Pop!_OS
Made by a laptop company, now with its own desktop called COSMIC.
- Feels like Windows
- Beginner friendly
- Ready for gaming
- Good on an old PC
Our verdict
Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS is the pick if your computer has an NVIDIA graphics card. System76 publishes a separate download with the NVIDIA driver already in it, so the part that trips up most new Linux users on gaming machines is handled before you start.
This release moves to COSMIC, a desktop System76 wrote themselves to replace GNOME. It is clean and fast and leans on keyboard shortcuts and automatic window arrangement. It is also new, and the project itself lists gaps: touch devices are not optimised yet and the display toggle shortcut is missing. If you want something settled rather than something interesting, look at Linux Mint or Kubuntu.
System76 gives a baseline of a 64-bit processor, 4 GB of memory and 16 GB of storage. Installation needs Secure Boot switched off in your computer's firmware settings first, which is a menu you reach by pressing a key as the machine starts.
Best for: Gaming PCs, NVIDIA graphics cards, People who like keyboard shortcuts.
What's good
- Separate download with NVIDIA graphics drivers already included
- Tested on real hardware by the company that sells it
- Good out of the box setup for gaming and for creative work
- Windows tile themselves into neat halves and quarters if you want
What to know first
- COSMIC is a young desktop and some pieces are still missing
- Touchscreens are not well supported yet, by the project's own admission
- You have to turn off Secure Boot in your PC firmware before installing
The details
- Memory (RAM) needed
- 4 GB minimum, 8 GB comfortable
- Disk space needed
- 16 GB
- Desktop look
- COSMIC
- Updates
- A new version every so often, stable in between
- Supported for
- 5 years per version
- Built on
- Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
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