davinci Resolve just works on Linux out of the box, no customization needed. I got a nice NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 and it worked perfectly out of the box because they have a special Pop_OS! .iso that caters to desktops with NVIDIA cards.
Sharing over my network has been simple, I didn't even have to set my printer up it was just there and working when I needed it. Everything just works.
It does seem to be resource heavy, with gnome-shell regularly taking up 2-4GB of resources, but I have 64GB of RAM so it doesn't ever slow me down.
When it comes to theming.. it doesn't really have much in the way of theming. THANK YOU! Whenever I tried KDE I spent hours, and days, and weeks just customizing and tweaking how everything looked and felt but with Pop_OS! it was pretty much just "Dark" or "Light" and I really appreciate how much time and energy this saves me and how much more productive I have become since I started using this Distro back in March.
Excitedly waiting for the flood of new Cosmic Beta release users to do the initial testing and then planning on upgrading my current install to 24.04 running Cosmic Desktop Environment.
This is a great project, WITH AMAZING DOCUMENTATION, and they have all kinds of platforms to engage with them from Reddit to Github to Mattermost and I have been very impressed and am grateful to have stopped my distrohopping and settled down with Pop_OS!
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Version: 24.04-alpha7
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-09-27
Votes: 2
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Very disappointing, I really enjoyed the early versions of this where they augmented Ubuntu and Gnome with their own tweaks and additions, it was great for supporting Nvidia out of the box. But, as soon as they started this Cosmic desktop stuff it's been nothing but a mess, they're pursuing a pet project but aren't really equipped it seems like, Cosmic is really bad. I mean, maybe they can get there eventually but I'm not waiting, I've moved on and honestly Gnome is probably going to stay leaps and bounds better than Cosmic. KDE is better and likely always will be. Even Cinnamon. But, if they want to waste their time and resources, it's no skin off my nose.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-25
Votes: 0
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For me it's the best Linux system I've used in 17 years. Pop!_OS Upgrade & Recovery is a unique and genuine Pop!_OS tool that allows you to:
- Update your operating system safely and easily, even between major versions (for example, from Pop!_OS 22.04 to 24.04).
- Recover your system if a serious failure occurs, without needing to use an installation USB or lose your data.
1. Secure and automatic updates
- Updates between major versions: Pop!_OS Upgrade & Recovery allows you to update the system to new versions automatically and securely, something that in other distributions usually requires manual processes or reinstallations.
- Clear notifications: It notifies you when a new version is available and guides you through the process.
2. Integrated recovery system
- Recovery partition: Pop!_OS creates a hidden partition on your hard drive during installation, which contains a copy of the recovery system.
- Recovery options:
- Reinstall the system without deleting your personal files.
- Repair the boot manager (GRUB).
- Restore factory settings.
- Access an emergency terminal to troubleshoot manually.
- No other Linux distribution offers such an integrated and easy-to-use tool for updates and recovery.
- It does not rely on external tools. Unlike other distributions that use generic solutions such as Timeshift or Clonezilla, which can be a big problem if you have an encrypted disk.
Well done. System76 Thank you!!!
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 6
Date: 2025-09-20
Votes: 1
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Beside Zorin, I also use Pop OS on another PC. I like the way it looks, I am looking forward to see Cosmic, but currently I am not satisfied with Pop OS. I had issues earlier, now I have issues again. Every issue I had was because of too early updates. Few days ago, Pop OS was updated with new kernel, and it caused VMWare to stop working. Updates simply come too often and not tested enough.
Thankfully after update I got option to boot into old version, but now i have updates waiting to be installed in older version.
Second thing I don't like about it is Store. It has a great support of apps, but when searching apps it lags a lot. Hopefully it's gonna be solved in Cosmic version.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-14
Votes: 0
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I'm new to Linux and as my first Distro is Pop!_OS. Before Linux I used of course Windows 11. I'm using Pop!_OS on my main computer that is running a spec wise:
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
32GB of Ram
Pop!_OS as my first Linux Distro has been awesome great for what i do allowing me to do the basics of my computer without using to much resource like windows 11 took. I'm still able to game! But of course with Proton. Reading that Pop!_OS keeps the Linux Kernel up to date is nice and that there Mesa drivers are also up to date. I can't wait to see there cosmic desktop environment that they created with rust come out.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-12
Votes: 0
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I’m using an older server workstation with the following specs:
Intel® Xeon® W-2125 CPU @ 4.00GHz × 8 and NVIDIA Quadro P400 (GP107GL).
Pop!_OS with the nVidia drivers didn’t work right away, and I experienced issues with video playback, such as skipping frames or crashes.
It took me a few tries to figure out the solution:
I first tried updating the nVidia drivers via the terminal, but that didn’t work.
Then, I manually selected and installed the latest nVidia drivers from the Pop!_Shop under the updates/installed apps section.
That finally fixed the issue.
I imagine many first-time users could run into the same problem. I also tested Linux Mint, and it worked perfectly from the start, no issues at all. Pop!_OS could learn from Mint on this.
The reason I’m recommending and sticking with Pop!_OS, though, is the Windows Tiling feature. It’s fantastic for multitasking, especially if you have a wide monitor. It reduces the need for constant alt-tab switching by automatically tiling the most recently used windows side-by-side. That’s a real productivity boost for me.
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Version: 21.04
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-09-08
Votes: 3
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I have always tried out various distributions on modern hardware and its always the same distributions that struggle with simple things...
Since i switched to mac i switched to HiDPI screen(s) 4K, and i honestly don't see any reason to go back to 1080...
Also my mouse and keyboard are Bluetooth connectivity with the possibility to switch between 3 devices.
1) First problem during the install iam getting greeted by a low res setup screen.
unlike some distros like mint i was able to select my resolution before starting the setup.
2) After the install PopOS failed to update, no matter what i tried, even tips to do it over the terminal failed.
3) Bluetooth devices fail to wakeup (hello keyboard + mouse) once the system goes to sleep and i need to push the power button to wakeup Bluetooth fails to wakeup and a hard reset is needed.
4) Limited config for HiDPI screen, whathever adjustments i could make the UI still sucks and doesnt scale with HiDPI screens.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-09-07
Votes: 0
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I was really just looking for a distribution that was stable for doing the basics.
I've been on the pop-OS for a couple years.
I'm currently using the pop-OS 22.0-4 version.
I'm running it on an HP Elitebook 840 g6
32 gig memory, i7 CPU
I'm also using a Cannon 7020a Printer - wireless connection
Using the Document Scanner App to Scan.
I'm using a Logitech Webcam HD PRO webcam C90
Pertaining to what I use it's been a stable OS.
I'm using Oracle Virtual-box
Zoom
Document Scanner
Obsidian
LibreOffice
Pros
As posted below, I like the short cut keys for Windows Manipulation.
Con
Initially the store would lock up (Resolved purely by accident - I was dinging around installing different desk-top environments, when I re-installed the pop-OS desktop environment it upgraded to the newer desktop - looks like it's resolved.)
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 2
Date: 2025-09-05
Votes: 0
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had so many problems during installation. I was trying to install on my old dell laptop with i7 ,16 gb ram and 256GB SSD (so old but fairly good configuration ) and during installation it felt so slow so i thought it was because i was running through USB pen drive. So I installed it and it was still slow (which is strange for a linux) . Especially their software center from which we can install apps. It was so slow. I used it for 2 days and then wiped out and replaced it with linux mint as i had used it in the past. Some how linux mint was snappy (even with cinnemon)
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Version: 24.04-alpha7
Rating: 7
Date: 2025-08-31
Votes: 0
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I have been using Pop!_OS 24.04 for over 2 months which was a record for me, being a distro hopper. This is a rating only for 24.04 alpha
I like Pop!_OS 22.04 more than most other ubuntu/debian-based distro because it is pretty stable and reliable, but a bit outdated
Pros:
-Can toggle between tiling and floating windows
cons:
-customization
-lots of bugs
-app center is not great
COSMIC has great potential, but as of now it is mostly unuseable. I tried 22.04 before and it works much better for me and still has tiling-floating behaviour I liked on COSMIC.
So if you hated 24.04 alpha, try 22.04, it is better in some ways
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Version: 24.04-alpha7
Rating: 5
Date: 2025-07-16
Votes: 5
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It didn't last a day on my system.
On first boot it looks good. A lot like a modified Gnome desktop, but when you dig deeper and actually try to use the system you find huge issues that for me at least make it impossible to use such a limited OS.
I like to tweak my settings, but COSMIC won't allow you to do much. Sure they call it accents colours etc, but I can already do that in loads of other DE's. When I was unable to even show the day of the week on the top bar, and spent ages looking on-line to find out how to do it, I was told in the forums to just do with out!
Not a helpful bunch unfortunately.
Also I found the COSMIC terminal to be very slow. It's not the best I've used, and being so slow would annoy me eventually.
The COSMIC store is terrible, stutters, and sometimes crashes. It is unable to install flatpaks and use the icon correctly, so some of them you end up with a gray icon with a cog motif, hovering over the icon doesn't show a tool-tip either, and trying to figure out how to label the thing was terrible as well.
Out of date apps, slow system usage, high memory, and just a generally broken offering isn't really the sort of thing you'd expect from something that has been worked on supposedly for three years now apparently.
I've been generous and given it a 5 for looks, but that all it gets and should really be a lot lower ratings wise.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-07-03
Votes: 0
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i was my first experience with Linux and it was full of bugs and crashes.
Unfortunately, unlike what they claimed it wasn't compliable with my Nvidia Graphic card. i ended up hating it
Cosmic it was so lag, Ui was cluttered with pointless animations. Switching between windows felt like running 30fps monitor
I had to reinstall the Pop!os multiple times due to absurd stability issues
Graphic Card : 1070Ti
Cpu : AMD Ryzen 5 2600
Ram 16GB
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Version: 24.04-alpha7
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-06-07
Votes: 6
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I'm using Alpha 7 as my daily driver, despite the constant admonition not to do so. But I would say this version is "alpha" primarily in being feature-incomplete (no obvious way to move windows controls from right to left; no obvious way to start programs at boot-up; etc). It's not alpha in the sense of being notably buggy (though the search feature in Settings hangs on me from time to time).
Rewriting the desktop in the Rust environment seemed to be a fool's errand, but you can't argue with the results: This is a fast set of tools (and memory safe besides). The app store is particularly improved by Rust, but having Files or Terminal pop up instantly is startling and pleasant.
What always distinguishes Pop_OS is its smart choice of apps and settings (and it's auto-tiling feature, which give you a lot of the i3 interface without the i3 learning curve). This alpha is no exception.
This is a bold reimagining of the Gnome 3 desktop and one I will likely use extensively in the future. For now, though, I need something a bit more feature-rich, so the long-in-the-tooth 22.04 version will do. It's still a solid choice.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-05-06
Votes: 11
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Stable 'classic' Pop!_OS version 22.04 comes with a modern Linux kernel.
Simply install Pop!_OS and run the standard update (just click to update).
You can also often choose more recent apps as Flatpaks instead of DEBs.
Daily updates are provided. It works with Nvidia graphics on Lenovo laptops.
For those who like to tinker with the system, I recommend installing the TIMESHIFT app. :)
If not, you can try to recover using the system's built-in rescue partition - just remember to check for updates to that partition from time to time.
I've been using Pop!_OS as my daily driver for over two years. To run specific Windows programs, I use VirtualBox or Wine/PlayOnLinux on Pop!_OS.
If you rely on MS Office, you can use it in the cloud or check out the OnlyOffice app to get rid of Windows entirely ;)
I haven't tested the alpha version because I already have everything I need.
Previously, I used Windows (which burned through PCs and disks with heavy updates and failures), then switched to Peppermint Linux on old laptops, and Pop!_OS on regular laptops. I also played around with Ventoy to test MX, antiX, and Zorin. I plan to stick with Pop!_OS.
As of today (2025-05-06), the Linux kernel is (in terminal):
uname -a
Linux pop-os 6.12.10-76061203-generic
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-04-18
Votes: 16
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People frequently ask whether or not they should skip Pop 22.04 and wait until the newer, Rust-based COSMIC DE is out of Alpha, but if you aren't looking to Alpha test the new DE in Pop 24.04, and are looking for a decent distro today, Pop 22.04 is still a great choice.
It really is an all-around fantastic distro. Sane out-of-the-box layout of GNOME DE thanks to the default Pop GNOME Extensions. Window tiling option is very nice. Still receives the latest kernel and graphics driver updates, but only after extensive quality control checks, so no breaking. Always up-to-date software with Flatpak enabled out-of-the-box. Decent documentation on official site. Very active and helpful user community on official Reddit, where the devs themselves frequently post and respond.
Pro tip:
Immediately download and use the newer app store, COMSIC store (available in PopShop), instead of the older, default app store, PopShop. COSMIC store runs exponentially faster, uses less memory, and even has a better layout than the older PopShop. You can then either delete PopShop after, or keep it and simply disable it from automatically starting in the background at login.
