Hi Gary. Yes, I'm keen for more Linux distro reviews, ideally on different hardware platforms if available. I'd also prefer deep dive type reviews e.g. performance comparisons and use cases. Thanks.
That's the great thing about LInux. You can always find a distro which fits you. I've been using various versions of Linux Mint since early 2007 and it has been rock solid.
A good balanced review. Have had the long term support on my desktop for a couple of years & the non LTS on my laptop for a while. Been very stable for me. Love the auto tiling of open windows too. Hope other people give it a try. All up for distro reviews.
I've been using Pop!_OS as my main OS since october - When I installed it on my old 2007 iMac. It is my firt time using Linux as a daily driver and there's no going back. There are other distros that I like a lot, like ElementaryOS and Fedora... But I always go back to Pop!_OS
Thanks for the review. I have been using PopOS! for some month now. I came from Linux Mint but after an upgrade of my grahicscard I could not get 4K resolutions so I changed to Ubuntu where it worked but there was to much I didn't like there so I gave PopOS! a try after some good reviews of it and it have so far not disapointed me. Have not installed it on any of my Raspberry Pi's where I prefer to run commandline only stuff via remote but now when elctric bills getting higher I thinking of if a Raspberry Pi would do for the daily mail and web stuff.
I've generally tended towards RPM based distributions since the 90's as I was using either RedHat, SUSE (or later CentOS) in the datacenter professionally. Non-professionally, I'd run Debian based distributions just for the fact that those supported recycled systems (aka: systems that no longer supported windows very well and were 'saved' from just becoming 'trash'). Generally, those Debian based systems were more 'bleeding edge' and Ubuntu spins like Lubuntu worked pretty well on systems I'd recycle for customers when I was out on jobs (side business... I'd always ask customers if they had any systems laying around they'd like me to recycle). That's changed. Generally, I've found Fedora being the 'near' bleeding edge OS of choice AND and a better experience when recycling systems. I've found a lot of the Debian systems are best suited to Docker containers and not as desktops or servers (that can be messy and I've noticed inexperienced contractors will gravitate to wanting those systems and put those in your fleet... and I find those systems require more 'care and feeding' than I have the appetite for.... as they are 'cattle not pets' to me.... and I'll flip them to RHEL when those 'passing through' contractors leave and I'm stuck with that technical debt) Generally, to me, there are two major flavors of distros. RPM based and DEB based. I don't really care about how it 'looks'. I care about how much 'care and feeding' is involved as I'm not doing 'one offs' as I'm dealing with 'numbers' of systems. Even at home, I have 12 systems (not too large these days). I want the least maintenance and handle updates through automation and don't want a potpourri of stuff to deal with. Generally, I'll build Debian based containers on RPM based hosts and that's the right fit for me (note: I'll build other types of containers like Alpine or whatever parent container I may build off of). That keeps the 'potpourri' locked in the container space and 'minimal care and feeding' on the host side and that's all standardized. Of course, in the cloud where I don't have to deal with 'care and feeding' of the hosts, I don't care and just run containers out there. On my laptop, Fedora works out of the box and has minimal care and feeding once RPMfusion is setup (aka: the lazy approach to system administration... elect the least time consuming options so you can 'scale' with less effort). Note: I have one Windows system for my daughter... I spend more time maintaining 1 darn Windows laptop than the time I put into maintain the other 12 linux systems (aka: that Windoze laptop is _only_ tolerated because her school is in bed with Microsoft and have proprietary software that is 'windows only'... the pandemic 'premium' I have to deal with as her school won't support a 'middle ground' of, at least, chromebooks... a 'bone of contention' I have as a parent)
The only issue I had faced with pop os installation in multi boot was that it required a separate efi partition of its own and I couldn't get the boot selector menu prompt during pop os startup. Maybe things have changed since then but yeah great experience overall.
Another excellent feature of Pop!_OS is the easy to use profile and graphics switcher under the power settings in the system menu. I have not found an easier way to enable that kind of functionality on any other OS or Linux distro. Simply switch from integrated to discrete GPU in moments, or simply leave it on Hybrid for it to handle the switching for you. If you are only doing basic tasks, switching to integrated graphics only can substantially increase battery life.
