System76 Unveils Its Own Ubuntu-Based Linux Distribution Called 'Pop!_OS' (betanews.com)

BrianFagioli writes: Not content with simply following Canonical and embracing vanilla GNOME, System76 has decided to take its future into its own hands. Today, the company releases the first alpha of an all-new Linux-based operating system called "Pop!_OS," which will eventually be the only OS pre-loaded on its computers. While it will still be based on Ubuntu and GNOME, System76 is tweaking it with its own style and included drivers. In other words, the company is better controlling the user experience, and that is smart.

"The Pop!_OS community is in its infancy. This is a fantastic time to engage with and help develop the processes and practices that will govern the future development of the operating system and its community. The team is currently opening up planning for the development roadmap, code of conduct, discussion forums, and the processes surrounding code contribution. Progress made on Pop!_OS has established an inviting, modern, and minimalist look and has improved the first-use experience including streamlining installation and user setup. Work on the first release, scheduled for October 19th, centers on appearance, stability, and overall tightness of the user experience followed by adding new features and greater customization ability," says System76. You can check out the project on GitHub here and download the alpha ISO here. For more information, the company has set up a subreddi.

Comments

And so the irritation begins

[TimothyHollins]

Well done.
Just like the overly enthusiastic parents that name their child "Jonn", or "Sarra", or "Madilene", you have now ensured that you will have to spell out the damn name every time you talk about it. And that "exclamation mark underscore" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

Re: And so the irritation begins

[Applehu Akbar]

Actually there has been a horrible mistake: this wasn't the name, but the developer site password.

whoopie

[markdavis]

>"While it will still be based on Ubuntu and GNOME, "

Blech. So it is just Ubuntu with a few tweaks. Yawn. Nothing to see here, keep moving. Still, I wish System76 well- I like what they do!

Re:whoopie

[exomondo]

It is wasted effort!

Carl Richell, CEO, System76 explains, "While our operating system and computers are great for any user, the ideas and features we develop for Pop!_OS will be squarely focused on the professionals and makers that use their computers to create."

^^ In that case invest in building applications for those users, they couldn't give 2 craps about the OS, they'd run BeOS if it ran the applications they use to do their work. As far as most of them are concerned the OS is just the bit that launches the programs they actually spend their time using. There's got to be over 100 Linux-based operating systems by now, we don't need any more because nobody cares about that. To increase the popularity of Linux and have it benefit from economies of scale what is needed is innovative programs that users want/need that work better on Linux than anything else.

Modern vs. Retro

[Zobeid]

"...Pop!_OS has established an inviting, modern, and minimalist look..."

Ugly flat interface. Probably with all the drop-down menus removed in favor of dumbed-down controls hidden behind cryptic icons. My experience with "modern" desktops has been uniformly negative. I mean, Windows, Mac, Gnome Shell, Unity...

Am I the only one who thinks the desktop environment and user interface was pretty well figured out and perfected by, say, ten years ago? Since then it's just been change for the sake of change (under the holy banner of "innovation") and misguided efforts to make desktop computers work like phones. The only present-day desktop that I find attractive and comfortable to use has been Ubuntu MATE, and their motto is "for a retrospective future".

Re:System who ?

[youngone]

Who the fuck are System76 ?

If you don't know, you should go back to Reddit.

And folks wondered why Linux never competed..

[hairyfeet]

Here is a perfect example of why Linux was never a real competitor to OSX and Windows, instead of actually investing their time and money into an already established OS? Lets just follow a lame trend so old its an XKCD joke.

Because this is EXACTLY what Linux needed, yet another distro with just enough changes to make it incompatible with everyone else...sigh. Can you imagine how kick ass Linux would have been if instead of reinventing the damned wheel 600+ times everyone got together and invested their time into simply making ONE DISTRO that was the absolute best, cleanest, and bug free OS they could possibly build? It would make OSX and Windows look like DOS!

But no, instead we have SSDD, one of 600+ distros to pile on distrowatch which will probably either be dead in less than 3 years or have less users than win98 in 2017, because God forbid people actually work together for the common good instead of more NIH bullshit...sigh.