So, if you don't feel like Alpha testing the future Rust-based COSMIC DE, then give Pop 22.04 a chance. It is still a great choice today.
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Version: 24.04-alpha6
Rating: 3
Date: 2025-03-29
Votes: 1
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Cosmic store is really fast.
Display looks great. VLC is perfect for watching movies (18" monitor) and sound is fine. Strawberry for listening to music and handles flac files perfect. Slideshow is a nice option though it now only supports built-in pictures. Suppose own pictures will be possible to use when stable version is released.
With only 8Gb RAM on 16 year old VAIO VGN AW41XHQ it is behind only Zorin and Q4OS in handling. With that little RAM and only 2 cores in CPU I find it OK not to use several programs at same time. The old Nvidia 9600 is not supported in the nVidia release so used the universal without problems and the correct version was detected immediately.
Will try on my desktop (daily computer) when 24.04 stable is released.
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Version: 24.04-alpha6
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-03-24
Votes: 0
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Awaiting final release to replace my primary desktop. Currently switching between Linux Mint LMDE6 and Ubuntu 24.04.
Love the stability of Mint LMDE but like the graphical feel of Ubuntu. COSMIC Desktop is more to my liking...
Hoping that stability will be there as i didn't installed it to work for long period with it.
Previous comments seems to indicate such instability...
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-03-20
Votes: 0
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Get used to pop up that declare your system is "unresponsive"
I have used both alpha and the POPos version official but I had to quit after several issues.
System hanging is the chagrin on POPos. It wear you down with its POPup message
System crashes are common and it may happen when you are in the midst of some busy work like loading an ML model using ollama.
Its just not ready
I have moved back to mint and I am thinking of going back to UBUNTU because I want to get some work done
My sense is that cosmic Os will not be ready until 2026
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Version: 24.04-alpha6
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-03-13
Votes: 20
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Wow, its just so bad.
Huge memory hog, stutters on app loading, then it hangs so often you have to wonder what on earth they've been doing the last three years?
They should have just stuck to what they were doing already, plenty of people were happy with the finished product and they had plenty of fans that were willing to use their version of Debian rather than Ubuntu's effort.
But nope, someone there thought lets try and flood the market with yet another unneeded DE
Certainly not worth using in any way shape or form and POP os have lost a loyal fan.
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Version: 24.04-alpha6
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-03-11
Votes: 0
|
This needs work, I got the nvidia iso. The installer freezes up then works then 1/2 way through tells me there is a hardware problem but I know there is not a problem which means the installer has a problem with the drivers it is using. I also realize that all Ubuntu based distro's tell me my ata2 is slow and it's not so it's got to be a motherboard driver it's using or the installer has a glitch with it that certain combo's of hardware only show up on. I was expecting something great but was totally disappointed and you can tell it's an alpha and they need a broader range of PC's to test it on from how the installer froze up, also might want to install Nvidia drivers for the install since it didn't seem to do that and whatever they used like a wrapper or xwayland is not working since xwayland acts like it's still in alpha also.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-03-05
Votes: 2
|
Being simple and stable, Pop!_OS is still my go to distro.
No, it's not a rolling release. Don't expect the latest version software all the time, nor a cutting edge kernel. Nevertheless, system and security updates are constantly available, so it's definitely neither "abandoned" nor "unmantained". You want the latest Gnome or Hyprland? It's Linux! Just install it and spend the next few weeks configuring it until it performs to your liking. Meanwhile I'm just happy with the way this modified Gnome 42.9 runs.
Nvidia drivers are installed by default (using Nvidia ISO, of course), work perfectly well and are updated frequently (now running 570.86.16), with the hybrid function running without a hitch.
I can do all my online work, and play some games, on this my old laptop. No complaints at all. It just works out of the box.
MODEL: Lenovo Y50-70
CPU: Intel i7-4720HQ (8) @ 3.600GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
MEM: 16GB
SSD: Kinsgton 480GB
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-02-09
Votes: 22
|
Pop! is a complete distribution. After installation and reboot, it is possible to get going without any further configuration. The defaults are, indeed, sane defaults.
Pop! offers a heavily modified GNOME called COSMIC, including desktop icons, a dock with a lot of configuration allowed and a tabbed Show Applications. Show Applications, in particular, is far superior to GNOME's offering as it is less quirky - for example, applications are sorted alphabetically without having to install an extension to do so.
The big new feature of Pop! is automatic window tiling. It is switched off by default but, once switched on and used for a bit, it is sensational. There is nothing like it in Windows/MacOS and nothing as easy to set up or use in Linux. In fact, the whole way of managing the screen is so intuitive and obvious once used it it is surprising that there are so few attempts at tiling and those that exist are not the mainstream flavours of distributions.
There are a number of other thoughtful features, such as firmware updates built in, a recovery partition built in, USB flashing built in (Popsicle) and an app store (Pop! Shop) which is less clumsy than most and supports DEB files and flatpaks.
I note some reviews about "old" and "unmaintained". Well, Pop! is based on Ubuntu LTS 22.04, which is supported until 2027. It uses GNOME 42 but, really, the differences between that and the current version, 47, are mostly cosmetic, particularly in what feels like the endless shuffling around of options in the file manager (Nautilus). If required newer versions of GNOME apps can be installed via flatpak.
More concerning is that the kernel is old and in between LTS versions (6.9.3; the LTSs are 6.6.x and 6.12.x). However, with three commands I switched to the xanmod kernel, which is currently at 6.12.13.
The "old" is because Pop! took a very radical step in developing its own desktop environment, COSMIC, rather than put up with GNOME's often arbitrary and increasing constraints on what modifications could be made to vanilla GNOME. By definition that takes a long time; it is certain that version 1 of "new COSMIC" will be good but not as feature-rich as "old COSMIC" as reviewed here, but the alpha releases are very promising.
The rating is tricky. I give 8 because Pop! has clearly done all it can with GNOME and produced a remarkably effective take, with the automatic window tiling worth the price of admission on its own, but there will be a step to get over between "old COSMIC" and "new COSMIC".
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 4
Date: 2025-02-02
Votes: 2
|
Practically unmaintained and unusable in its current state. The only hope for Pop!_OS users is that system76 may drop 24.04 within their lifetimes and fix so so many of the issues with this 3-year-old distro release which is just running off of old buggy software with no patches. Stayed on it for 3 years and had to swap to something more maintained because it was getting harder and harder to use it as my daily driver. Hopefully 24.04 will release with COSMIC being usable out of the box within a reasonable amount of time and progress on it is looking promising but system76 ditching their community to go work on an entirely new DE without even bothering to still update what people were stuck on was a horrible choice.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-01-30
Votes: 1
|
Une tres bonne distribution Linux sous enviironnement Gnome pour mon Mac Mini 2012 ( 16 GB Ram ).
Je l'utilise sur un disque Externe OWC en USB 3. La distribution est tres stable et fluide dans son usage.
Merci au developeurs pour cette distribution tres agreable.
Un grand merci.
Philippe
A very good Linux distribution under the Gnome environment for my Mac Mini 2012 ( 16 GB Ram ).
I'm using it on an external OWC USB 3 drive. The distribution is very stable and smooth to use.
Thanks to the developers for this very pleasant distro.
Many thanks.
Philippe
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-01-16
Votes: 3
|
Using Pop_OS for a year now
Desktop - AMD 7800X3D / NVIDIA 4070
setup works pretty good, and no regrets for quiting windows.
Still, I will give another try to MINT soon (let's first wait for COSMIC release).
Indeed, I find too much graphical / dispay issues using Wine (GEProton), and I miss creating files in folder with a right-click....
that said, system is stable, fast and easy to set-up. Image with Nvidia driver is a plus (even if some would disagree on that).
It gives choice, when possible, to install deb or flatpak versions of apps (nextcloud client, steam, etc)
this will remain my OS, unless Mint convince me again.
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Version: 24.04-alpha5
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-01-10
Votes: 4
|
It is almost Perfect.
Pros: -
1. This is the best compromise between, Gnome, Cinnamon, KDE Plasma and a tiling window manager.
2. Although it seems to use a lot of system memory, the performance is always fast.
3. It is a joy to use on the Ubuntu base or on Fedora.
Cons: -
1. The file manager still needs to be finished, it is slow to find samba shares.
2. The firmware section in system settings needs to be finished.
Other than that I really like it and have been using Cosmic since Alpha 1, give it a try it is worth it.
For the problems with the file manager just install Nemo and you will be just fine.
If you want online accounts, install gnome-online-accounts-gtk it works well, but you will need Nemo if you want to access your Gdrive.
Plus Nemo or Nautilus can mount samba shares and they will then show up in the Cosmic File Manager.
Cosmic desktop is a breath of fresh air.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-12-16
Votes: 9
|
Tried some linux back in 2006, as media server and player at home office. But was stuck on MacOS. In 2022, my MacBookPro started to be outdated and got a Windows laptop from one of my jobs I consulted for. Decided to make the the IT guy/CEO mad and install some linux on the laptop. Tried many good ones, but landed on PopOS 22.04, that fitted my needs absolutely best. It's so stable and simplest to use. Have also the new 24.04 Alpha 4 on a spare computer, just to try put. Feels very promising and suprislingy fast on a old i3 with only 4gB RAM.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 7
Date: 2024-10-23
Votes: 0
|
Have not tried Pop OS is a while and was surprised to see it was still at 22.04 LTS. Not that I crave cutting edge Linux releases but I do find it sort of behind the times for even a LTS distro. Maybe its why I have seen Pop OS sort of fall in downloads. I think with so much happening in hardware I do want a OS to keep up with a more recent kernel and improvements. I especially find it strange since System 76 hardware offers a choice between Pop OS and Ubuntu which is now on 24.04. Still, I still find PopOS acceptable and stable dispite the lag in updating. But I am not sure about sticking with it when so many other distro's are updating faster.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-10-07
Votes: 4
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I've been using some version of Pop!_OS for at least eight years and have found it to be reliable. I'm running it on a System76 Gazelle laptop that has an Intel Core i7-11800H 2.3 GHz processor, 16 Gbytes of memory, 1Tbyte SSD and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile graphics processor. The system and OS have been trouble free. Pop!_OS is my daily driver and I use it for everything. For example I use it with: OBS Studio for recording onscreen videos, Shotcut for video editing, Brave for web browsing, Betterbird for getting and writing emails, Lazarus/Free Pascal for RAD GUI development, GCC for coding console applications, GIMP for image editing, etc. I quit using MS-Windows over twelve years ago and I don't miss anything about Win-Doze. I keep one laptop, that currently has MS-Windows 10 on it, for cross development work (using Lazarus/Free Pascal) that I do for a charity organization that requires Windows compatible applications. I was a Win-Doze user since the 3.0 days and it took me a long time of trying Linux distros to finally bite the bullet and switch, mainly because it's taken Linux and its assorted applications many years to mature into something that's reliable and powerful enough to supplant Win-Doze. It has achieved that capability and capacity. I vote "YES" for Pop!_OS and I say goodbye Win-Doze I don't miss you one damned bit.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-09-16
Votes: 1
|
Using Pop!_OS since months. Working good on high resolution monitors under Wayland, very smooth. Has a good App store, but of curse you can install software via apt or from .deb files or via flatpak files directly. I like the menu of Pop!_OS which does not cover the whole display as it does the GNOME Menu and does not need 2 mouse clicks to open it as in default GNOME. I love the integration of the weather app and calender app into the date/time panel widget, so when you click on the date widget on the panel, you see the weather and all your apointments in calendar without having to open the calender app and weather app. The system apps like calendar, contacts have good nextcloud integration. If you don't like the default theme and icons as I do, it's not that difficult to change them, I just followed some guidelines on youtube and could install nice icons and change the theme of menu and the panel. Also what I love about Pop!_OS that it is made for multiple monitor usage, so if you open a program on the monitor B it will be minimized to the menu on the monitor B. If the mous coursor is currently on the monitor A and I hit the "super" key, the menu opens itself on the monitor A. So there are some very good designed and thougtfull concepts on Pop!_OS which I could not see on other distros. All the software I use no matter if e-mail client or music player are the newest versions, the kernel is also always updated reguralry. Pop!_OS became my daily driver system, and I am using it sinse months after trying different distros like zorin os (which is very good), mint, ubuntu, fedora, debian. For me Pop!_OS offers the best experience. I just needed an OS for office work, emails, movie streaming services, listening to high resolution music files, having regularly videocalls, programming, virtual box, reading eBooks, printing and scanning documents, youtube, online shopping on multi monitor system setup - and for that Pop!_OS works just fine.
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Version: 24.04-alpha1
Rating: 8
Date: 2024-09-09
Votes: 1
|
As the continue to polish this, it will be become one of the best. There is really not much to complain about for an alpha release. I've used full released M$ windows versions that were much worse. Pop is really easy to use in general and i suspect most people beginner or advanced can really enjoy it. I plan to make it my daily driver when its fully ready and for an alpha its pretty close already. It also works well as a gamer distro. I have tried most distros for gaming stability and mint seems to be the most solid. ( drauger is not quite ready from my perspective but getting closer. It is difficult to install and behaves differently almost every time during install.