Great video Gary! It's been a bit of a hobby of mine testing distros on an older laptop I resurrected... Any Linux content geared towards lighter resource distros would be welcome!
Thanks Gary. great job as always. The value added proposition of your reviews could be in the relative merits of various distros. Anyone with a RPi can switch between distros easily. But you can add that level of insight with what’s under the bonnet, so to speak. “Look and feel” reviews are common. Knowledgeable reviews like yours are more rare. My 2 cents.
Oh hey, I use Pop!_OS on one of my PCs :) It's a nice distro, I quite enjoy it. The tiling window mode especially, it's pretty great, and so is the system76 power management. I actually find that, while I love Arch, using multiple GPUs can be kind of a pain on a bunch of other distros, so it's nice to have one that's good for it with Pop!_OS.
Hey Gary. Love your videos! What's the cheapest way to try out Linux/Linux distros? I've never used Linux before, so I'm not even a beginner yet, but I really really want to try installing my first Linux distro. Also, can I install Linux on an external HDD or SSD to test it out as my daily driver for couple of months before deciding whether it can replace Windows for me?
How up to date are the GPU drivers? Been interested in possibly tinkering with Linux more, especially now that Valve's work on Steam Deck is making Linux gaming more viable.
Latest hardware is better supported on PopOs imo. I have always used Ubuntu, but when i upgraded to a powerful laptop ( Asus Zephyrus series ), Ubuntu just wasn't usable. Wifi issues. Extremely poor battery life. Driver issues. I then shifted to PopOs, and it just was way better. Not to say it was perfect, but was miles better than Ubuntu.
fedora KDE is quite nice for beginners because it can't easily be bricked by the user because the filesystem is immutable by default and KDE is very easy for beginners and has the best qt support and second best GTK inplementation
@@comrade_rahul_1 nah... Linux just takes extra steps to go get the nvidia drivers and install them. Intel and AMD will work by default a lot easier since its baked in to the kernel already. Certain Distros make nvidia easier since it will do all the work for you, like Manjaro and Pop
If you have the latest and the greatest of the GPU, then honestly no distro will be bug free. Some will be better than others , but there's is no clear winner here. However PopOs , Arch seems to be better with the latest hardware compared to Ubuntu
@@GaryExplains Well, apart from all your experience and all those you've shared with us along the years, that argument still doesn't make sense to me. Cause I'm unable to replace it 😔 I haven't been able to find any proper alternatives and I still keep searching. Some days, I spend more time on Notepad++ than I do on Visual Studio or Keil uVision. Those three are the reason for Virtualbox over FreeBSD for me. Search and replace, extended searches, regular expressions, marks, bookmarks, cut copy manipulate marks, line operations, lexicography operations, sorting etc, duplicate searchs and removals, trim operations, conversion operations, macros, encoding tools, many many plugins, file / file system searches, hash tools, compatibility for a zillion languages and file types, and all in a seriously unstable and slow, all-in-one package 😂🤣
While the COSMIC desktop certainty has rust components, GNOME isn't written in rust and neither is the Linux kernel or many other components of POP OS. So saying it is written entirely in Rust is simply wrong.
Raspberry Pi's do not require support contracts, with monthly visits from HW VENDORS with above top secret security clearences to vacuum the dust filters. and run diagnostics.
@@GaryExplains Oh, I didn't think you were going to see my comment. So, sorry for the foul language... I've testing the waters of Linux for quite some time now, though I still use Windows a lot of the time. One of the main things I'm doing is learning some web development and Java. I tried running a .jar file for like 3 hours. Thought Linux was the reason was the problem but when I switched back to Ubuntu, the .jar file ran like a charm! Other than that, for me the DE was very glitchy. I'm pretty sure Pop_OS! was the issue. One more thing, I play Minecraft a lot of the time and Pop_OS! was having issues running it as well. I'm sticking to Ubuntu...
