Trying Pop!_OS on my Thinkpad T430s

At the Computer Recycling Project we standardized on Xubuntu Linux several years ago. I've been using Xubuntu at home on all my machines pretty much since we switched from Ubuntu to Xubuntu (around 2010). I've experimented briefly over the years, but found myself always going back to Xubuntu since I work with it on a regular basis at work. Xubuntu is great because it works on some pretty low-powered notebooks/laptops.

Because I have to support Xubuntu at work it makes sense I use it on my machines at home. But every now and then I like to try different Linux distributions to get a sense of what else is out there, and what things one distribution might do better than another. 

Recently there's been a lot of criticism of System76 by a number of groups of people. System76 is the company behind Pop!_OS and some really cool Linux hardware. From the designs on their cardboard boxes, to the cool things they're doing with Coreboot, I think there's a lot to admire about the company.

While I don't think we'll be replacing Xubuntu with Pop!_OS on our refurbished computers at work anytime soon, I found a lot of things to admire about Pop!_OS:

1. A fast graphical software centre / Pop!_Shop
2. The search / launcher (windows key)
3. The graphical installation and follow-up after install
4. Disk encryption
5. Printer detection - it found the printer on our wireless network
6. Update Recovery partition - not completely sure this is what I think it is, but if it is, this might make me consider Pop!_OS in the future for work machines as those machines become more powerful.

These are just things I noticed using Pop!_OS for half an hour. Of particular interest to me is how quick the Pop!_Shop loads. One of the big issues I have with the *buntu family is how slow the Software Centre/Snap Store loads. On a slow machine like a dual core Atom laptop this kind of delay just makes the whole Linux experience less enjoyable. Sure, blame the slow Atom machine, but when something loads as fast as Pop!_Shop does it makes me admire what they've done.

I believe a fast software centre experience is possible. I believe this emphatically because I remember how coding in machine language made a sprite on a less than 1MHz Commodore 64 move so fast that it was just a blur. Surely we can code/cache things to appear much quicker. Pop!_Shop seems to be a nice example of the speed of the experience.

Pop!_OS is just a nice looking operating system. Pop!_OS isn't without it's issues. I tried installing Pop!_OS on a stock computer from one of the big hardware manufacturers at work and Pop!_OS wouldn't even start from the USB key. I can't remember the make/model at the moment, but if I continue using Pop!_OS at home on my laptop for awhile I'll look at evaluating it more for machines at work.