PopOS! A different Linux

[Joelist]

Since I am primarily now on Linux again, I decided that a proper Android VM would work better since on Windows, network communication is done differently with VMs, and the LAME BlueStacks emulator is a nightmare. Android is a hassle to install in VMware too, and VMware takes up way more resources than VirtualBox. Anyway, I was able to successfully set that up in PopOS. It's a convenient way to use Alexa for controlling stuff in my place, using the useful timer and multi-alarm system on Android, and using Android apps not made for PC. I love being back on Linux so much with this PopOS that I may not even bother creating a Windows VM on the Linux side. I will just continue to dual boot when necessary. Going back into Windows to grab stuff seems like taking a bath in dirty water now! Everything is slower and overdone IMO. These past few days have reminded me why I was on Linux in the first place, and now I lose ALMOST nothing. Still gotta get the VR going on Monado. Here is my Android VM running in PopOS on VirtualBox.

View attachment 35863

I still think a good part of this is that this distro comes from people who make their living building computers; as such they put a LOT of work into user experience, compatibility and performance and draw on their specialized knowledge of hardware to aid in it.

 

[Shadow Mann]

I still think a good part of this is that this distro comes from people who make their living building computers; as such they put a LOT of work into user experience, compatibility and performance and draw on their specialized knowledge of hardware to aid in it.

Yes, that is true and it shows! The mantra against Linux was always "But it sucks at gaming! None of my games work!". That's just not true anymore, not even for VR (except for WMR headsets right now). It will play many AAA games flawlessly. VR headsets like the Quest will work by just using Steam VR when connected. Even obscure devices like the Brother DS-640 (USB portable scanner) was no problem for it. It detected my HP printer and set it up automatically without needing to install the bloated HP bundle. I have been able to replace 98% of everything in Windows as of the writing of this. My Insta360 software will not run, even in Wine, and my VR headset is WMR and will not work in Linux unless I can find a way. All and all, it's a dream to use and easy to modify using great new tools that remove the need to do so much work in the CLI which I hate.

EDIT: After installing Proton, Insta360 Studio does run under Wine and I have it working.

 

[Shadow Mann]

Neat little feature that I discovered accidentally, and that is the built-in screenshot feature. I had installed Flameshot to replace the Snipping Tool I use frequently on Windows, and it was fine except took like 4 clicks to get my snip. Turns out, PopOS has it built in. Just hit PrtScr (Print Screen), and a window will come up you can select portions of the screen or the whole screen. Then you just click what looks like a camera button and the image is copied to the clipboard. This meant I could uninstall Flameshot, which I just did. Just another tidbit!

 

[Joelist]

Neat little feature that I discovered accidentally, and that is the built-in screenshot feature. I had installed Flameshot to replace the Snipping Tool I use frequently on Windows, and it was fine except took like 4 clicks to get my snip. Turns out, PopOS has it built in. Just hit PrtScr (Print Screen), and a window will come up you can select portions of the screen or the whole screen. Then you just clich what looks like a camera button and the image is copied to the clipboard. This meant I could uninstall Flameshot, which I just did. Just another tidbit!

Yes! fortunately I did a little hunting first so found this before installing anything. There are a lot of goodies here:

System76 Support

Official System76 Support and useful documentation

support.system76.com

 

[Shadow Mann]

Yes! fortunately I did a little hunting first so found this before installing anything. There are a lot of goodies here:

System76 Support

Official System76 Support and useful documentation

support.system76.com

THANK YOU! That should have been my first step after installing, but I was on a roll and I am already so familiar with Ubuntu that I thought PopOS would be pretty much the same. I was wrong! There are lots of super thoughtful things already built in.

 

[Shadow Mann]

So many games run beautifully in Linux. Even VR works in Linux for non-WMR headsets. I have been playing Fallout 4 in it on Ultra mode and it's like silk. I have opened and tested others in my Steam library, using the Proton compatibility. Turns out Proton is based on Wine, but it's officially supported by Steam.