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
Hi Gary. Yes, I'm keen for more Linux distro reviews, ideally on different hardware platforms if available. I'd also prefer deep dive type reviews e.g. performance comparisons and use cases. Thanks.
Noted! 👍
@@GaryExplains You should do a video on the different desktop environments, and compare them all using debian.
Agreed, Let's Gary do the leg work for us :)))
That's the great thing about LInux. You can always find a distro which fits you. I've been using various versions of Linux Mint since early 2007 and it has been rock solid.
Might give this a try. Great videos and dont see why you dont get more exposure! Keep up the great work. GS!
I am glad you liked the video... As for exposure, TH-cam is tough, I can't compete with videos of kittens! 😜
1:28 "...so they have a vested interest..." This, I think, is the best reason for adopting Pop!_OS and the reason it's succeeding.
Agreed. Purism also makes their own OS PureOS to install on their laptops but it only supports open source software and drivers I think.
A good balanced review. Have had the long term support on my desktop for a couple of years & the non LTS on my laptop for a while. Been very stable for me. Love the auto tiling of open windows too. Hope other people give it a try. All up for distro reviews.
Personally me, would like to see more Linux content from you given the direction Microsoft is going. And let's be honest, you do explain well!
Keep the Linux Distro reviews coming!
I've been using Pop!_OS as my main OS since october - When I installed it on my old 2007 iMac. It is my firt time using Linux as a daily driver and there's no going back.
There are other distros that I like a lot, like ElementaryOS and Fedora... But I always go back to Pop!_OS
Thanks for the review. I have been using PopOS! for some month now. I came from Linux Mint but after an upgrade of my grahicscard I could not get 4K resolutions so I changed to Ubuntu where it worked but there was to much I didn't like there so I gave PopOS! a try after some good reviews of it and it have so far not disapointed me. Have not installed it on any of my Raspberry Pi's where I prefer to run commandline only stuff via remote but now when elctric bills getting higher I thinking of if a Raspberry Pi would do for the daily mail and web stuff.
I've generally tended towards RPM based distributions since the 90's as I was using either RedHat, SUSE (or later CentOS) in the datacenter professionally. Non-professionally, I'd run Debian based distributions just for the fact that those supported recycled systems (aka: systems that no longer supported windows very well and were 'saved' from just becoming 'trash'). Generally, those Debian based systems were more 'bleeding edge' and Ubuntu spins like Lubuntu worked pretty well on systems I'd recycle for customers when I was out on jobs (side business... I'd always ask customers if they had any systems laying around they'd like me to recycle).
That's changed.
Generally, I've found Fedora being the 'near' bleeding edge OS of choice AND and a better experience when recycling systems. I've found a lot of the Debian systems are best suited to Docker containers and not as desktops or servers (that can be messy and I've noticed inexperienced contractors will gravitate to wanting those systems and put those in your fleet... and I find those systems require more 'care and feeding' than I have the appetite for.... as they are 'cattle not pets' to me.... and I'll flip them to RHEL when those 'passing through' contractors leave and I'm stuck with that technical debt)
Generally, to me, there are two major flavors of distros. RPM based and DEB based. I don't really care about how it 'looks'. I care about how much 'care and feeding' is involved as I'm not doing 'one offs' as I'm dealing with 'numbers' of systems. Even at home, I have 12 systems (not too large these days). I want the least maintenance and handle updates through automation and don't want a potpourri of stuff to deal with. Generally, I'll build Debian based containers on RPM based hosts and that's the right fit for me (note: I'll build other types of containers like Alpine or whatever parent container I may build off of). That keeps the 'potpourri' locked in the container space and 'minimal care and feeding' on the host side and that's all standardized.
Of course, in the cloud where I don't have to deal with 'care and feeding' of the hosts, I don't care and just run containers out there. On my laptop, Fedora works out of the box and has minimal care and feeding once RPMfusion is setup (aka: the lazy approach to system administration... elect the least time consuming options so you can 'scale' with less effort).