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Version: 24.04-alpha1
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-08-15
Votes: 20
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I installed and tested pop os 24.04 on my laptop with 4 GB ram, i5 3rd generation processor, 128 GB ssd, 1 GB amd ati radeon graphics card. The result is PERFECT!!! I was very surprised to see such a great performance on such an old laptop! If the alpha version is like this, it is very difficult to guess how great the stable version will be. pop os will write its name in gold letters in history as a distribution that represents the beginning of the golden ages of the linux world! Greetings from Türkiye.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 6
Date: 2024-08-09
Votes: 14
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Good, stable, but outdated as hell.
Several version behind Ubuntu and still sporting Gnome 42, while they're busy rewriting their DE in Rust. Packages are extremely outdated as well, hard to find anything new. For example VLC is hardly usable here. Even Debian is newer than this.
I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, except maybe to someone who just uses internet and basic stuff. But even then there's much better choices offering rock-stable system with new packages and hands free maintenance - like Universal Blue distros.
I ditched Windows ten months ago and been running Pop with zero problems, except for outdated stuff when I had to use distrobox, but I don't feel like this is getting updated anytime soon. Currently in a process of switching to something else, probably Tumbleweed or Bluefin.
If you insist on going with Pop, it'll serve you well, but so will other distros with newer packages. No point in installing this now.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-07-23
Votes: 11
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Basic, modern and functional right out of the box.
Plenty of modification options are possible, but the distribution should be usable straight out of the box for a newcomer. I like POP_OS as it provides what a nominal user like me needs. Windows tiling is a very user friendly feature I found here. The combination of window tiling feature with multiple workspaces makes my daily tasks with the OS very seamless and less cultured experience.
Without editing or mapping configuration files, keyboard shortcut keys for keyboard backlighting and screen brightness works. Unlike some other distros, there is no need to update the sudoers file in order to add the current user as root. This is a deal breaker for newcomers, but can figure it out with little research. POP OS wins since it grants sudo privileges to the user that was created during the installation process. Overall, this distribution is excellent right out of the box; very little to no modification is required to make it functional. I liked it.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-07-16
Votes: 7
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My experience using Pop OS was very enjoyable, both for the Intel / AMD processor version and the ARM version.
Installation is quite easy and smooth. The OS also runs well even though it takes up quite a lot of memory, but runs quite fast and stable.
I haven't encountered any serious problems while using this OS. I also used the ARM version of Pop OS on a Raspberry pi single board computer, and it ran quite fast, stable and without problems. very satisfactory. Can't wait for the next upgrade, considering that Pop OS 22.04 is quite old.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-06-29
Votes: 4
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Hardware : iMac 27 Inch, Late 2015
I am a basic level user, tested almost all main Debian distros, familiar with terminal, no issues there.
Earlier I was working with Ubuntu unity 22.04 and 24.04 on this machine.
I had issues with connecting Bluetooth headsets in both 22.04 and 24.04.
Then tried to do with Arch + KDE and Ubuntu +Gnome. both not succeeded.
Had many issues after successful booting up.
Currently using Pop OS for 2 weeks now.
All things work out of box, very simple, easy to use.(my experience with Ubuntu helped me a lot)
Only wifi driver I had to install separately(now fine), that too wired connection was working fine.
Thanks for the developers who worked and currently working behind Pop OS.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-06-27
Votes: 4
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With its Ubuntu underpinnings but a preference for apt and flatpak (and not snap) this is a familiar distribution that makes good choices. The goal is to minimize distractions and give users a powerful desktop for coding -- but POP_OS works just fine as a daily driver on any machine. The auto-tiling feature gives you the best of i3, if you're interested, but without the steep learning curve. It is my distro of choice, and I'm anticipating the new Cosmic interface, currently in alpha. These are some clever folks.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 8
Date: 2024-06-12
Votes: 5
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It's a great Linux Distribution and one of the best distros that I've ever used. But it has some problems or well 'one' problem. The Pop Shop sometimes crashes and is quite slow as compared to the software store of Linux Mint. Although I don't use GUI software installer instead I just my packages from the terminal but I sometimes like to look around in the available packages to find some useful one and there the problem occurs... other than that this is an amazing operating system. The main reason I love this is because of what it offers. The desktop environment is basically gnome but with a bunch of addons which makes the work flow extremely good. Although this can be achieved in any distro but I'd rather prefer a complete out of the box exp pre-installed. If end up breaking my system it will take me hours to setup my desktop environment the way I use it. Also if I end up breaking my pop!_os system(it rarely happens tho) I can just boot the live media and there's an option to just re-install my system with all my files exactly where they were which makes it so much more good!. I want to thank System76 for building such an amazing operating system.
I love Pop!_OS:)
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-05-17
Votes: 11
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Absolutely phenomenal distro, its like a paid operating system! Everything just works, even my stubborn NVIDIA graphics card is accepted into the system just like on windows (which I cant get it to work on other distro for some reason) I tried to donate to them but something is wrong with their payment system idk but awsome job Pop os team!
Details:
>Based on Ubuntu
>No snap
>Gnome
>Watch as Ubuntu continuously shoot themself in the foot by forcing snap upon their user
What is this strategy called?
I really hope this is a community distro so it can be sustainable and awesome
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 8
Date: 2024-05-17
Votes: 2
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Pop_OS just works, it has better stability than the vast majority of Debian/Ubuntu based distros, and makes using an Nvidia GPU on Linux an absolute breeze. Debian is arguably getting just as good in terms of easy-to-install, easy-to-use but I personally would rather use a more bleeding-edge distro for most of my needs anyway. For any beginner coming in especially a windows or macOS user that is used to interacting with a GUI, it simply cannot be matched in terms of accessibility (barring the amazing Linux Mint). Definitely would use this distro again for fun once the 24.04 refresh comes out.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-05-11
Votes: 3
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I don't need to go into much detail - I always come back to this distro, because everything just works perfectly.
Every time I try something else there is always some little unexplained issue, performance is not right, etc.
This distro (from a gaming/general usage standpoint) just works and I don't think I'll ever need anything else.
Also I've never seen a distro that installs faster, don't know what magic they are doing but it's something to behold.
Literally the only complaint I can make is the Pop Shop is a weak point and a bit buggy. I don't mind as I barely use it.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-05-03
Votes: 2
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I am back on Pop!_OS after a 12 month hiatus. I previously had it installed and used it dual booting with Windows 10 for about 14 months. I was also using LMDE 5 at the time and then LMDE 6 came out and have been hooked on that too making it my preference for a while. Eventually, I put Pop_OS back on an external SSD and did some minor tweaks and it runs so well. System76 has taken a good base and desktop and really made it their own. It boots quickly, shuts down fast and everything always works right with the no trouble shooting needed unlike Fedora or even regular Ubuntu lately. Their COSMIC desktop version GNOME is not my favorite desktop environment but somehow Pop!_OS makes it function better than Ubuntu. I am looking forward their RUST based COSMIC desktop sans GNOME. Their current 22.04 is still solid, I am looking forward to the 24.04 rebase with the rust based COSMIC desktop. Great job System76!
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-03-31
Votes: 5
|
Like just about everyone else, I anxiously await the full release of the Cosmic desktop. But I think the current incarnation is already excellent. For me, this means that it's stable, reliable, seamless, and transparent. It has sensible defaults--I don't think I have changed much of anything out of the box beyond setting the wallpaper to a solid color. It stays out of my way; it doesn't annoy me.
For reference, I am coming from Debian 12 with Xmonad, and before that FreeBSD running IceWM. I am perfectly comfortable at the command line, but it is still a welcome change to be able to configure everything (so far) from the GUI. I have previously spent many years on macOS, and it feels very much like that to me, perhaps even better since it includes the ability to easily switch to tiling windows at will.
Probably the biggest weakness I have noticed is the Pop!_Shop, which has a nasty way of blocking the UI whenever it decides to check for updates. I almost always run apt manually from the command line, but I don't expect everyone to be the same way, so you might find this aspect annoying. I hear this is much improved in Cosmic, and I hope to find out soon.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 5
Date: 2024-03-30
Votes: 3
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I tested the NVidia version so I'll only comment on that:
A typical Linux distribution these days. Everything in Pop OS! is somehow thoughtlessly glued together and the probability that the Pop OS! installation can be maintained by ordinary users is close to zero.
The graphics card detection and setup for my modern laptop worked right away (cudos to the team for that), as did the installation of Steam and OBS (out of the box, by the way), but that's basically it.
Removable devices anyone? Not recognized (anymore) after one day of use.
Coexistence with other distros on the same disk (maybe with a boot manager)? Wait, that would be possible like with other distros? Haha, just jokin'... it's Pop OS, so no. Not right out of the box.
No, guys. This is not for me. I'm not going to study the weird behaviors of another distro. I've done that enough in the past. and I have a life. I'll use it for a while, but in the end, imho, it's a distro for the bin.
But anyway, have fun with it if you like it!
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-02-16
Votes: 12
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About as close to a perfect "10" as you can get. After being a Linux Mint user for eight years I decided to give the latest version of POP_OS! a test drive. I am not a fan of GNOME but I was very pleasantly surprised. It has a calming interface in their modifications of GNOME, GNOME shell extensions and color selection of interface items. A light aqua-blue and orange with a well thought out light and dark desktop theme. Most importantly, there seems to be a concern for quality and user system restoration functions. The last couple of years Linux Mint was focused on adding trivial features instead of fixing bugs, making it easier to restore the Cinnamon desktop on a fresh install and offering other than a GRUB boot option.
Kudos to the System76 team on skipping a 22.10 release to focus on COSMIC and the big changes coming in 24.04 LTS. I like the philosophy of what System76 brings to the distro. Providing a nice base with a minimalist email client and a full office suite and then letting user fill out their system with software they need than trying to be a Swiss Army knife.
I am excited for the future of this disto and hope System76 keeps making the right decisions going forward.
I use my workstations mostly for development, OS testing and music production. POP_OS! does what it says it does for my needs.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-02-14
Votes: 1
|
I am coming from Lubuntu LXQt DE. Gnome takes a little getting used to, but many distributions are using a docker today. I like that it is based on Debian, and I can install many of the programs that I am used to using, such as jedit, filezilla, gwenview, synaptic, variety, youtube-dl, etc. I do not care for the Files manager: I much prefer Thunar or PCManFM-Qt, since the latter has a better compact view, and you can copy the path and paste it into a command line prompt. I like that you can scale a high resolution monitor easily under settings, and you can switch easily from light to dark themes.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-01-09
Votes: 0
|
POP!_OS has truly surpassed my expectations, making it the most exceptional distribution I've encountered thus far. As someone deeply immersed in various creative pursuits, my PC serves as a hub for music production, software development, and gaming. Remarkably, POP!_OS seamlessly caters to all these needs with unparalleled performance, making it the ideal choice for my diverse requirements.
One of the standout features for me is its custom GNOME environment. While I appreciate GNOME, its limitations sometimes hinder my workflow, such as the inability to create files or folders directly on the desktop. However, POP!_OS ingeniously addresses this drawback, providing a user-friendly interface that grants me this functionality. This subtle yet significant advantage enhances my productivity and overall experience.
Looking ahead, the anticipation for version 24.04 with the Cosmic desktop is palpable. The promise of continued improvements and innovative features further solidifies my loyalty to this OS. In fact, I'm already planning to complement my computing experience by investing in a Thelio for my next desktop.
Having experimented with various other distributions in the past, I can confidently attest that POP!_OS stands tall above the rest. Its user-centric design, performance-driven ethos, and seamless integration across my creative endeavors earn it a resounding perfect score of 10 stars in my review.
R-
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 9
Date: 2023-12-22
Votes: 1
|
Best performance and CPU scheduling OOTB from OSes Ive tested, fast startup and shutdown.
Only negative might be funny name and not the best theme/ui design for now (until Cosmic gets released).
It is simple and not exiting to tinker with and I have this as a positive, it is complete package and you can install it and start with your work in 15minutes. Really efficient for productivity.
Of course you can tinker with it and edit it any way you want as every other Linux OS. It is Ubuntu based, so you get all the info on forums and application support.
Updates are rock solid, automatic - not he bleeding edge but it works well.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 9
Date: 2023-12-04
Votes: 2
|
This is a solid, innovative distribution, written for coders by coders. Those who maintain it are smart and clear-headed about what they want in a distro (I've spoken to them several times and always been impressed). If you're a programmer, or high-end user, this is an OS that gets out of your way with excellent defaults and crisp operation. Interestingly, the windows-management system adds some of the best features of i3 in a much easier-to-use setup (which can be enabled or disabled with a click or two). Despite being based on Ubuntu, snaps are not enabled by default. (Good choice!) I'm looking forward to the next version based on Ubuntu 24.04 sometime next year.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-11-09
Votes: 0
|
Very good distribution with lots of improvements over Ubuntu, on which it is based. Many core packages are at a higher version of Ubuntu and are well tested/curated/integrated when Pop!_OS decides to ship more recent versions.
