[criddell]

I skimmed the linked story and I still don’t really know what POP!_OS is. They are using the Linux kernel and wrote their own desktop environment, but what’s in between that? Does it include all the GNU system tools? Is there a lot of software that takes advantage of the COSMIC desktop environment? Do they have an App Store? Is it closer to something like Ubuntu or is it more like Android?

[mghackerlady]

It's ubuntu with their own desktop and app store (kinda like mint) its also known for being the best linux experience for nvidia users. It's designed for power users and gamers

[jsk2600]

It's based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, with their own DE

[dsego]

Does it use snap packages?

[akdor1154]

They attempt to avoid them, though snaps are still available if you wish.

Flatpak is installed by default and used by their app store, and Firefox is packaged as a deb so you can avoid the snap.

I consider it a deshittified Ubuntu.

[KronisLV]

> I consider it a deshittified Ubuntu.

This is more or less what I have used Linux Mint for (their Cinnamon desktop version is pretty okay, also used the XFCE one).

Nice to have more options!

[panick21_]

They are vendor of hardware, so much more aggressive about pushing new hardware support.

[cguess]

yes

[criddell]

Based on Ubuntu? So is it basically Ubuntu with Gnome removed and COSMIC added? How compatible are the two OS's?

They show icons for Steam, Chrome, Firefox, Zoom, etc... Does that mean they are maintaining their own fork of those applications built for COSMIC?

[mghackerlady]

No? They can run on cosmic, just like they can run on any other desktop. It's a linux distro, it does linux distro things and happens to be built on ubuntu. What part of this are you not getting? Remember when Ubuntu made Unity because they were pissed at the GNOME people? That's what System76 did, they got mad at GNOME because GNOME didn't like how much they were messing with GNOME

[criddell]

I'm not super familiar with the history of GNOME, KDE, or COSMIC and I've never used COSMIC and I haven't been able to see into their app store to see what apps are available.

The version of Chrome (for example) that Google distributes uses GTK which is GNOME, no? So I was wondering if System76 forked that and made a version that uses the COSMIC API.

[jsk2600]

You do not need to have GNOME in order to run GTK apps - Pop_OS ships with GTK/QT libraries so all apps works as on Ubuntu.

[criddell]

Who wants to run multiple widget sets though? You lose any semblance of your system having a native look and feel.

[beAbU]

The fact that the version is 24.04 LTS is a dead giveaway that it's ubuntu under the hood.

I thought this was pretty obvious.