Note: I have one Windows system for my daughter... I spend more time maintaining 1 darn Windows laptop than the time I put into maintain the other 12 linux systems (aka: that Windoze laptop is _only_ tolerated because her school is in bed with Microsoft and have proprietary software that is 'windows only'... the pandemic 'premium' I have to deal with as her school won't support a 'middle ground' of, at least, chromebooks... a 'bone of contention' I have as a parent)
I use Pop!_OS currently on my work laptop (dev work). Never gets in my way and it just works well with my nvidia/intel laptop.
The only issue I had faced with pop os installation in multi boot was that it required a separate efi partition of its own and I couldn't get the boot selector menu prompt during pop os startup. Maybe things have changed since then but yeah great experience overall.
Love this kind of distro review! More of it will definitely be great!
I did hold my breath when you opened your TH-cam channel in your TH-cam video! Thank god, no feedback loop and the internet did not crash.
Another excellent feature of Pop!_OS is the easy to use profile and graphics switcher under the power settings in the system menu. I have not found an easier way to enable that kind of functionality on any other OS or Linux distro. Simply switch from integrated to discrete GPU in moments, or simply leave it on Hybrid for it to handle the switching for you. If you are only doing basic tasks, switching to integrated graphics only can substantially increase battery life.
Great video Gary! It's been a bit of a hobby of mine testing distros on an older laptop I resurrected... Any Linux content geared towards lighter resource distros would be welcome!
Sounds very interesting! Everyone seems to like this distribution the best. Going to check it out!
Thanks Gary. great job as always. The value added proposition of your reviews could be in the relative merits of various distros. Anyone with a RPi can switch between distros easily. But you can add that level of insight with what’s under the bonnet, so to speak. “Look and feel” reviews are common. Knowledgeable reviews like yours are more rare. My 2 cents.
Great Job, the best distro review I have seen so far.
Great review! Would love to see some more distro reviews! Especially for Raspberry Pi compatible distros 👌👌
Sure thing Gary, please more of these
For those who are used to dual booting be careful Pop OS doesn't allow the choice to boot windows to show anymore.
Does it meant that dualboot is not possible at all or that the installation just does not offer dual boot?
Oh hey, I use Pop!_OS on one of my PCs :)
It's a nice distro, I quite enjoy it. The tiling window mode especially, it's pretty great, and so is the system76 power management. I actually find that, while I love Arch, using multiple GPUs can be kind of a pain on a bunch of other distros, so it's nice to have one that's good for it with Pop!_OS.
That’s probably the first Linux distro which doesn’t look like it was cobbled together by hackers. Very promising.
Good review. More reviews needed. Make a review of windowsfx.
Please do more Linux Distro reviews! 🙏🏼
Thank You for doing this review. Now I don't have to check distrowatch for new distro to play with :)
Hey Gary. Love your videos!
What's the cheapest way to try out Linux/Linux distros? I've never used Linux before, so I'm not even a beginner yet, but I really really want to try installing my first Linux distro.
Also, can I install Linux on an external HDD or SSD to test it out as my daily driver for couple of months before deciding whether it can replace Windows for me?
Best is to try it on a USB flash disk (or USB SSD). I have a video on thus channel.
@@GaryExplains thanks 👍 can I install it and daily driver it from a USB stick
Probably better to try it in a VM
@@zxxNikoxxz can I daily driver it from there for couple months before I make a decision?
Yes! More distro, please.
I have two laptops. I have Manjaro in the work laptop, PopOS in the general usage laptop.
How up to date are the GPU drivers? Been interested in possibly tinkering with Linux more, especially now that Valve's work on Steam Deck is making Linux gaming more viable.
Genuine question here...
Since Pop!_OS is Ubuntu based, wouldn't it be logical to just stick with Ubuntu, or does Pop!_OS have major advantages ?!
Ergo, it is better to stick with Debian rather than Ubuntu.
Latest hardware is better supported on PopOs imo. I have always used Ubuntu, but when i upgraded to a powerful laptop ( Asus Zephyrus series ), Ubuntu just wasn't usable. Wifi issues. Extremely poor battery life. Driver issues.
I then shifted to PopOs, and it just was way better. Not to say it was perfect, but was miles better than Ubuntu.
