Pop!_OS 20.04 Review (vs Ubuntu 20.04)

Pop!_OS has several features that make great Ubuntu 20.04 even better. In this Pop!_OS review, I would like to compare Pop!_OS 20.04 and Ubuntu 20.04.

I cover these topics:
0:35 Installer
2:10 GNOME Shell
2:25 Pre-installed apps
2:45 Desktop themes
3:23 Auto-Tiling Windows
3:50 Launcher and App Switcher
4:32 System tray
4:51 HiDPI support
5:28 Privacy
5:50 Flatpak
7:31 Third-party Debian apps support
8:23 Extensions app
8:43 Firmware and drivers
9:21 Problems

Tags: #PopOS #Ubuntu #Linux

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[tell]

8:45 - Pop OS haves two different ISOs AMD/Intel ISO and Nvidia ISO. The AMD/Intel gives you the latest Mesa drivers out of the box so you don't have to install them. The Nvidia ISO haves the latest Nvidia drivers out of the box so you don't have to install it like in Ubuntu. That's why there is no driver manager.

[lunra]

I love Pop OS. It finally got me away from Windows (I'm learning web dev). I have been using it for about 8 months now.

[errorsofmodernism]

Note: the Pop OS firmware manager "sees" my Lenovo firmware details. Lenovo is Ubuntu certified. I believe this feature is not tied to System 76 hardware but rather to Ubuntu certified hardware.

[FeedScrn]

Installing Pop_OS 19.10 in a virtual box - I had to first make the 21-22Gb .vhd before the actual install... If I did not, the install would just fail with no clear message.
- Once it was installed... Pop_OS works great! Very smooth / reliable.

[GiorgioCamozzi]

I am using Pop OS on a Thinkpad P1 Gen 2 and I am quite pleased! I am not a super experienced Linux user but have used it for a bit now and Pop OS has been the best out of the box. I tried Ubuntu 20.04, Arco Linux, Manjaro before settling on Pop. It's the only one where I had absolutely no problems with my Nvidia Card. As a plus, the Fingerprint reader also works flawlessly...

Correction for the video: the firmware section doesn't only work with System76 hardware. On my P1 it detects both System Firmware and Device Firmware (like Synaptics stuff) and it's the only distro I have found that does that

[JonathanKayne]

I just switched from Ubuntu to Pop OS a week ago and love it. I like the Yaru theme and UI of Ubuntu, so I just switched the theming and thus I get the look and feel of Ubuntu without annoying snaps. (I would have been fine with snaps if they loaded quicker and didn't have so many bugs. I like to use flatpak so that I always have the latest stable version of my software. I have to jump through hoops on Ubuntu to update software that isn't snap)

[bhaveshlakh]

Great review. I was really looking for the side by side differences between both the OS. Now I'm very much clear and will be installing Pop_!OS this weekend. Thanks for such a detailed review 😊👍

[canjohn]

8:45 - There are two different ISOs for AMD/Intel and Nvidia. If you have a laptop with Nvidia Graphics card, your laptop probably using Nvidia Optimus to switch GPUs between intel onboard one and Nvidia. PopOS has unique handling for it and it works flawlessly! So download the Nvidia iso, its a really important point and one of the strongest points of this distrubtion.

[CharlesCollins]

Thanks for the video. I have just moved from Windows 10 to PopOS. Would you do a 'Things you must do after installing PopOS' video? Stay safe.

[chriswinters-ca]

Just a quick note about GPU drivers on Pop OS. They offer 2 ISOs to install Pop OS. One for nVidia users and another for AMD/Intel integrated users. Both come with the appropriate driver installed and the Pop Shop handles updates for those drivers alongside OS and application updates. Pop also does a much better job of keeping graphics drivers more up to date than Ubuntu and most of its other flavours/derivatives. They may not be as fast as the arch community, but they are leaps and bounds faster than Ubuntu. This is one of the primary reasons Pop OS is considered the go to Linux distro for gamers. Arch is still a slimmer OS, but Pop OS is far less hassle to get everything up and running.

[StephenC]

I installed pop purely because of the way they show flatpack and deb as you have shown here.
The tiling manager is nice and I hope to make more use of it in the future.
Now if I can only find an idiots guide to getting my MacBook pro webcam working I will be happy, been fighting with that for days now and getting nowhere fast

[pehucz]

Nice video. Pop!_OS looks good but I think I will stay on my Mint

[marcelogarcia]

I just installed Pop_OS in my xps 15 7590, and it works great. I found it works even better than Ubuntu 20.04, it's seems to be more fluid than the Gnome from Ubuntu. I find the theme of Pop_OS better than Ubuntu. Pop_OS updated the Dell firmware without problems.

[mikeromero]

I've been running Pop for a couple weeks now. It's fine for the most part. The only issues I ran across are the bug that reverts the shell theme back to default when system is started, and the system restarts itself immediately upon shutdown. The only way I can shutdown is to disconnect Wi-Fi. I still have not been able to figure that one out. Other than that I like it very much.

[GianPaolo]

I’ve been distro hopping and have used Pop OS! the longest. Used for both work and personal use. It hits all the right spots. Elementary is nice but has something irritating that I can’t put my hands on, Zorin is cool but boot time takes too long, Ubuntu is okay but..., was tempted to use Deepin but it being developed mostly in China is what’s stopping me.

[Collector]

PopOS Firmware management also works on Dell XPS ( at least it does on mine). I was impressed as hell when it updated my BIOS.

[woobulbul]

Please review (and walk-through installation) distros like MX linux, linux lite !
Great content

[MarekbombicekHolly]

9:10 last week I got a firmware update for logitech unifying receiver and it worked flawlessly

[derekr]

I have tried Ubuntu 20.04 and Po!_OS 20, 04 and personally I prefer Pop. I still think Gnome is slow to load from start compared to XFCE but it works fine otherwise.I also like the switchable windows tiler.

[williamherlicq]

The Nvidia drivers can be installed in the pop shop. Go to the "install" tab and you will find it.
For the file manager problem, I think it is a problem of nautilus and not from gnome, you could solve the issue by installing a different file manager