A look at the top 100 Steam games and how many will work on Linux and the Steam Deck

Across various previous articles we've looked at how many games are supported on Linux and how many Windows games work with Steam Play Proton, so let's take a look at the current top 100.

www.gamingonlinux.com

EDIT: The number of games that play on Linux without any degradation from my Steam library is almost half. Meh, I'm okay with that since the ones that do play are my favorites!

 

[Shadow Mann]

Small issue when trying to save custom screen configurations with Nvidia x-server on PopOS. You can apply the settings for one session, but when you go to save the configuration file, it says that the file can't be opened for writing. If you log out or restart, you have to make the settings all over again. UNLESS, you give x permissions.

adding x permission to /usr/share/screen-resolution-extra/nvidia-polkit fixed the issue for me

sudo chmod  u+x  /usr/share/screen-resolution-extra/nvidia-polkit

For context, I have two desk monitors and a big TV connected to my graphics card. The system simply sees three monitors (all are only 1920x1080, no 4K). I never use the TV as a monitor, just to watch my media files and perhaps stream from the web. I needed it to duplicate the main screen on the desktop and on the TV, and leave the other monitor set as normal. Nvidia-settings allowed it, and I could apply but not save the configuration. This solved it!

 

[Joelist]

THANK YOU! That should have been my first step after installing, but I was on a roll and I am already so familiar with Ubuntu that I thought PopOS would be pretty much the same. I was wrong! There are lots of super thoughtful things already built in.

Yup! PopOS! differs a good deal from Ubuntu, to the point where it is rightly its own distro.

 

[Shadow Mann]

Yup! PopOS! differs a good deal from Ubuntu, to the point where it is rightly its own distro.

This is far and away the best Linux distro I have ever used. I am using it primarily now, and it's the default OS on my machine. As I spend more and more time in it doing actual work, I realize how much better it runs than Windows (again).

 

[Shadow Mann]

This is an excellent video on hardening your Linux computer.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LxUF5bcRXI

 

[Joelist]

Yep! PopOS! includes encryption as part of the base setup. The main thing I would also say is DO NOT USE CHROME! Chrome is a walking talking security backdoor for Google. Brave is better as is Firefox.

 

[Shadow Mann]

Yep! PopOS! includes encryption as part of the base setup. The main thing I would also say is DO NOT USE CHROME! Chrome is a walking talking security backdoor for Google. Brave is better as is Firefox.

Yeah, I stuck with Firefox. I also did set up encryption right from the start. Right now, I am really trying to push the limits of this distro by running really robust software like Unreal and Davinci Resolve, and it's performing beautifully. I saw your example of it handling complex streadsheets. The Nvidia version is making great use of my graphics card and although only about half my flat games will run, they are the ones I want to run. My most recent success came from following this guide to install Starcraft II which is an old favorite I have to have running!

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-install-starcraft-2-on-ubuntu-linux

 

[Shadow Mann]

For gamers interested in switching to Linux, besides the Wine install, you need Proton, Winetricks, Proton Tricks and Lutris. With those tools installed and a bit of Googling and YouTube tutorials, you can install almost any game in Linux that you can in Windows. Each game takes separate tweaks, but they work most of the time. Once installed, it's just a double-click to start the game like any other game.

 

[Joelist]

I am starting a new project in PopOS! That project will be to figure out where it differs from other distros. THAT it differs is obvious from how much better this is than the others. I just want to better understand the process they used to get PopOS! here - it may have started as Ubuntu but where it is now is WAY beyond Ubuntu.

 

[Shadow Mann]

I am starting a new project in PopOS! That project will be to figure out where it differs from other distros. THAT it differs is obvious from how much better this is than the others. I just want to better understand the process they used to get PopOS! here - it may have started as Ubuntu but where it is now is WAY beyond Ubuntu.