Nice, more please.
choice is never a weakness
I think as long as you stick with the general user distros that could potentially appeal to your audience, these will do great. But what do I know :-P
I would like see secure boot compatible distro reviews. Multi boot setups are mostly ignored from Linux channels.
How is the control with touchpad? Does it support multi gestures ?
fedora KDE is quite nice for beginners because it can't easily be bricked by the user because the filesystem is immutable by default and KDE is very easy for beginners and has the best qt support and second best GTK inplementation
What happened to speed test g?
What's the situation with windows iot core on raspberry?
No taskbar customisation?
Linux mint!
5 years ago I would've said the same , but nowadays I think it's dying
@@piiumlkj6497 most people I know use it iunno
I found manjaro pretty good
Review Fedora, 36 will release soon
Please sir, may I have some more?
The best thing about Linux is freedom of choice. The worst thing about Linux is freedom of choice.
👍
Which company GPUs work with Linux having no problems? Can someone answer this please?
AMD integrated and discrete GPUs, as well as Intel integrated GPUs, their discrete graphics are still rather new.
@@perforongo9078 AMD every GPU with popular distros. Right? Because I heard Nvidia always have a problem with Linux.
@@comrade_rahul_1 nah... Linux just takes extra steps to go get the nvidia drivers and install them. Intel and AMD will work by default a lot easier since its baked in to the kernel already. Certain Distros make nvidia easier since it will do all the work for you, like Manjaro and Pop
If you have the latest and the greatest of the GPU, then honestly no distro will be bug free. Some will be better than others , but there's is no clear winner here. However PopOs , Arch seems to be better with the latest hardware compared to Ubuntu
does it have notepad++?
:( one of two things that keep me from uninstalling windows altogether...
Notepad++ is good, but it isn't that great that it can't be replaced. There are some awesome text editors on Linux.
@@GaryExplains Well, apart from all your experience and all those you've shared with us along the years, that argument still doesn't make sense to me.
Cause I'm unable to replace it 😔
I haven't been able to find any proper alternatives and I still keep searching.
Some days, I spend more time on Notepad++ than I do on Visual Studio or Keil uVision.
Those three are the reason for Virtualbox over FreeBSD for me.
Search and replace, extended searches, regular expressions, marks, bookmarks, cut copy manipulate marks, line operations, lexicography operations, sorting etc, duplicate searchs and removals, trim operations, conversion operations, macros, encoding tools, many many plugins, file / file system searches, hash tools, compatibility for a zillion languages and file types, and all in a seriously unstable and slow, all-in-one package 😂🤣
You can run notepad++ in wine
You don’t get blue screens of death because rust doesn’t have segfaults like C. Pop!_os is written pretty much entirely in Rust!
While the COSMIC desktop certainty has rust components, GNOME isn't written in rust and neither is the Linux kernel or many other components of POP OS. So saying it is written entirely in Rust is simply wrong.
4 damn president
It's proving very Pop! Ular! Sigh.
Hello
Raspberry Pi's do not require support contracts, with monthly visits from HW VENDORS with above top secret security clearences to vacuum the dust filters. and run diagnostics.
Eh?
I like Ubuntu but holy fuck, Pop_OS! fucking sucks, it has so many bugs...
Really? Interesting. Can you give some examples of there are so many.
_Yes, do as I say!_
@@GaryExplains Oh, I didn't think you were going to see my comment. So, sorry for the foul language...
I've testing the waters of Linux for quite some time now, though I still use Windows a lot of the time. One of the main things I'm doing is learning some web development and Java. I tried running a .jar file for like 3 hours. Thought Linux was the reason was the problem but when I switched back to Ubuntu, the .jar file ran like a charm! Other than that, for me the DE was very glitchy. I'm pretty sure Pop_OS! was the issue. One more thing, I play Minecraft a lot of the time and Pop_OS! was having issues running it as well. I'm sticking to Ubuntu...
@Allen Ding You feeling OK?
@@tvthecat Weird, I am a Java developer and a Web Developer who makes Minecraft modpacks and I didn't really have problems on Pop_OS!
is it possible to install the pi version on to a intel chip Chromebook ?