I just switched to Pop OS, any tips on what I should do next?

Crafted@lemmy.ml to Linux@lemmy.ml – 193 points –

I just recently migrated from Linux Mint to Pop OS, do you have any tips/extensions on what I should do with my desktop?

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Setup - checked

Troubleshoot - checked

Install apps - checked

Import data - checked

Customize - checked

Boast Tell people on social media - checked

I'd say Linux distro migration checklist completed.

Also that is a (mostly) good selection of apps right there.

Thank you brother

Just curious, why do you have Firefox and Librewolf at the same time? Also what is the black icon with the R?

I use Firefox as my main browser and Librewolf as a second browser

The icon with the R is a FOSS chat app called Revolt

World domination, and if you can't achieve that... Well don't come back:)

Whatever the feck you want to do with your computer. Make it your own, do your stuff you regularly do.

And charge your battery!

@macniel I think i missed that step while switching to linux.

Yeah I only became aware of it when I was attending the last secret penguin meeting. The world shall be at our fingertips!

It already is, but normies are not aware of that yet.

What is this "battery" thing you speak of?

Replace the Pop! Shop with the COSMIC Store.

sudo apt install cosmic-store cosmic-icons
sudo apt remove pop-shop

Pop Shop is kinda slow. COSMIC Store is part of Pop OS's new COSMIC Desktop Environment (DE). Everything is just a lot faster. It's an alpha so there are a couple of rough edges, but it's great overall.

Speaking of, get hyped for COSMIC. It's a DE written in Rust. It's not quite as complete as GNOME, but hopefully it will have better performance than the current GNOME mod that forms Pop's UI.

get hyped for COSMIC

Honestly I'm just excited for a non-gnome DE with an actual company backing it. I can't wrap my head around gnome's expectations for how you use it, so the fact that it's the default on every enterprise-backed Linux project is annoying as heck

I tested the new Cosmic Desktop Environment on an experimental laptop, and it performs fairly well. I can't wait to use it on my main machine. I actually already have Cosmic Shop, Pop Shop is far slower than Cosmic Shop, and it wasn't even created by System. I'll definitely uninstall Pop Shop.

Click the windowing mode icon (far left of the icons in the top right) and switch that bad boy to tiled windowing mode. Tiled windows will feel odd for a couple of days, but once you switch back to free-floating windows you’ll realize why I’m recommending tiled.

Look up the PopOS keyboard shortcuts for moving tiled windows around the desktop and workspaces. It’s a game-changing way to use your computer.

PopOS has been my daily driver for a year. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

I'll keep this in mind, thank you!

Tiling is especially great for working with multiple monitors. It is far easier to move windows between monitors and workspaces, split screens between two windows, and so on with tiling.

Install steam and whatever gaming things you have and give it a proper spin. I also added some gnome extensions for system usage. Besides that, pop is very simple.

Get your keybinds the way you want and learn how to use the tiling extension that comes with pop. I found it super useful when I used to use pop

And then realize that tiling in popos is inferior and start using i3 or sway

I used i3 for a couple of years, but I missed the ease of having a DE that just recognised USB sticks and external hard drives, and all the other little things that you have to set up manually

Yeah, now go crazy trying shit you probably should not be trying. From my perspective, that's the best perk of any Linux distro. Evidently, backup first.

Based on my experience migrating from Mint to Pop!_OS, the next step is migrate back to Mint.

I also did the same thing. I'm back to Mint OS but at the end I'm not much happier.

Guess it is time for arch, btw

I actually value my life.

😁 EndeavourOS was for me the least time consuming distro so far. Installing everything via yay without having to add repos to it paired with it’s rolling behavior is the reason I use it.

Been using EndeavourOS as my main driver for 2 years now, I'm putting in the time to learn NixOS and so far it's been solid, would recommend it for rolling release stability which is issue with Arch if you don't update regularly enough.

I daily popos for work. It's a great workhorse distro and I've had very little problems with it.

That's really cool! I put my wife on Pop_OS recently and it's been a little bumpy, but she's also got a bit of a specialty laptop. Glad it's been smooth for you :).

I really like your aesthetic, btw, how the wallpaper fits with your launch bar. Really pleasant!

Wish I had some advice for you, but heck, thanks for starting the thread because (after sifting highly opinionated goofposts) I'm learning a lot too. :)

Thank you! It's okay if you don't have any advice

I really don't get some of these comments. I've been using popos on and off since it came out. I would check out gnome extensions to see if anything sticks out to you as being useful for your use case. I would also go into your settings and update your recovery partition. This is also the place to refresh your PC if you need in the future which has been a must-have for me.

I don't get any of these comments either, I guess this is how it is posting on Lemmy compared to Hexbear lmao Thank you for the tips though and I'll gladly do so!