The settings/config is also at a higher level than what I was used from Ubuntu. Certain popular applications, such as Firefox, GIMP, Inkscape, Telegram, Signal, Audacity, OBS, Spotify, Shotcut, Mattermost, Ungoogled Chromium and a dozen more, I use installed via Flathub, which is integrated in their installer.
Point of improvement is to not skip Ubuntu releases, althought the backporting is done well.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-11-05
Votes: 0
|
It was very good distribution until it will never get update anymore it becomes suck.
OS with LTS terms is bad experience for desktop because the user's desktop is needed to have the latest software and features rather than effectively the stable terms is not really that stable is just keep the old bugs and no more regression. Linux desktop is already suck in terms of backward compatibility, so I think to keep the version old is not meant to be stable. As my advice I will very glad to have the semi-rolling OS and having the latest stable version of the packages and fixes the bugs more often and forget about regression, Linux env is the king of regression.
That's it, Linux should have much more investor to have solid foundation software on desktop computers, I don't want to talk about on a server side.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-10-15
Votes: 2
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Pop!_Os is a great distro of Linux to run. It just works! It has a refined feel and if you are changing from windows or mac to Linux you will feel at home with this distro. I use it for my daily work and home computer and it reliable and stable. Documentation is good and I feel that anyone can use this and be successful.
System76 provides good and timely updates but they do not monkey around with the system. Things to not "break" when you get a new update. There was an issue with the last kernel and HDMI, Sytem76 had great communication, just loaded the old kernel till they could get it solved. No productivity lost and when they got it right they upgraded the kernel.
I suggest that if you want a distro that works and does not cause headaches this is the one.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-10-14
Votes: 1
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Installed on my MacBook Air after I had some issues with spotlight indexing. First time Linux user. I love it. Everything just works smoothly. I really like the auto tiling and the workstations. I appreciate the dock as someone coming from Mac OS. One issue was when I first installed, I couldn’t connect to Wi-Fi. I had to install a driver using my iPhone as a usb hotspot. I’m still getting used to all the different apps but that’s the fun part. I’ve been installing other Linux distros on old laptops and none of them are as smooth as pop os.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-10-11
Votes: 0
|
The system serves the end user well, works smoothly and is easy to use. If you're migrating to Linux, and Pop Os in particular, this is a good opportunity to learn more about the system, which has a lot to offer.
So far, I have no complaints about the system. In any case, I recommend you download it and try it out.
It's a lot of fun to learn how to handle the terminal, learn about data structures and how everything works behind the scenes. If you're not sure whether you should, install it in a VM, test everything you can about the system. And have fun.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-10-01
Votes: 0
|
Nice to have an opportunity to say some good things about this distro. Use it on an Asus Zenbook that for some reason wouldn't run Windows any more. I've found it stable, intuitive, smooth and responsive.
Haven't found any hardware that doesn't run on it. Plugged an old Canon printer into it and it just worked. No installation. Just worked. External monitors just worked.
The only fiddly bit was having to install Gnome Tweaks to get all the appropriate buttons, but that's hardly a deal breaker for the average Linux user.
Recommended.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-10-01
Votes: 1
|
La meilleure de toutes les distributions LINUX que j'ai eu l'occasion de tester ces derniers mois. Pas de plantages, intuitive, riche en applications. En fait, "la" distribution que j'attendais. Juste à adapter l'esthétique à mes goûts car elle n'est pas très engageante, ce qui la dessert peut-être un peu. Elle gagnerait sans doute à être un peu plus ambitieuse à ce point de vue.
The best of all the LINUX distributions I've tested in recent months. No crashes, intuitive, rich in applications. In fact, "the" distribution I've been waiting for. I just need to adapt the aesthetics to my tastes, as it's not very engaging, which perhaps does it a disservice. It could probably do with a little more punch in this respect.
Bravo et merci!
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 5
Date: 2023-09-29
Votes: 3
|
Pop_OS was my daily driver for a long time, but since their focus on Cosmic (which I do not want but curious on what it will deliver) the updates are very behind.
Currently, Pop_OS 22.04 is based on Ubuntu 22.04 but we are nearly at Ubuntu 23.10 which is 3 new releases along. This is unacceptable for me as I under a company policy to keep software up to date, while technically it is, the versions are getting behind.
And I am unsure if Cosmic is the only option going forward or if they will support vanilla Gnome.
So I have moved back to Ubuntu for the foreseeable future. I wish Pop_OS the best of luck but it is currently at the time of this review not for me.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 7
Date: 2023-09-12
Votes: 3
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Its the most user friendly Distro in linux imho. It just needs an update quickly. Its Ubuntu done well.
I used hyprland, sway and i3 for sometime but found the process of configuration very arduous. Pop shell is a great way to use tiling feature and the goodness of gnome, without worrying about polkit agent, or grim screenshot, or eww bar or sway bar or dunst notification, exit panel etc. Plus with every update things would break so I gave up on tiling WM and now i use POP tiling shell. They are doing some fantastic work in the next release around tiling feature so now its gonna give all the window manager a run for their money.
It has flapaks preinstalled,nvidia preinstalled and all the goodness of apt package manager.
My only problem is update. POP os is very dated from todays standard. Neovim is running on version 0.6.1 while in Debian its already on 0.9.4
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 9
Date: 2023-09-05
Votes: 3
|
The waiting is the hardest part.
Pop!_OS is a fine tuned distro. However I'm not a fan of the edition of Cosmic. But I am very interested in their NEW Cosmic OS they're working on. If the New Rust based distro is satisfying I will be switching to it. So far I'm really impressed with what I've seen of it so far.
I look forward to the monthly blog update. Hoping to have a alpha or beta release soon.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-08-24
Votes: 2
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Pop!_OS 22.04 is the distribution I finally landed on after a good amount of distrohopping and trying out different desktop environments and tiling window managers.
The best thing about it for me is that it just gets out of the way and lets you do your thing. The tiling features, while not as thorough as a “proper” tiling window manager like i3 or Hyprland, are good enough for me for everyday use.
A big plus is the stable Ubuntu 22.04 base, but with a newer kernel, up-to-date Nvidia drivers and updated Mesa.
I am really looking forward to the release of the new Cosmic desktop shell written in Rust.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 8
Date: 2023-08-04
Votes: 1
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I find PopOS really nice to use every day. Of course it has things that could be better, like the pop shop and others... but, in general, a nice, quick and mostly reliable distro, easy to customize and to work with.
It would be better if:
- offered some way to rename the sound sources.
- came with sound selector plugin by default (who has only 1 sound output this nowadays?)
- had something to switch sound sources better than that.
things appreciated:
- great touchpad & gestures support
- virtual desktop management
- overall responsiveness
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 6
Date: 2023-07-23
Votes: 1
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At first I really though Pop OS was a stable Linux. But then I began to really use it and found out it is not real stable. For one thing the big issue for me is the Pop Shop constantly froze or simple quit after launching. You could not scroll through apps either.
Apparently this has been an issue which seems to be ongoing. I also dislike that System 76 does not host a public forum for support for non System 76 hardware users. You find some help through Ubuntu forums but mostly it seems System 76 basically says use Pop OS at your own risk if you don't buy our hardware. System 76 does offer some general help troubleshooting with help articles.
But not that specific to and certain hardware. Sort of frustrating for me as a rather green user of Linux so I went back to Ubuntu.
I did not see much gained by using Pop OS since I had mostly a Intel vanilla setup for a desktop.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 9
Date: 2023-07-16
Votes: 0
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This distro is really good! It is fast and economizes resources well. Only one program did not started on it: this is soulseek. But there is another program that enters the soulseek network: nicotine+. This can be replaced with this.
Easy, user-friendly, fast. I am Hungarian, but the Hungarian language was not selectable, but the keyboard layout was selectable in Hungarian.
There were quite a few programs in the package manager.
Therefore, we hope that this distro will survive and be developed in the future!
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 6
Date: 2023-07-12
Votes: 0
|
The Good
-The applications can be tiled which is a nice touch. This allows the user to open two windows and they will be equally divided among the main screen
-The icons and screen are clear and allow the ability to change the size of the panel.
The Bad
-It does not allow applications to be placed on the desktop
-You have to choose the Pop_os installer if you have a Nvdia hardware installed instead of the installer asking or detecting nvidia hardware.
-comes wit flatpak preinstalled
-Has a preinstalled app called Videos installed which required preinstalling a plugin. the pluin should be already installed for preinstalled applications.
-No option for conky's (background information) to show items like disk space or network usage.
- does not support BTRFS Os
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-06-23
Votes: 0
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This is the distro that gave me the least amount of headache and I love it for that. Volume worked, apps worked, lots and lots of apps available to download, and more! I also like the aesthetic of it because I liked having the galaxy-themed desktop background.
Nothing broke while I was using it and none of my files were corrupted. I don't like having to troubleshoot a bunch of stuff to make the distro useable for me like you would have to do with Gentoo or Arch.
10/10 I would reccomend this distro for my Mom or Grandma to use!
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-06-18
Votes: 0
|
Hi everyone
one of most stable linux distro,
it work with nvidia great. popOS team thanks.
I am usind Lenovo thinkpad e15(nvidia and ati).
Also I am using IntellijIDEA for Java, AndroidStudio for flutter, pycharm for python, visual-studio-code for other code structure realy great.
I want to say one think: I dont like auto connect bluetooth headphone :( some times when I use headphone for my mobile then auto connect :):)
my computer configuration:
OS: Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS x86_64
Host: 20TDS02V00 ThinkPad E15 Gen 2
CPU: 11th Gen Intel i7-1165G7
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce MX450
Memory: 12889MiB / 31788MiB
Thanks.
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Version: 21.10
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-06-06
Votes: 0
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I have a lenovo idea flex 5. Ubuntu: does not recognize touchpad, does not rotate the screen, etc. Pop Os: Everything works. Among other things, because it comes with a much more up-to-date kernel (right now 6.2). It is undoubtedly the best distro for laptops. And it not only works: it is also beautiful.
There's only one thing I don't like very much: its installer is very "invasive" and doesn't allow you to do things your way. It requires an EFI partition with a volume that they determine, which seems absurd to me.
But I love pop os! So much so that I have completely erased Windows because with Windows the Intel Iris graphics card does not work well. With Pop Os it's wonderful.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-05-16
Votes: 0
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I just got the current release of Pop Os installed and I'm enjoying it so far. I like the way it feels and works. I also like the way it has support. I've run other distros that have been hit and miss on the support aspect. I also like the os better than other distros that I have used because it is easy and understandable. I like ubuntu based distros such as this the best. I enjoy using Pop Os a lot. I don't like it when there is no support for something that exists. Pop Os Rocks. Pop Os Rules. Pop Os is King. Pop Os is god.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 7
Date: 2023-05-14
Votes: 0
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Great distro. Works the way you would expect it to. Blue tooth, Wiifi, everything. But I uninstalled because you cannot copy older DVD archives, and the disk is encrypted so if you have a system crash and cannot reboot, a repair disk will do you no good because of everything being encrypted. Encryption is not as important to me as being able to recover lost files when and if the system crashes. You should have the option to encrypt the disk as other distros do, MINT, MXLINUX, FEDORA, etc. I really like the GNOME interface and
really didnt want to get rid of it. Maybe the dev's at POP will make a change and give you the option of NOT encrypting your disk drive should you not want to.
Specifically, the DD command would not work, no matter what I tried.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 2
Date: 2023-05-09
Votes: 0
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Pop!_OS is a Linux-based operating system that offers a sleek and modern user interface with a range of useful features. I have used Pop!_OS for several months, and overall, I found it to be a decent operating system.
One of the best features of Pop!_OS is its user interface, which is clean, minimalist, and easy to navigate. The OS offers a range of customization options, allowing users to personalize the interface according to their preferences.
Another notable feature of Pop!_OS is its focus on productivity. The OS comes with a range of productivity tools, such as the Tiling Window Manager, which allows users to easily manage their windows and multitask efficiently. The OS also offers seamless integration with popular software tools such as Visual Studio Code, making it an ideal choice for developers and programmers.
However, I stopped using Pop!_OS due to some of the issues I see with the developers. While the operating system itself is solid, I found the behavior of some of the developers to be immature and unprofessional. They often bring politics into Linux, which I found to be a turn-off.