No argument there! This is running Unreal Engine and Davinci Resolve like a champ, and the games I have running in it are crispy and silky smooth with Ultra graphics. The resource usage for running apps is extremely efficient and for the most part, completely sandboxed. But the base OS is so complete it needs very little tweaking to get a "Professional" version suitable for serious commercial work. It's still true that you need more tech savvy to understand how it works, but for most regular users it should not be that much trouble to use it as you would Windows or Mac IMO.

 

[Shadow Mann]

Being back on Linux has reminded me of the ongoing grift of proprietary software designed to run on Windows. It's not a compatibility issue, it's a profit/greed issue. Everything from DirectX to DotNET to Windows Mixed Reality. An unnecessary layer of incompatibility put there for that purpose.

 

[Joelist]

I'm not 100% sure .NET qualifies as a grift. The reason it exists is the Windows API, and it allows software to run in Windows architecture (x86 and with the Registry). Linux is different of course (being a riff of Unix) but still Linux programs don't necessarily run on Unix (Kernel differences) or vice versa. Now DirectX? Agree. Likewise WMR.

 

[Joelist]

Well the first big change I think helps PopOS! is the new bootloader. GRUB was cool in its day and with the older mechanical HDDs was pretty effective and simple. But it has gotten long in the tooth and in the current hardware world of M2 PCIe solid state drives with no boot sectors and especially with modern motherboards and these drives embracing UEFI GRUB was VERY long in the tooth and only able to support this stuff through a lot of tacked on code.

Enter systemd-boot. It got its start as a project by some Red Hat devs and is continuously updated. It's lightweight, written from the ground up for UEFI and also to support drives without boot sectors (SSDs). It is also under a different license (LGPL) to facilitate its use with Secure Boot among other things. While PopOS! CAN use GRUB its "native" bootloader is systemd-boot.

I noticed this difference during install. Instead of an hours long process watching it build every package one at a time install was completed in about 20 minutes. And machine startup feels a lot like a Mac or a newer x86 laptop in that full boot takes about 5 seconds now instead of the much longer boots in the past. And it has everything loaded up properly at startup too.

 

[Shadow Mann]

Well the first big change I think helps PopOS! is the new bootloader. GRUB was cool in its day and with the older mechanical HDDs was pretty effective and simple. But it has gotten long in the tooth and in the current hardware world of M2 PCIe solid state drives with no boot sectors and especially with modern motherboards and these drives embracing UEFI GRUB was VERY long in the tooth and only able to support this stuff through a lot of tacked on code.

Enter systemd-boot. It got its start as a project by some Red Hat devs and is continuously updated. It's lightweight, written from the ground up for UEFI and also to support drives without boot sectors (SSDs). It is also under a different license (LGPL) to facilitate its use with Secure Boot among other things. While PopOS! CAN use GRUB its "native" bootloader is systemd-boot.

I noticed this difference during install. Instead of an hours long process watching it build every package one at a time install was completed in about 20 minutes. And machine startup feels a lot like a Mac or a newer x86 laptop in that full boot takes about 5 seconds now instead of the much longer boots in the past. And it has everything loaded up properly at startup too.

Bootup is super fast, as is opening programs . I could not get system-d boot to work for PopOS because Windows lives on a different physical drive and os-prober could not find it (encryption?) I ended up using a different bootloader, but it works. I haven't fired up Windows in over a week. Nothing I need in there! I will be using it this weekend though, for VR.

 

[Joelist]

Bootup is super fast, as is opening programs . I could not get system-d boot to work for PopOS because Windows lives on a different physical drive and os-prober could not find it (encryption?) I ended up using a different bootloader, but it works. I haven't fired up Windows in over a week. Nothing I need in there! I will be using it this weekend though, for VR.

Systems-boot handles multiple OSes differently:

systemd-boot

www.freedesktop.org

It uses *.efi files for each OS. I do think the issue is as you said - your Windows lives on a different physical drive. If it did not you would be okay.