I’ve installed Pop!_OS on many machines over the years, and my standard process is:

  • Install PopOS
    • rare for PopOS, but, depending on specialized hardware (some legacy Nvidia cards), a little driver rejiggering might be called for. Or a weird network printer setup that CUPS doesn’t like.
  • sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y apt-fast && sudo apt -y upgrade
    • pee, smoke weed, feed kitty…
  • set up my custom zsh/bash profile for the terminal
  • enable firewall
  • configure SSH and whichever remote management tools I need (I happen to deploy remote machines frequently)
  • sudo apt install gnome-tweaks & a few other UI tweaking tools (obviously, this step will no longer exist soon)
  • tweak UI/UX
  • search through gnome extensions website for extension I want to install. There’s usually a Top 10 or Top 20 gnome extensions list you can google (eg: “best gnome extensions 2024”)
  • make sure I have all appropriate media codecs installed and updated.
  • set up pip-/pip3-installer.

After that, it’s setting up/configuring whatever software that particular machine needs.

Edit: there’s probably a lot that I’ve skipped/missed, and a lot that others will do along their way through these steps. This is just a basic outline of some of my post-install processes (developed over time), and I hope this answers your question.

Also, you can google for post-install guides for Ubuntu and they’ll largely be applicable to PopOS since it’s based on Ubuntu.

So I've been planning to install pop on my home computer for my parents to use. They don't know their way around a terminal, so will updating on the GUI store be enough. Or do they occasionally need to run apt update as well

Figure out how to do snapshots before doing updates or upgrades.

Timeshift I think? Maybe more available.

Does anyone know if Timeshift has any use with fedora atomic distros?

github.com/boredsquirrel/awesome-btrfs

I think there are better tools.

Use is only

  1. For cloning the entire OS to a different drive that is smaller or bigger
  2. For snapshotting home

Snapper has a hook in apt so that it fires a snapshot whenever you do package things. It must have the same for other packaging systems.

In a serious tone:

Attempt to do a minimal yet optimized install instead of a standard one while making it fully functional.

Why did you switch from mint?

Not OP, but for a while I tried using Ubuntu and Mint but kept on having random issues with my printer/scanner combo (Brother) and a couple of other problems that I don't remember before I just gave up and switched over to pop.

Been using it as my daily driver for a couple of years now and even the one time I did have something go sideways I was helped by people on the Telegram channel.

On a side note there have been a couple of ranking lists released on YouTube and one of them noted that the desktop is a bit outdated but I really like the tiling window manager that pop has. Sure it eats shit sometimes but as of recently I haven't had to think about it at all. I'm excited to see the new desktop that they are currently developing as well.

I'm sure I would notice more issues or hiccups if I daily drove my laptop. It's just my secondary device right now, but I'm also testing/learning linux for when I switch my main desktop over.

I went from Mint to Pop OS to increase my customizing options. Mint isn't very customizable, and installing GNOME or KDE with it may work OK but is not supported and I don't think it will ever be.

I see. I'm just starting my linux journey, and right now, mint is working great for me. At some point I'll probably start distro hopping.

I tossed mint on a PC after about 8 years of not using mint at all and I've been extremely impressed at how stable and friendly it is. It works exactly how you expect it to and Cinnamon has the best default workspace implementation of any DE I've used

I'd suggest to remove it and install Debian Stable as a tactical next move.

There's a song by Gucci Mane called Pop Music

I would play that really loudly using Pop! OS, like noise violation loud, and then just spin in a chair until dizzy while listening

(also enable TimeShift)

That top right X for closing a window, it can be placed top left. Give it a try.

I'm pretty be to it too, and it's the first and only one I've used for more than a couple hours.

I dumped GNOME immediately, but haven't really felt a need to change anything else and don't really know what else I'd want to, at least not yet.

I got my stuff working, got colors and window decorations sorted out, and got gaming working.

Now I'm just vibing.

Get a non-creepy wallpaper you wouldn't be embarrassed to show co-workers when screen sharing.

As I always say, as long as the wallpaper is family-friendly and not promoting anything bad like terrorism or racism, someone being not ok with it is solely their problem. People should pay attention on more important things instead of microbullying and judging meaningless stuff. You may want to temporarily adapt to a person that's important to you in case you're afraid of them being not ok with it or something like that but there's no point in doing this with coworkers. It's just ridiculous.

Hard disagree. I wouldn't consider an image depicting a fetish of some sort "family friendly".

Same rules for being in public: you shouldn't think it's okay to subject non-willing participants into your sexual proclivities. A jizzed up sexualization, anime or not, is not cool to subject others to without their permission.

I don't consider the image sexual. Maybe I don't understand something idk. And anything sexual is not family friendly obviously

What do you imagine all those thick globs of white represent?

She looks like she’s under water (what with the fish and octopus) and they are on the same plane as the white outlines and other things in the image, like they’re reflections or clouds.

Kinda looks like it should be turned clockwise 90 degrees as she’s falling into the water. (You can tell because the way the tips of her hair are further towards the left like she’s sinking)

I mean, it’s a bit abstract, but there’s no evidence I see for them to be what you seem to be thinking they are.

Edit: actually it might be that there’s glass on the left like she’s in an aquarium with the fish and such. Again, “white blobs” are reflections.

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The wallpaper isn't "Fetish-like" or suggestive at all; it's simply an anime girl with school clothes beneath water with fish circling around her. How dirty is your mind that everything you see is thought to be suggestive?

This isn't even useful advice; it's just you being dirty-minded, and if you believe everything is suggestive, seek mental help

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