In conclusion, Pop!_OS is a decent operating system that offers a range of useful features and a modern user interface. However, the behavior of some of the developers can be a drawback for some users. Ultimately, it's up to individual users to decide whether the features of Pop!_OS outweigh any concerns they may have about the development team.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-04-18
Votes: 0
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The best distro I have tried yet. It lacks some customizability options, but makes up for with their modification to workspaces, launcher, and window tiling. Beyond this it has all the conveniences we would expect from a Ubuntu based distro in terms of hardware compatibility. Elementary OS has a slightly better front end, but that was it. This distro is ultimately the best customization of Gnome and you can install it without worrying about the details because Pop OS already have figured it out for you. While Pop OS is currently creating a rust based DE we might see this distro rapidly improve, or fade into irrelevance, so realize this exciting yet risky direction before you invest. As for me - I'm all in!
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-04-11
Votes: 0
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This is the best linux distro hands down. If you are running anything other than a debian distro dont read any further. For compatibility and stability coming from windows for the 10th time in my life to linux, this has everything out of the box. My install script shrunk to almost nothing just by switching from ubuntu to pop. Not to mention nvidia support out of the box, no confusing tutorials to leave you to decide which source/build of a singular driver that you need is built. It also comes with features that render many gnome extensions you would otherwise need in ubuntu compeletely useless. The pop shop for software is just amazing. I have __always__ used apt until meeting this fun little guy.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 7
Date: 2023-03-21
Votes: 7
|
It's a solid distro and generally works pretty nicely, but it's more or less just Ubuntu with some nice quality of life improvements.
I was coming from Ubuntu 22.04 with Regolith 2 on my work laptop, and Manjaro KDE on my home desktop. I wanted something that felt a bit more fresh than Ubuntu, that gave me the option of a tiling set-up, and didn't require as regular updates and maintenance as Manjaro. Desktop is an i7-4790, NVIDIA GTX-1070 on an older (~2012) MSI board. I've used linux exclusively for ~7 years, but am not a sysadmin or IT professional - so tend to not want to spend a lot of time fiddling and getting things to work (though I'm usually willing to invest a little bit of time to figure out some issues).
I found Pop_OS! to be slightly frustrating for some things that were simple in both those other distros. For example, it seems like the default Plex packages in Pop Shop are Flatpaks, and if you have a secondary HDD, it's a hassle to get Plex set-up properly with the correct permissions. For a 'plug and play' distro, I don't want to have to go through and manually set a bunch of permissions and fiddle around to get common apps to work well. I understand the motivation of flatpaks, but for a 'beginner friendly' distro they're a pain. Out of the box, I had trouble with audio (I have a Scarlett 2i2 that acts as the main output), and the default video player wouldn't launch any of my media files (VLC worked fine when installed). I haven't had any of these issues on Ubuntu 22.04 or Manjaro which are both plug and play for all my hardware.
The Pop Shop itself was crashing very regularly. I ended up using apt via CLI for everything rather than Pop shop, but you ultimately run into the same issue as Ubuntu - I ended up installing snapd on top of apt as an alternative to flatpaks, then you need to have a bunch of third party PPAs or download and install from tar to just get everything set-up. I think I've just gotten too used to pacman and the AUR nowadays and find this type of package management experience very frustrating and convoluted.
The tiling features are nice, but are missing what truly makes tiling WMs worthwhile - independent workspaces per screen/screen group (rather than changing the entire multi-monitor view for each workspace). I also had inconsistent performance with some UI features (e.g. occasionally couldn't access settings menu from the top-right context bar button).
Overall, I felt like it was fairly comparable to Ubuntu 22.04, but has some nice default theming and extensions. I can definitely see the appeal, and it's a very solid alternative to Ubuntu, but I've switched back to Manjaro KDE for now. For my system and workflow, I can't see the benefit of Pop over Ubuntu - but it's still a very well made distro overall.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-03-15
Votes: 0
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Very stable and enjoyable distro, seems that UX is definitely a priority for distro devs.
Pop Shop is the weakest point overall in this distro in terms of speed and it is a bit unstable, but there are many apps available which is good, and it is better than Ubuntu's Store.
It is especially useful for software devs.
Stopped hopping after PopOs and forgot about distrowatch website for years :D.
Don't know about the power usage optimizations, since i am mostly using my laptop connected to power in one place
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-03-06
Votes: 0
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This distro is already worth it to me for the desktop enhancements over vanilla GNOME, and it is exciting to know that they are coding their own version of COSMIC in Rust that will be entirely independent (rather than simply GNOME with extensions). The weakest part of the distro is the Pop!_Shop, but when you're mostly just installing flatpaks in the command line anyway it's not much of an issue. Keep in mind that you can set Pop! to update itself; I feel safe doing this because System76 thoroughly tests their releases, and I haven't run into any big issues after many months of use.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-02-24
Votes: 0
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I am very satisfied with it, there are regular updates, everything works on it. I have tried many distributions, this is the best and fastest. It recognized all hardware elements, I never experienced a freeze. I used Deepin for a long time, but it didn't go well. Individual settings are very easily accessible and easy to manage. It's a perfect choice instead of Windows, it's also very usable for beginners. Forget all the windows versions, don't be afraid of it, try it, I guarantee you will like it.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 8
Date: 2023-02-16
Votes: 0
|
Nooby Linux user of 10+ years, and uses other OSs. Asus vivobook laptop with Intel i3 and 8gb Ram and UHD graphics. Used Pop-os for two months.
Positives:
Easy to install (love the encryption option)
Easy to navigate as a new user
Easy to update and easy to download software through app store
Bluetooth worked of of the box, as did wifi
No annoying issues with gui's or functionality. Pretty solid distro that could be used by a noob coming into Linux from another OS. But...
Cons: one update just 'broke' the update functions so that I couldn't update through the Pop-os store gui nor on the command line. To be fair, my Ubuntu system had the same problem, but Ubuntu has a gui utility which automatically detected the issue and allowed for new update and an auto fix. Second update reset my GNOME settings to square one. Annoyed (ie my user-errors) I mucked and compounded through my own fault the entire GNOME interface. Went back to Mint (which is far from perfect).
TDLR; will be going back to Pop-os after they revamp their desktop. I will definitely contribute during Beta and Alpha (if I can find a way to do so.) I intend to make it my laptop distro and will be patient to as they introduce their new desktop this year. I also used Ubuntu for my desktop machine - good but, again, far from perfect distro.
MacroView: These are the only two distros (pop & ubuntu) that meat-heads like me could really suggest for the average user who migrates from windows - people who simply view computers as low-level tools and have little interest about what happens under the hood. But with a modicum of work, there are many great distros in the top 10 or 15+ that work pretty well also. Get to intermediate Linux user status, and the computer world is your oyster with Linux.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 1
Date: 2023-02-14
Votes: 3
|
Positives:
+Nice looking gnome implementation
+Pop shell and workspaces is great for managing workflow
+performance is also great
Negatives:
-My bluetooth broke and I can't fix it, spend half a day researching and trying solutions.
-also the wifi driver update is not compatible with the kernel and my laptop is only 1 year old and I also tried many hours to find solution
-The pop os store is laggy and buggy, its better to just use sudo apt install
in conclusion the concept is good, but the hardware support is broken.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 7
Date: 2023-02-12
Votes: 0
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This is my first long term daily driver distro. I have used a few distros on live usb and virtualbox before. Overall i really enjoyed POP. It has easy to use/understand installer, good looking ui (imo) and good features like window tiling, vertical workspaces, good keyboard shortcuts by default, out of the box flatpak support and no snaps. İts really functional by default and not that much bloated. The major problem for me is that i have suspend issues on my system with pop. Literally i have tried everything but it didnt work and i give up. It's just super annoying.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 1
Date: 2023-02-11
Votes: 1
|
Holy cow is this ugly... it functions and feels like a Frankenstein desktop environment out of the box.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it really feels like its assaulting both of mine.
Even though I can't get past the aforementioned, under the hood is another story.
This was a very easy no fuss install. It found all my hardware so no issues there.
Performance seems to be OK with no telling issues that I experienced.
Used this for three weeks (goal was a month) and no issues from updates either by command line or the App Center.
Unfortunately this is a no go for me. The aesthetics and functionality is just way too far off for me. I don't believe in spending a ton of time customizing the interface. I want to install it and go. PopOS does not deliver in that area. For the time I spent using it however it did feel like a solid system.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-02-02
Votes: 0
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After I saw new Cosmic DE news, I decided to try out Pop!_OS and fell in love with it.
What I liked:
- Codecs are installed out of the box.
- Unlike Ubuntu LTS, they're using up-to-date kernels, which means better DE experience and game performance.
- Tiling manager feels AMAZING, you can be more productive with Cosmic environment.
- No matter which application you install, dark theme will be enabled. I personally care about this because white color hurts my eyes, especially when you're sitting in front of a laptop for a long time.
- Even though Pop!_OS uses X11, multitouch workspace gestures works on it.
- It's easy to add Chinese/Japanese inputs.
- It comes with Appindicator out of the box.
- Flatpak enabled by default, no Snaps.
- It's App Launcher is perfect.
What I didn't like:
- Fonts and orange color were ugly.
- Pop!_Shop looks outdated, and it doesn't show extensions of some Flatpak apps. For example: you can install Fcitx 5, but it doesn't show which extensions it has, and without those extensions Fcitx 5 doesn't work properly. I like how Gnome Software handles this, and that kind of integration would make user experience better.
- There isn't any application launch animation on Dock, an animation for indicating that an application being launched/clicked would be nice.
Pop!_OS is the perfect choice for the ones that want to try Linux. I can't wait to try new Cosmic DE, thank you Pop!_OS team.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 9
Date: 2023-01-28
Votes: 0
|
Excellent ease of use, especially the Tiling Window Manager integration.
The downside is that it is based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, which makes the included software older and requires the use of flatpak to install newer packages. However, the packages installed by flatpak are limited by the container.
I used an ASUS PN51-E1 to install Pop_OS 22.04 and it worked very well without any hardware issues.
I am using two monitors, an HP 22" 1080p monitor and an LG 34" 3440x1440 monitor. After choosing to enable Larger Text in Accessibility, I get perfect text display.
In this system I use VSCode for golang development and everything is perfect, I Love Pop_OS !
----
Of course, there are still some bugs in Pop_OS's custom Gnome, but I'm sure System76 will fix those little problems soon.
----
In the future, I hope the new COSMIC desktop environment developed by System76 using Rust will be stable and available soon.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 8
Date: 2023-01-21
Votes: 0
|
Pro:
no SNAPD
Gnome
Firefox
APT package manager
For the past year or two I have moved between Ubuntu, Pop! and Mint, and have tried altering the installed utilities until I have what I think is the perfect setup. I found that Ubuntu/Snapd ran HOT all the time, like around +80C, and I got tired of snapd taking up resources and giving me tiny type and pointers as a default. I learned how to remove, entirely, snapd, and accidentally discovered the tremendous temperature drop sans SNAP.
I tried Mint and LMDE because they did not have SNAP but with Cinnamon I could not run my gnome extensions which I considered half the fun of wasting time on my laptop, so I went back to Ubuntu. I grew weary of stripping Ubuntu of things I didn't like (snap, again) and being on my guard for OS backsliding. After much searching and reading I discovered Pop! and it seemed an answer to my dreams: No snap, Gnome, Ubuntu-derived.
Con: smaller support community, but no less dedicated to finding solutions as one will find on Ask Ubuntu. Besides, of the issues I've had the answers can sometimes be found at Ask Ubuntu.
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-01-19
Votes: 0
|
I've used dozens of distros and know every distro under the sun. I switched from Linux Mint to it, and I'm quite satisfied. Been using it for the last 4 months. I thought I'd never like Gnome, but to my surprise, it's actually customisable enough for me. Just install "GNOME Shell Extensions". I recommend the extensions named "Applications Menu", and "Arrange Windows".
Also, some programs I recommend for gaming:
sudo apt install goverlay gamemode protontricks lutris -y
ProtonUp-Qt (Flatpak)
Heroic Games Launcher
Wine Staging
ProtonGE (via ProtonUp-Qt)
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Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-01-18
Votes: 0
|
All rounder distribution suitable for any kind of user. Gamers can use it, Former windows users can use it (Thanks for the dock). Normal desktop users can use it. Disk encryption can be enabled with ease while installing. Tiling window manager users can have it handy as it also supports tiling just with one click. Another great thing is we can find all the apps inside pop shop including flatpaks by default which makes normal users easy to use. Good development approach. Waiting for their rust based COSMIC desktop.
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Latest Reviews
Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-beta
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-11-28
Votes: 2
|
This is a really strange situation with PopOS_beta_24.04 development. The beta version is out a few months, and during this time period there is nothing like significant progress.
1. many, I mean really many, bugs remains still unresolved
2. announced excellent performance is still a dream, not a reality
3. many apps does not work at all
4. some basic functionality is still missing ... mounting ISO file via file manager
5. graphic glitches, instability, etc
6. many standard apps complain on graphic engine incompatibility
7. etc, etc ...
