POP!_OS — A Brand New Linux Distribution Journey for Computer Expert, and Everyone.
| An Introduction
Pop OS, is a Linux distro (distribution) based on Ubuntu (also one of the distribution) developed and maintained by American computer manufacturer, System76. They’re said designed for developers, makers and computer science professional expert alike.
OK, I (also System76) did mention they words
“developers, makers and computer science professional expert”,
Does it means Linux is only gonna works from Command Prompt or Terminal?
Apparently, no. Modern Linux distro developer always try to develop their own distro looks as fancy and beautiful as they can. Also, to make sure their potential users doesn’t turn back to Windows or MacOS, they make the UI resembles both system. As you can see thru Zorin OS and Elementary OS.
I’ve been shifting from Windows to Linux distros for couple number of reasons, mainly for my works on Machine Learning and Android app development. Since every command is in Linux syntax, then I sees it’s fit to use Linux system for it.
Before I found Pop — thanks to Anthony and also Linus from LMG — check out their coverage here and here, I never really care about this distro in the early days of that video uploaded since I’m not the guy who quickly test something just because some people say it’s good, and also at the moment I’m really satisfied with my current setup. I’ve been hopping for almost 10–20 different distros in a hope for a beautiful, smooth animations, lovely user experiences as well as supported app in respective software repository. Be it Ubuntu, Elementary, Debian-based like Kali, Parrot , or even ArchLinux-based like Manjaro. All of these is to find suitable usage for me from the UI perspective as well as easy method to setup the NVIDIA driver (struggling the boot loop and because only NVIDIA make sense to me as now).
| What are Inside… ?
I only list a few. Of course I don’t want to spoil the experiences so much.
- Fresh installs size — Don’t get surprised.
If you’re new user who comes from Windows or MacOS, I guess this is new to you guys that, the total installation sizes for almost any Linux fresh installation usually are less than 10GB.
As you can see, the used space as of the screenshot were taken are only 6.4 GB out of 32 GB disk volume. Windows fresh installs at least took almost 30GB.
Apart of the Linux architecture itself, one of the core principle that you can see from any Linux distribution is, they only packaged and shipped with small amount of basic softwares that they think the user needs, according to the objectives of the distro being made in the first place — besides that any Linux distro nowadays can be run from an USB drive. Since Linux repositories are huge, user can install anything that they feels missing if they want to.
2. NVIDIA X Server Settings program.
As I stated in the beginning that this variant of distro has the NVIDIA comes pre-installed, I believe that it’s more convincing that I show the NVIDIA X Server Settings program. This program will display every details of your card including your display setting.
3. GNOME Disk program.
GNOME Disk management program is a program that is as same as the Windows’s default Disk Partition. From this program one can create a new partition from any free space available from any drive that they wish. Not expecting anything much earlier but this program also comes pre-installed as the developer knows that it’s one of the best disk management programs out there. Every time I installed any new distro, this program always in ‘must-instsalls program’ in Linux. It let you manage your disk usage and also monitor your drives temperature as well, among other features.
4. Firefox is the default.
Sorry for newcomers from Windows or MacOS. Here in Linux, most of them are shipped with Firefox ESR or Firefox Quantum as they Default internet browser — though Lubuntu have Chromium pre-installed. Though in this distro you’ll also get GNOME Browser. But you still can install Chrome if want to. Either finds it in the Pop Shop, or directly heads to its website and download the .deb package. Install it using program like Eddy, which also happens to com pre-installed by default. So, some times are saved.
| What Turned Me On…. ?
Surprisingly, System76 released the distros with 2 variants — 18.04 (at the time of writing) LTS and 19.04 and each variant has 2 sub variants, the normal ISO image, and the other one is with NVIDIA driver pre-installed. As I saw the NVIDIA driver variant, I had nothing to say on my mind that I quickly grab the image and give a shot on live USB. Overall it’s so satisfying at that point and I proceed for full installation.
I’ve been using this distro as my main distro for a couple of weeks now and can’t seems to counter any problem for now. The looks and feels, no stutter or jitters that I can catch with my eyes.
Well for most part of people, everyone used to Ubuntu, so do I. Among other features that I have most respect to the development team, that make Pop OS stands out is the alternative build that includes the NVIDIA driver installed on-the-go. As soon as the installation process finish I quickly launch the Terminal, and run the nvidia-smi command. The result is expected as it would be. It displays the driver version installed !
| What’s next ?
Well, seeing that is so successful, I then continue install Python package-management, Pip. Now, this is what make this distro differs from other. This distro comes with both Python variant installed, but both has no Pip installed. If I wanna use Pip for Python 3 then I just need to invoke sudo apt install python3-pip, or sudo apt install python-pip for Python 2. You won’t be needing to separate both Python variant in virtual environment at all!
I then continue installing all packages needed for the TensorFlow workload. And, thankfully again, the development team already bundled every libraries or software needed, NVIDIA’s cuDNN, CUDA, and TensorFlow itself in a single command just by executing sudo apt install tensorflow-cuda-latest command. Wait for it to finish and, Voila! Ready to train some stuff next! Note that from the screenshot above, CUDA Version is displayed next to the driver version once the installation succeeded. I’ve ran my project and it’s working as expected, got the results as expected. No fuss, no muss. And, less setup process than Windows platform. TensorFlow packages installed just now will automatically falls into Pip3 list of libraries, since it’s the only package manager exist.
So, I am a gamer coming from Windows, is this gonna bring me some goodness? Still, YES!
Just like some other distribution out there, Pop!_OS also have support for gaming community thru Ubuntu’s main repository, in Pop!_Shop app.
Basically the app size is so small, less than 1MB, once I downloaded it and launched it for the first time and it will automatically download the full size around 300+ MB. Well, you know it what comes next. I can sign-in into my Steam account and start download my desired games.
Another important thing to ponder. This is Linux environment. The architecture has some differences compares to Windows. That makes Steam app not having fully compatible with Linux, but rest assure. Steam already has its app to be Linux compatible as well by adding support thru Proton API that can be Enable by going to Steam -> Settings, find Steam Play at the bottom of the list. Enable the Steam Play and make sure to select the latest version of Proton API you can find. At the time of writing, it’s 4.11.3 . It’s always a good practice to restart the Steam app before playing some games, though it will not give any difference.
Once everything is setup, any Steam-Linux-compatible (a.k.a SteamOS + Linux) games can be installed and played! I always check for games compatibility thru the Steam itself library, https://store.steampowered.com/linux and also here at ProtonDB database.
I hope in this bits writing of some experiences, will enlighten and give some insights to the current Linux users from other distro about Pop!_OS and users transitioning from Windows and MacOS of the beauty features that Linux has in store.
In the coming bits, I intend to share about the gaming experience on Linux. Even at the moment we already have the proprietary driver installed, but the performance for some games still in disguise — at least on some users.
