Pop is sick and absolutely shines on laptop.

I really don't like that underscore.

I wish they based it on Debian. It definitely earns my personal recommendation for default distros alongside LMDE

Made the switch to Pop!_OS from Win10 half a year ago, and my machine's been purring like a happy cat ever since. All my games still run (thanks, Proton!) and some even had a significant performance boost (RDR2 being the best example) with a 3090. Only problem I had was getting DaVinci Resolve to work properly, but I caved and bought the Studio version which runs perfectly.

I like their window manager, pop-shell, and use it on Fedora. I used to daily Pop but just can't stand Ubuntu.

I generally find it to be a family friendly sheen on top of ubuntu so I've been installing it for friends and family lately. I would prefer debian based but shrug. They'll probably get there eventually.

I think their current modified gnome is the best desktop that exists anywhere. Cosmic is a full desktop environment with an actual (auto) tiling window manager... a combo I think should be more common in desktops. The way they implement the tiling makes it really easy for beginners to use because you can turn it on/off by keyboard shortcut or clicking the plugin icon, and because you can just drag n drop windows to change their tiled positions (along with keyboard shortcuts if preferred). It's hard to go back regular "window managers".

The System76 devs have good ideas, they seem really cool, and sane! They have been a net positive for the Linux community and desktop development IMO. I am SO hyped for the new Cosmic DE!

POP is an excellent distro for a number of use cases. I can't speak to System 76 hardware but Pop is definitely one of the good Distros. I have used it for about 5ish years to run Davinci Resolve on video editing laptops and workstations. Another use case for POP was for breaking Mac OS acclimated relatives out of their walled gardens. Relatives as old as 80 have had very little problem adjusting to it after having help installing it. Looking forward to Cosmic but I will make sure I have backups and other stuff to tinker with during the transition - was the same way during Wayland transition on my other machines.

Positives

• Davinci Resolve working with a little bit of fiddling and continues to run solidly.
• No hassle with Nvidia drivers on editing laptop.
• 4-5 years daily driver on Thinkpads (t460,13) and other older laptops (daily use)
• Gaming on Nvidia good.
• Elder folks adjust easily from Mac OS. Its basically Macbuntu for them without the complete pile of shit that is Snaps.

Negatives

• POP Shop was kinda shite. Had a few problems years ago. Wasn't patient during upgrades or used terminal. A couple of shitty things happening recently but looking forward to testing out everything Cosmic (I have a rock solid edit station that will remain AMD on Endeavour OS to make sure I can still work).
• Name doesn't bother me, but would be better as just POP OS

I like their company and what they do for Linux. I wish I had a use for a laptop but then I would be stuck between system76 or framework.

It was too far from the metal for me. But it is a great distribution. Especially if you're looking for fancy pants gaming ability or just turn-key ready to roll MS alternative.

I suspect it will replace Ubuntu as the new noob distro, which is a good thing. Doesn't run as fast on older hardware as mint w cinnamon, but that's not a big deal. I'm hoping the new DE will improve that.

Love how feature rich it is, especially love the switch to toggle tiling windows on the desktop.

Use it on my lenovo carbon x1 flawlessly. Love it.

A semi-rolling distribution, with access to Ubuntu's many PPA's, and easily removable extensions that reveal the lovely vanilla Gnome experience, it's great!

Also they are making a Rust desktop, which I am currently running, though not daily driving.

Solid but occasionally buggy

COSMIC looks cool

Visuals were striking, but on non-System 76 hardware the thing as a whole broke several times cuz updates. Would love to try out some System76 hardware one of these days though.

I'm interested to try their Cosmic desktop later this year.

Overall, seems like a solid company, I've heard good things about their laptops, although I've never had one myself.

Pop_OS as a distro, heard generally good things about. The few times I've messed around with it have been fine. The folks that stick with it seem to like it.

Their new COSMIC desktop is generating a tonne of buzz. It may spill over to the distro in general.

I am not a PopOS user but, watching the evolution of COSMIC, System76 seems very user focussed and makes sensible decisions. That bodes well for the overall OS.

I use pop for my nvidia laptop and it works great. System76 seems to be on the right track and I‘m curious what they have in store for the future.

I have used it on my Lenovo X1 Extreme as my daily driver for years. Bulletproof.

I have a Gazelle 16 laptop, and was in PopOS for a while too, even before this laptop, when I had a 17" Alienware. However, I've moved on to Fedora now, and can't go back to anything Ubuntu or Ubuntu based again. Fedora is just too great a balance between stable and cutting edge, Ubuntu feels old real quick, and so do all it's derivatives and downstreams.

I loved the Gnome based Cosmic, best Tweak of Gnome ever in my opinion, but other than that, I just can't leave Fedora behind anymore. Even Ublue distros are amazing.

I’m a pop_os enjoyer, the window manager is great especially on a small laptop screen. Also have it running in the living room on a media pc (streaming, light gaming, music etc) and it’s been fantastic for that application as well. Excited for the upcoming switch to cosmicDE, think that will be chef kiss for me.

I installed this on my touchscreen laptop after trying and failing to get many other distros to work with the touchscreen.

With Pop! it just worked.

I love the fact that System76 is an American company pushing Linux forward (well to certain degrees, anyway). I know they use hardware produced in other countries (for chassis at minimum, not sure about the rest of the components), but it’s still nice to see.

Next time I’m in the market for a laptop, I’ll certainly give them a solid look (hopefully the form factors of the more powerful systems will be less…girthy…by then).

Pop!_OS is quite solid. I’ve used it from time to time. However, I’m partial to Arch because I like to be closer to the bleeding edge (currently using Garuda for my gaming rig).

Is good, I got bored though as they haven't released a major update since 2022. On opensuse tumbleweed now.

Not having the bugs of using gnome extensions for customisations is nice.

I really like it. I tried several distros for my first dedicated desktop Linux machine and pop was the one that clicked. I like that it's not trying to mimick windows UI, and only sorta behaves like macOS. Everyone else was too close to win10. Which I understand is a selling point, so to speak, but I'm so sick of windows that I wanted it to look and act differently.