In general, PopOS_COSMIC_beta 24.04 is still in development phase and there is no chance to use this OS on regular basic as is announced by many people here.
|
Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-11-28
Votes: 1
|
I honestly can’t live without Pop!_OS’s Tile Windows feature. It’s the main reason I stick with this OS, even though I actually prefer Linux Mint for its stability and how well it works out of the box. With Pop!_OS, I have to manually update my older NVIDIA driver to fix suspend/sleep issues, and I need to install extra packages just to get video thumbnails working.
Pros:
Tile Windows is incredibly useful for multitasking on a large display. It automatically arranges all open windows, and although occasional gaps appear between them—which can be a bit annoying—it generally works very well.
Cons:
Having to manually install packages for video thumbnails and update the NVIDIA driver.
The GNOME desktop feels more intuitive and offers better universal file search indexing, something the COSMIC desktop in Pop!_OS currently lacks.
Overall, I am happy it works for my needs so far. I will test drive it daily and see if something else breaks and perhaps hop to another distro...
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-beta
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-11-25
Votes: 1
|
Tested on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 Intel Core i9-12900H, 64GB, NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti.
Unfortunately, I experienced a couple of bugs with Bluetooth (the system tries to re-acquire the device every couple of minutes, so I can't connect my headphones to my smartphone - Pop!_OS just keeps re-acquiring them back). I also had issues with system apps often crashes, overall app speed is slow despite super huge amount of resources.
Firstly, I installed 22.04, when I experienced those bugs I think maybe upgrade will fix them, I upgraded to 24.04-beta, but the experience with system apps became worse. As I understand problem lies in new DE, slow system apps become slower, but less crashes to be honest.
List of things I was frustrated with:
1. Software sources could be managed from the Pop Shop in 22.04, but in 24.04 only Flathub sources can be managed.
2. COSMIC Files app performance is super poor; I had to switch back to the Files app from the previous version.
3. The Bluetooth bug is still there.
4. The sound bar doesn't display when I change volume from the keyboard.
5. Telegram application stops working entirely after upgrade.
On the positive side, Alacritty works perfectly well with Neovim; I can program and run my Docker apps comfortably. The Nvidia card works great — from my experience, training models is actually faster now. Also, LM Studio works well with GPT OSS 20B; no bugs spotted there.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-beta
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-11-24
Votes: 0
|
Pop OS Cosmic is a nice change to the repetitive linux distros full of Gnome and KDE spins. Customizing feels comfortable and the DE is easy to navigate. My only complaint (though it's still in beta) is that it does not have night time settings and currently I can't use Input Leap/Barrier/Desk Flow. I think it's due to wayland. I use 2 PCs. One for gaming and one for recording and producing videos. I need to be able to share my mouse and keyboard between the PC's to get stuff done. Once this is resolved I can see myself running this as my daily. I'm looking forward to their final release. Good job so far PopOS team!
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-beta
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-11-22
Votes: 0
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I really like the work they've done with Cosmic. I am not a Gnome fan, and it looks like they've taken what I don't like about Gnome and tweaked it to the point where I can easily consider it a drop-in replacement. For example, the full screen menu in Gnome reminds me entirely too much of Windows 8.x - and I never could tolerate that. Whether it's 22.04 or 24.04's beta, I like the fact that they've made categories for Office, etc. It reduces clutter considerably! Even more so than Ubuntu too. My personal choice is between this, Zorin or Mint if you're going to stay in the Ubuntu family. This does have a few issues since it's beta, but I am confident that it will iron out the incongruities prior to launch. I'm keeping a close eye on this one!
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-beta
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-11-14
Votes: 15
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After years switching between distros like Ubuntu, Red Hat, Zorin, and Fedora, Pop!_OS Cosmic really surprised me in a good way. The design brings solutions that many others never implemented. The translations to other languages, especially Portuguese Brazil, are very well done. Features like smart window resizing and customizable colors, which should be standard in every distro, are already included here.
Since it’s a beta version, there are still a few things to fix, especially for people using more than one monitor. Even so, Pop!_OS Cosmic looks very promising.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-beta
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-10-30
Votes: 5
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I've been thoroughly impressed by the overall polish and refinement of this distro, it's clear that a lot of care and attention has gone into its development. The new COSMIC desktop environment, in particular, stands out as a major highlight. It’s not just visually appealing, but also thoughtfully designed: the interface feels clean, modern, and intuitive, and the responsiveness is excellent. Navigating through tasks is smooth and snappy, and the streamlined layout makes it easy to stay focused without unnecessary distractions.
COSMIC brings a fresh energy to the Linux desktop experience, and I genuinely enjoy using it. From the subtle animations to the well-organized settings, everything feels cohesive and purposeful. It’s a great example of how user experience and performance can go hand in hand.
That said, there is one noticeable issue in this version that I hope gets addressed before the final release: battery life. Even when running on integrated graphics, the system seems to drain power faster than expected. For users on laptops or mobile setups, this could be a significant drawback, especially if you're working remotely or traveling and need to rely on extended battery performance.
I understand that this is still a pre-release version, and optimizations are likely ongoing. Hopefully, the development team is already aware of this and working on improvements. If they manage to resolve the battery efficiency concerns, this distro could easily become one of the top choices for both casual users and professionals looking for a sleek, responsive, and modern Linux environment.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-27
Votes: 2
|
I've been using various distributions for years, and Pop!_OS has been one of the most comfortable ones in terms of productivity and stability. Its UX setup aligns perfectly with the experience I look for in a Linux desktop distribution. I really enjoy and support this journey. I hope their own desktop environment will further enhance the user experience they’ve built so far. I wanted to list a few disadvantages here as well, but honestly, I couldn’t find any. I know experiences with Linux distributions can vary greatly from user to user and from one hardware setup to another, but Pop!_OS performs exceptionally well on the PCs I own, even under heavy workloads.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-24
Votes: 8
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I have tried every gaming distro on my existing hardware for gaming and the results went from not even booting to running one game from my steam library and no more.
I even tried my opensuse for games but the result was tedious, long and ultimately a failure with most games failing to open.
Now popos made installing steam EASY. And steam is running ALL my games.
I was using windows 10 but it has developed a "activate" watermark on every screen.
And windows 10 was great.
I think popos has a better frame rate.
I tried it as a joke having written off linux for gaming as needing expensive hardware.
I dont use windows for anything much and have been a linux convert for a couple of decades now so using microsoft for anything violates my comfort zone.
Popos is sooo easy to use and intuitive to understand.
As for upgrading popos, i will never do that because it just works, if it is not broke I do not fix it.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-beta
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-23
Votes: 25
|
After years switching between distros like Ubuntu, Red Hat, Zorin, and Fedora, Pop!_OS Cosmic really surprised me in a good way. The design brings solutions that many others never implemented. The translations to other languages, especially Portuguese Brazil, are very well done. Features like smart window resizing and customizable colors, which should be standard in every distro, are already included here.
Since it’s a beta version, there are still a few things to fix, especially for people using more than one monitor. Even so, Pop!_OS Cosmic looks very promising.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-beta
Rating: 7
Date: 2025-10-22
Votes: 0
|
I tied out the Comic beta version. It's nice but needs a bit more work. I ran it in Virtualbox so maybe I didn't get the real feel for the OS. In the VM every opened application stacks up in the ram usage even after closing the applications. For some reason I couldn't download anything from the Cosmic app store or via terminal. My last issue was that there is no night light setting. Night light is a deal breaker for me. That is the only reason I don't run Ubuntu Unity too.
This a newly developed desktop environment, so I'll stand back and watch how it grows up before trying again. I appreciate their effort though. I'm so sick of looking at KDE, Gnome, XFCE, and Cinnamon. Unfortunately, China is leading the way with innovation within Deepin and Kylin desktop (I ran Deepin for a month with no issues...but trust). Wish there were more DE environments being developed with a solid base.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-alpha7
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-12
Votes: 9
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As MS IT Technician, I have decided to test after approx. 10 years one linux distro which spoke to me on this site. I took EoL T580 from our company and initiated install from USB flash drive. I am amazed how far the linux went and I like this one very much. Cosmic UI is finally something that doesn't look like a kindergarden project and I miss nothing from Win or Mac OS. Every feature works out of the box, no issues nor errors. I will continue to test this amazing OS and if it will survive a week of testing, I will make it a main.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-alpha7
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-01
Votes: 7
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Everything just works out of the box. Davinci Resolve just works on Linux out of the box, no customization needed. I got a nice NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 and it worked perfectly out of the box because they have a special Pop_OS! .iso that caters to desktops with NVIDIA cards.
Sharing over my network has been simple, I didn't even have to set my printer up it was just there and working when I needed it. Everything just works.
It does seem to be resource heavy, with gnome-shell regularly taking up 2-4GB of resources, but I have 64GB of RAM so it doesn't ever slow me down.
When it comes to theming.. it doesn't really have much in the way of theming. THANK YOU! Whenever I tried KDE I spent hours, and days, and weeks just customizing and tweaking how everything looked and felt but with Pop_OS! it was pretty much just "Dark" or "Light" and I really appreciate how much time and energy this saves me and how much more productive I have become since I started using this Distro back in March.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-alpha7
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-09-30
Votes: 1
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Why do they even bother?
Its laggy, its resource hungry which ia amazing considering Cosmic was created in RUST so they must have done some really bad coding.
There is no way to add the actual day to the bar, and when you ask you get attitude from their very unfriendly forums.
If anything I would say they lost their way by trying to create another DE that nobody actually wants.
You can do everything they claim Cosmic does in Gnome, with a much lower memory hog and of course undfer Gnome you can add the day of the week to the bar.
I have to say its a failed OS that just needs to look at itself and start again.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-alpha7
Rating: 2
Date: 2025-09-30
Votes: 2
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I just tested as vmware virtual guest latest beta version PopOS 24.04, and I must say, that this project is still very far from acceptable state. Many, really many, things does not work as expected. Maybe the beta version is not well compatible with virtualization. But the fact, that some basic apps does not work well or does not work at all (double commander, guake, drop-down terminal, iso mounting via desktop environment, etc., etc.) is really terrible.
After very long time of development ... and this the nearly final beta version???
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-alpha7
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-09-27
Votes: 2
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Very disappointing, I really enjoyed the early versions of this where they augmented Ubuntu and Gnome with their own tweaks and additions, it was great for supporting Nvidia out of the box. But, as soon as they started this Cosmic desktop stuff it's been nothing but a mess, they're pursuing a pet project but aren't really equipped it seems like, Cosmic is really bad. I mean, maybe they can get there eventually but I'm not waiting, I've moved on and honestly Gnome is probably going to stay leaps and bounds better than Cosmic. KDE is better and likely always will be. Even Cinnamon. But, if they want to waste their time and resources, it's no skin off my nose.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-27
Votes: 0
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I switched to Linux in 2017 and ran Solus Budgie until that project team disappeared and stopped updating. Afterwards I tried Fedora, Debian, Rocky, Ubuntu Budgie, then one day I said, "Hey, let me give this Pop_OS! thing a try!"
So I downloaded Pop_OS! 22.04. Best decision I ever made.
Everything just works out of the box. Davinci Resolve just works on Linux out of the box, no customization needed. I got a nice NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 and it worked perfectly out of the box because they have a special Pop_OS! .iso that caters to desktops with NVIDIA cards.
Sharing over my network has been simple, I didn't even have to set my printer up it was just there and working when I needed it. Everything just works.
It does seem to be resource heavy, with gnome-shell regularly taking up 2-4GB of resources, but I have 64GB of RAM so it doesn't ever slow me down.
When it comes to theming.. it doesn't really have much in the way of theming. THANK YOU! Whenever I tried KDE I spent hours, and days, and weeks just customizing and tweaking how everything looked and felt but with Pop_OS! it was pretty much just "Dark" or "Light" and I really appreciate how much time and energy this saves me and how much more productive I have become since I started using this Distro back in March.
Excitedly waiting for the flood of new Cosmic Beta release users to do the initial testing and then planning on upgrading my current install to 24.04 running Cosmic Desktop Environment.
This is a great project, WITH AMAZING DOCUMENTATION, and they have all kinds of platforms to engage with them from Reddit to Github to Mattermost and I have been very impressed and am grateful to have stopped my distrohopping and settled down with Pop_OS!
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-25
Votes: 0
|
For me it's the best Linux system I've used in 17 years. Pop!_OS Upgrade & Recovery is a unique and genuine Pop!_OS tool that allows you to:
- Update your operating system safely and easily, even between major versions (for example, from Pop!_OS 22.04 to 24.04).
- Recover your system if a serious failure occurs, without needing to use an installation USB or lose your data.
1. Secure and automatic updates
- Updates between major versions: Pop!_OS Upgrade & Recovery allows you to update the system to new versions automatically and securely, something that in other distributions usually requires manual processes or reinstallations.
- Clear notifications: It notifies you when a new version is available and guides you through the process.
2. Integrated recovery system
- Recovery partition: Pop!_OS creates a hidden partition on your hard drive during installation, which contains a copy of the recovery system.
- Recovery options:
- Reinstall the system without deleting your personal files.
- Repair the boot manager (GRUB).
- Restore factory settings.
- Access an emergency terminal to troubleshoot manually.
- No other Linux distribution offers such an integrated and easy-to-use tool for updates and recovery.
- It does not rely on external tools. Unlike other distributions that use generic solutions such as Timeshift or Clonezilla, which can be a big problem if you have an encrypted disk.
Well done. System76 Thank you!!!
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 6
Date: 2025-09-20
Votes: 1
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Beside Zorin, I also use Pop OS on another PC. I like the way it looks, I am looking forward to see Cosmic, but currently I am not satisfied with Pop OS. I had issues earlier, now I have issues again. Every issue I had was because of too early updates. Few days ago, Pop OS was updated with new kernel, and it caused VMWare to stop working. Updates simply come too often and not tested enough.
Thankfully after update I got option to boot into old version, but now i have updates waiting to be installed in older version.
Second thing I don't like about it is Store. It has a great support of apps, but when searching apps it lags a lot. Hopefully it's gonna be solved in Cosmic version.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-14
Votes: 0
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I'm new to Linux and as my first Distro is Pop!_OS. Before Linux I used of course Windows 11. I'm using Pop!_OS on my main computer that is running a spec wise:
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
32GB of Ram
Pop!_OS as my first Linux Distro has been awesome great for what i do allowing me to do the basics of my computer without using to much resource like windows 11 took. I'm still able to game! But of course with Proton. Reading that Pop!_OS keeps the Linux Kernel up to date is nice and that there Mesa drivers are also up to date. I can't wait to see there cosmic desktop environment that they created with rust come out.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-12
Votes: 0
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I’m using an older server workstation with the following specs:
Intel® Xeon® W-2125 CPU @ 4.00GHz × 8 and NVIDIA Quadro P400 (GP107GL).
Pop!_OS with the nVidia drivers didn’t work right away, and I experienced issues with video playback, such as skipping frames or crashes.
It took me a few tries to figure out the solution:
I first tried updating the nVidia drivers via the terminal, but that didn’t work.
Then, I manually selected and installed the latest nVidia drivers from the Pop!_Shop under the updates/installed apps section.
That finally fixed the issue.
I imagine many first-time users could run into the same problem. I also tested Linux Mint, and it worked perfectly from the start, no issues at all. Pop!_OS could learn from Mint on this.
The reason I’m recommending and sticking with Pop!_OS, though, is the Windows Tiling feature. It’s fantastic for multitasking, especially if you have a wide monitor. It reduces the need for constant alt-tab switching by automatically tiling the most recently used windows side-by-side. That’s a real productivity boost for me.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 21.04
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-09-08
Votes: 3
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I have always tried out various distributions on modern hardware and its always the same distributions that struggle with simple things...
Since i switched to mac i switched to HiDPI screen(s) 4K, and i honestly don't see any reason to go back to 1080...
Also my mouse and keyboard are Bluetooth connectivity with the possibility to switch between 3 devices.
1) First problem during the install iam getting greeted by a low res setup screen.
unlike some distros like mint i was able to select my resolution before starting the setup.
2) After the install PopOS failed to update, no matter what i tried, even tips to do it over the terminal failed.
3) Bluetooth devices fail to wakeup (hello keyboard + mouse) once the system goes to sleep and i need to push the power button to wakeup Bluetooth fails to wakeup and a hard reset is needed.
4) Limited config for HiDPI screen, whathever adjustments i could make the UI still sucks and doesnt scale with HiDPI screens.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-09-07
Votes: 0
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I was really just looking for a distribution that was stable for doing the basics.
I've been on the pop-OS for a couple years.
I'm currently using the pop-OS 22.0-4 version.
I'm running it on an HP Elitebook 840 g6
32 gig memory, i7 CPU
I'm also using a Cannon 7020a Printer - wireless connection
Using the Document Scanner App to Scan.
I'm using a Logitech Webcam HD PRO webcam C90
Pertaining to what I use it's been a stable OS.
I'm using Oracle Virtual-box
Zoom
Document Scanner
Obsidian
LibreOffice
Pros
As posted below, I like the short cut keys for Windows Manipulation.
Con
Initially the store would lock up (Resolved purely by accident - I was dinging around installing different desk-top environments, when I re-installed the pop-OS desktop environment it upgraded to the newer desktop - looks like it's resolved.)
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 2
Date: 2025-09-05
Votes: 0
|
had so many problems during installation. I was trying to install on my old dell laptop with i7 ,16 gb ram and 256GB SSD (so old but fairly good configuration ) and during installation it felt so slow so i thought it was because i was running through USB pen drive. So I installed it and it was still slow (which is strange for a linux) . Especially their software center from which we can install apps. It was so slow. I used it for 2 days and then wiped out and replaced it with linux mint as i had used it in the past. Some how linux mint was snappy (even with cinnemon)
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-alpha7
Rating: 7
Date: 2025-08-31
Votes: 0
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I have been using Pop!_OS 24.04 for over 2 months which was a record for me, being a distro hopper. This is a rating only for 24.04 alpha
I like Pop!_OS 22.04 more than most other ubuntu/debian-based distro because it is pretty stable and reliable, but a bit outdated
Pros:
-Can toggle between tiling and floating windows
cons:
-customization
-lots of bugs
-app center is not great
COSMIC has great potential, but as of now it is mostly unuseable. I tried 22.04 before and it works much better for me and still has tiling-floating behaviour I liked on COSMIC.
So if you hated 24.04 alpha, try 22.04, it is better in some ways
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-alpha7
Rating: 5
Date: 2025-07-16
Votes: 5
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It didn't last a day on my system.
On first boot it looks good. A lot like a modified Gnome desktop, but when you dig deeper and actually try to use the system you find huge issues that for me at least make it impossible to use such a limited OS.
I like to tweak my settings, but COSMIC won't allow you to do much. Sure they call it accents colours etc, but I can already do that in loads of other DE's. When I was unable to even show the day of the week on the top bar, and spent ages looking on-line to find out how to do it, I was told in the forums to just do with out!
Not a helpful bunch unfortunately.
Also I found the COSMIC terminal to be very slow. It's not the best I've used, and being so slow would annoy me eventually.
The COSMIC store is terrible, stutters, and sometimes crashes. It is unable to install flatpaks and use the icon correctly, so some of them you end up with a gray icon with a cog motif, hovering over the icon doesn't show a tool-tip either, and trying to figure out how to label the thing was terrible as well.
Out of date apps, slow system usage, high memory, and just a generally broken offering isn't really the sort of thing you'd expect from something that has been worked on supposedly for three years now apparently.
I've been generous and given it a 5 for looks, but that all it gets and should really be a lot lower ratings wise.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-07-03
Votes: 0
|
i was my first experience with Linux and it was full of bugs and crashes.
Unfortunately, unlike what they claimed it wasn't compliable with my Nvidia Graphic card. i ended up hating it
Cosmic it was so lag, Ui was cluttered with pointless animations. Switching between windows felt like running 30fps monitor
I had to reinstall the Pop!os multiple times due to absurd stability issues
Graphic Card : 1070Ti
Cpu : AMD Ryzen 5 2600
Ram 16GB
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-alpha7
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-06-07
Votes: 6
|
I'm using Alpha 7 as my daily driver, despite the constant admonition not to do so. But I would say this version is "alpha" primarily in being feature-incomplete (no obvious way to move windows controls from right to left; no obvious way to start programs at boot-up; etc). It's not alpha in the sense of being notably buggy (though the search feature in Settings hangs on me from time to time).
Rewriting the desktop in the Rust environment seemed to be a fool's errand, but you can't argue with the results: This is a fast set of tools (and memory safe besides). The app store is particularly improved by Rust, but having Files or Terminal pop up instantly is startling and pleasant.
What always distinguishes Pop_OS is its smart choice of apps and settings (and it's auto-tiling feature, which give you a lot of the i3 interface without the i3 learning curve). This alpha is no exception.
This is a bold reimagining of the Gnome 3 desktop and one I will likely use extensively in the future. For now, though, I need something a bit more feature-rich, so the long-in-the-tooth 22.04 version will do. It's still a solid choice.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-05-06
Votes: 11
|
Stable 'classic' Pop!_OS version 22.04 comes with a modern Linux kernel.
Simply install Pop!_OS and run the standard update (just click to update).
You can also often choose more recent apps as Flatpaks instead of DEBs.
Daily updates are provided. It works with Nvidia graphics on Lenovo laptops.
For those who like to tinker with the system, I recommend installing the TIMESHIFT app. :)
If not, you can try to recover using the system's built-in rescue partition - just remember to check for updates to that partition from time to time.
I've been using Pop!_OS as my daily driver for over two years. To run specific Windows programs, I use VirtualBox or Wine/PlayOnLinux on Pop!_OS.
If you rely on MS Office, you can use it in the cloud or check out the OnlyOffice app to get rid of Windows entirely ;)
I haven't tested the alpha version because I already have everything I need.
Previously, I used Windows (which burned through PCs and disks with heavy updates and failures), then switched to Peppermint Linux on old laptops, and Pop!_OS on regular laptops. I also played around with Ventoy to test MX, antiX, and Zorin. I plan to stick with Pop!_OS.
As of today (2025-05-06), the Linux kernel is (in terminal):
uname -a
Linux pop-os 6.12.10-76061203-generic
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-04-18
Votes: 16
|
People frequently ask whether or not they should skip Pop 22.04 and wait until the newer, Rust-based COSMIC DE is out of Alpha, but if you aren't looking to Alpha test the new DE in Pop 24.04, and are looking for a decent distro today, Pop 22.04 is still a great choice.
It really is an all-around fantastic distro. Sane out-of-the-box layout of GNOME DE thanks to the default Pop GNOME Extensions. Window tiling option is very nice. Still receives the latest kernel and graphics driver updates, but only after extensive quality control checks, so no breaking. Always up-to-date software with Flatpak enabled out-of-the-box. Decent documentation on official site. Very active and helpful user community on official Reddit, where the devs themselves frequently post and respond.
Pro tip:
Immediately download and use the newer app store, COMSIC store (available in PopShop), instead of the older, default app store, PopShop. COSMIC store runs exponentially faster, uses less memory, and even has a better layout than the older PopShop. You can then either delete PopShop after, or keep it and simply disable it from automatically starting in the background at login.
So, if you don't feel like Alpha testing the future Rust-based COSMIC DE, then give Pop 22.04 a chance. It is still a great choice today.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-alpha6
Rating: 3
Date: 2025-03-29
Votes: 1
|
Cosmic store is really fast.
Display looks great. VLC is perfect for watching movies (18" monitor) and sound is fine. Strawberry for listening to music and handles flac files perfect. Slideshow is a nice option though it now only supports built-in pictures. Suppose own pictures will be possible to use when stable version is released.
With only 8Gb RAM on 16 year old VAIO VGN AW41XHQ it is behind only Zorin and Q4OS in handling. With that little RAM and only 2 cores in CPU I find it OK not to use several programs at same time. The old Nvidia 9600 is not supported in the nVidia release so used the universal without problems and the correct version was detected immediately.
Will try on my desktop (daily computer) when 24.04 stable is released.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-alpha6
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-03-24
Votes: 0
|
Awaiting final release to replace my primary desktop. Currently switching between Linux Mint LMDE6 and Ubuntu 24.04.
Love the stability of Mint LMDE but like the graphical feel of Ubuntu. COSMIC Desktop is more to my liking...
Hoping that stability will be there as i didn't installed it to work for long period with it.
Previous comments seems to indicate such instability...
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-03-20
Votes: 0
|
Get used to pop up that declare your system is "unresponsive"
I have used both alpha and the POPos version official but I had to quit after several issues.
System hanging is the chagrin on POPos. It wear you down with its POPup message
System crashes are common and it may happen when you are in the midst of some busy work like loading an ML model using ollama.
Its just not ready
I have moved back to mint and I am thinking of going back to UBUNTU because I want to get some work done
My sense is that cosmic Os will not be ready until 2026
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-alpha6
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-03-13
Votes: 20
|
Wow, its just so bad.
Huge memory hog, stutters on app loading, then it hangs so often you have to wonder what on earth they've been doing the last three years?
They should have just stuck to what they were doing already, plenty of people were happy with the finished product and they had plenty of fans that were willing to use their version of Debian rather than Ubuntu's effort.
But nope, someone there thought lets try and flood the market with yet another unneeded DE
Certainly not worth using in any way shape or form and POP os have lost a loyal fan.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-alpha6
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-03-11
Votes: 0
|
This needs work, I got the nvidia iso. The installer freezes up then works then 1/2 way through tells me there is a hardware problem but I know there is not a problem which means the installer has a problem with the drivers it is using. I also realize that all Ubuntu based distro's tell me my ata2 is slow and it's not so it's got to be a motherboard driver it's using or the installer has a glitch with it that certain combo's of hardware only show up on. I was expecting something great but was totally disappointed and you can tell it's an alpha and they need a broader range of PC's to test it on from how the installer froze up, also might want to install Nvidia drivers for the install since it didn't seem to do that and whatever they used like a wrapper or xwayland is not working since xwayland acts like it's still in alpha also.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-03-05
Votes: 2
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Being simple and stable, Pop!_OS is still my go to distro.
No, it's not a rolling release. Don't expect the latest version software all the time, nor a cutting edge kernel. Nevertheless, system and security updates are constantly available, so it's definitely neither "abandoned" nor "unmantained". You want the latest Gnome or Hyprland? It's Linux! Just install it and spend the next few weeks configuring it until it performs to your liking. Meanwhile I'm just happy with the way this modified Gnome 42.9 runs.
Nvidia drivers are installed by default (using Nvidia ISO, of course), work perfectly well and are updated frequently (now running 570.86.16), with the hybrid function running without a hitch.
I can do all my online work, and play some games, on this my old laptop. No complaints at all. It just works out of the box.
MODEL: Lenovo Y50-70
CPU: Intel i7-4720HQ (8) @ 3.600GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
MEM: 16GB
SSD: Kinsgton 480GB
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-02-09
Votes: 22
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Pop! is a complete distribution. After installation and reboot, it is possible to get going without any further configuration. The defaults are, indeed, sane defaults.
Pop! offers a heavily modified GNOME called COSMIC, including desktop icons, a dock with a lot of configuration allowed and a tabbed Show Applications. Show Applications, in particular, is far superior to GNOME's offering as it is less quirky - for example, applications are sorted alphabetically without having to install an extension to do so.
The big new feature of Pop! is automatic window tiling. It is switched off by default but, once switched on and used for a bit, it is sensational. There is nothing like it in Windows/MacOS and nothing as easy to set up or use in Linux. In fact, the whole way of managing the screen is so intuitive and obvious once used it it is surprising that there are so few attempts at tiling and those that exist are not the mainstream flavours of distributions.
There are a number of other thoughtful features, such as firmware updates built in, a recovery partition built in, USB flashing built in (Popsicle) and an app store (Pop! Shop) which is less clumsy than most and supports DEB files and flatpaks.
I note some reviews about "old" and "unmaintained". Well, Pop! is based on Ubuntu LTS 22.04, which is supported until 2027. It uses GNOME 42 but, really, the differences between that and the current version, 47, are mostly cosmetic, particularly in what feels like the endless shuffling around of options in the file manager (Nautilus). If required newer versions of GNOME apps can be installed via flatpak.
More concerning is that the kernel is old and in between LTS versions (6.9.3; the LTSs are 6.6.x and 6.12.x). However, with three commands I switched to the xanmod kernel, which is currently at 6.12.13.
The "old" is because Pop! took a very radical step in developing its own desktop environment, COSMIC, rather than put up with GNOME's often arbitrary and increasing constraints on what modifications could be made to vanilla GNOME. By definition that takes a long time; it is certain that version 1 of "new COSMIC" will be good but not as feature-rich as "old COSMIC" as reviewed here, but the alpha releases are very promising.
The rating is tricky. I give 8 because Pop! has clearly done all it can with GNOME and produced a remarkably effective take, with the automatic window tiling worth the price of admission on its own, but there will be a step to get over between "old COSMIC" and "new COSMIC".
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 4
Date: 2025-02-02
Votes: 2
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Practically unmaintained and unusable in its current state. The only hope for Pop!_OS users is that system76 may drop 24.04 within their lifetimes and fix so so many of the issues with this 3-year-old distro release which is just running off of old buggy software with no patches. Stayed on it for 3 years and had to swap to something more maintained because it was getting harder and harder to use it as my daily driver. Hopefully 24.04 will release with COSMIC being usable out of the box within a reasonable amount of time and progress on it is looking promising but system76 ditching their community to go work on an entirely new DE without even bothering to still update what people were stuck on was a horrible choice.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-01-30
Votes: 1
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Une tres bonne distribution Linux sous enviironnement Gnome pour mon Mac Mini 2012 ( 16 GB Ram ).
Je l'utilise sur un disque Externe OWC en USB 3. La distribution est tres stable et fluide dans son usage.
Merci au developeurs pour cette distribution tres agreable.
Un grand merci.
Philippe
A very good Linux distribution under the Gnome environment for my Mac Mini 2012 ( 16 GB Ram ).
I'm using it on an external OWC USB 3 drive. The distribution is very stable and smooth to use.
Thanks to the developers for this very pleasant distro.
Many thanks.
Philippe
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-01-16
Votes: 3
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Using Pop_OS for a year now
Desktop - AMD 7800X3D / NVIDIA 4070
setup works pretty good, and no regrets for quiting windows.
Still, I will give another try to MINT soon (let's first wait for COSMIC release).
Indeed, I find too much graphical / dispay issues using Wine (GEProton), and I miss creating files in folder with a right-click....
that said, system is stable, fast and easy to set-up. Image with Nvidia driver is a plus (even if some would disagree on that).
It gives choice, when possible, to install deb or flatpak versions of apps (nextcloud client, steam, etc)
this will remain my OS, unless Mint convince me again.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-alpha5
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-01-10
Votes: 4
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It is almost Perfect.
Pros: -
1. This is the best compromise between, Gnome, Cinnamon, KDE Plasma and a tiling window manager.
2. Although it seems to use a lot of system memory, the performance is always fast.
3. It is a joy to use on the Ubuntu base or on Fedora.
Cons: -
1. The file manager still needs to be finished, it is slow to find samba shares.
2. The firmware section in system settings needs to be finished.
Other than that I really like it and have been using Cosmic since Alpha 1, give it a try it is worth it.
For the problems with the file manager just install Nemo and you will be just fine.
If you want online accounts, install gnome-online-accounts-gtk it works well, but you will need Nemo if you want to access your Gdrive.
Plus Nemo or Nautilus can mount samba shares and they will then show up in the Cosmic File Manager.
Cosmic desktop is a breath of fresh air.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-12-16
Votes: 9
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Tried some linux back in 2006, as media server and player at home office. But was stuck on MacOS. In 2022, my MacBookPro started to be outdated and got a Windows laptop from one of my jobs I consulted for. Decided to make the the IT guy/CEO mad and install some linux on the laptop. Tried many good ones, but landed on PopOS 22.04, that fitted my needs absolutely best. It's so stable and simplest to use. Have also the new 24.04 Alpha 4 on a spare computer, just to try put. Feels very promising and suprislingy fast on a old i3 with only 4gB RAM.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 7
Date: 2024-10-23
Votes: 0
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Have not tried Pop OS is a while and was surprised to see it was still at 22.04 LTS. Not that I crave cutting edge Linux releases but I do find it sort of behind the times for even a LTS distro. Maybe its why I have seen Pop OS sort of fall in downloads. I think with so much happening in hardware I do want a OS to keep up with a more recent kernel and improvements. I especially find it strange since System 76 hardware offers a choice between Pop OS and Ubuntu which is now on 24.04. Still, I still find PopOS acceptable and stable dispite the lag in updating. But I am not sure about sticking with it when so many other distro's are updating faster.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-10-07
Votes: 4
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I've been using some version of Pop!_OS for at least eight years and have found it to be reliable. I'm running it on a System76 Gazelle laptop that has an Intel Core i7-11800H 2.3 GHz processor, 16 Gbytes of memory, 1Tbyte SSD and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile graphics processor. The system and OS have been trouble free. Pop!_OS is my daily driver and I use it for everything. For example I use it with: OBS Studio for recording onscreen videos, Shotcut for video editing, Brave for web browsing, Betterbird for getting and writing emails, Lazarus/Free Pascal for RAD GUI development, GCC for coding console applications, GIMP for image editing, etc. I quit using MS-Windows over twelve years ago and I don't miss anything about Win-Doze. I keep one laptop, that currently has MS-Windows 10 on it, for cross development work (using Lazarus/Free Pascal) that I do for a charity organization that requires Windows compatible applications. I was a Win-Doze user since the 3.0 days and it took me a long time of trying Linux distros to finally bite the bullet and switch, mainly because it's taken Linux and its assorted applications many years to mature into something that's reliable and powerful enough to supplant Win-Doze. It has achieved that capability and capacity. I vote "YES" for Pop!_OS and I say goodbye Win-Doze I don't miss you one damned bit.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-09-16
Votes: 1
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Using Pop!_OS since months. Working good on high resolution monitors under Wayland, very smooth. Has a good App store, but of curse you can install software via apt or from .deb files or via flatpak files directly. I like the menu of Pop!_OS which does not cover the whole display as it does the GNOME Menu and does not need 2 mouse clicks to open it as in default GNOME. I love the integration of the weather app and calender app into the date/time panel widget, so when you click on the date widget on the panel, you see the weather and all your apointments in calendar without having to open the calender app and weather app. The system apps like calendar, contacts have good nextcloud integration. If you don't like the default theme and icons as I do, it's not that difficult to change them, I just followed some guidelines on youtube and could install nice icons and change the theme of menu and the panel. Also what I love about Pop!_OS that it is made for multiple monitor usage, so if you open a program on the monitor B it will be minimized to the menu on the monitor B. If the mous coursor is currently on the monitor A and I hit the "super" key, the menu opens itself on the monitor A. So there are some very good designed and thougtfull concepts on Pop!_OS which I could not see on other distros. All the software I use no matter if e-mail client or music player are the newest versions, the kernel is also always updated reguralry. Pop!_OS became my daily driver system, and I am using it sinse months after trying different distros like zorin os (which is very good), mint, ubuntu, fedora, debian. For me Pop!_OS offers the best experience. I just needed an OS for office work, emails, movie streaming services, listening to high resolution music files, having regularly videocalls, programming, virtual box, reading eBooks, printing and scanning documents, youtube, online shopping on multi monitor system setup - and for that Pop!_OS works just fine.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-alpha1
Rating: 8
Date: 2024-09-09
Votes: 1
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As the continue to polish this, it will be become one of the best. There is really not much to complain about for an alpha release. I've used full released M$ windows versions that were much worse. Pop is really easy to use in general and i suspect most people beginner or advanced can really enjoy it. I plan to make it my daily driver when its fully ready and for an alpha its pretty close already. It also works well as a gamer distro. I have tried most distros for gaming stability and mint seems to be the most solid. ( drauger is not quite ready from my perspective but getting closer. It is difficult to install and behaves differently almost every time during install.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 24.04-alpha1
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-08-15
Votes: 20
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I installed and tested pop os 24.04 on my laptop with 4 GB ram, i5 3rd generation processor, 128 GB ssd, 1 GB amd ati radeon graphics card. The result is PERFECT!!! I was very surprised to see such a great performance on such an old laptop! If the alpha version is like this, it is very difficult to guess how great the stable version will be. pop os will write its name in gold letters in history as a distribution that represents the beginning of the golden ages of the linux world! Greetings from Türkiye.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 6
Date: 2024-08-09
Votes: 14
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Good, stable, but outdated as hell.
Several version behind Ubuntu and still sporting Gnome 42, while they're busy rewriting their DE in Rust. Packages are extremely outdated as well, hard to find anything new. For example VLC is hardly usable here. Even Debian is newer than this.
I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, except maybe to someone who just uses internet and basic stuff. But even then there's much better choices offering rock-stable system with new packages and hands free maintenance - like Universal Blue distros.
I ditched Windows ten months ago and been running Pop with zero problems, except for outdated stuff when I had to use distrobox, but I don't feel like this is getting updated anytime soon. Currently in a process of switching to something else, probably Tumbleweed or Bluefin.
If you insist on going with Pop, it'll serve you well, but so will other distros with newer packages. No point in installing this now.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-07-23
Votes: 11
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Basic, modern and functional right out of the box.
Plenty of modification options are possible, but the distribution should be usable straight out of the box for a newcomer. I like POP_OS as it provides what a nominal user like me needs. Windows tiling is a very user friendly feature I found here. The combination of window tiling feature with multiple workspaces makes my daily tasks with the OS very seamless and less cultured experience.
Without editing or mapping configuration files, keyboard shortcut keys for keyboard backlighting and screen brightness works. Unlike some other distros, there is no need to update the sudoers file in order to add the current user as root. This is a deal breaker for newcomers, but can figure it out with little research. POP OS wins since it grants sudo privileges to the user that was created during the installation process. Overall, this distribution is excellent right out of the box; very little to no modification is required to make it functional. I liked it.
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Project: Pop!_OS
Version: 22.04
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-07-16
Votes: 7
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My experience using Pop OS was very enjoyable, both for the Intel / AMD processor version and the ARM version.
Installation is quite easy and smooth. The OS also runs well even though it takes up quite a lot of memory, but runs quite fast and stable.
I haven't encountered any serious problems while using this OS. I also used the ARM version of Pop OS on a Raspberry pi single board computer, and it ran quite fast, stable and without problems. very satisfactory. Can't wait for the next upgrade, considering that Pop OS 22.04 is quite old.
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