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System76 Pop!_OS Beta Ubuntu-based Linux Distribution Now Available To Download (betanews.com)
BrianFagioli writes: Next month, a new era of Ubuntu begins. Unity is dead, and GNOME 3 takes over as the default desktop environment. While this change was for the best, it was still shocking for many. For a company like System76, for instance, that sells computers pre-loaded with Ubuntu, this was problematic. Why? Well, the company essentially lost control of the overall user experience by relying on vanilla Ubuntu. It was being forced to follow Canonical's path. To solve this, and regain some control, System76 has been developing its own operating system called 'Pop!_OS.' No, it is not reinventing the wheel here -- it will still use Ubuntu as a base, and GNOME will be the desktop environment. The company is customizing the operating system, however, with things like fonts, themes, and icons, to create something truly unique. This could lead to an improved user experience. Today, the first official beta of the operating system becomes available for download.
COULD lead to an IMPROVED user experience... Yeah, that kind of sales talk will really win me over...
Someone should tell these people that sticking random punctuation into your brand names is a fad that died long ago. It was dumb back with the :CueCat, and today it looks hopelessly moronic.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
Truly Unique means creatiing a new a distro just to have better fonts themes and icons
Holy shit. It's well-known that Slashdot has a serious problem with "BetaNews" submissions appearing on the front page much too often (almost daily!), but now the situation has gotten really fucked up.
We've had 2 "BetaNews" submissions posted on the front page only 20 minutes apart!
Come on! Cut out this crap, msmash! If we wanted to read these goddamn "BetaNews" articles all of the time then we'd go to the goddamn "BetaNews" website!
We're here to get a variety of news. We're not here to get "BetaNews" submissions shoved in our faces multiple times a day, and especially not just 20 minutes apart!
Why not simply fork Unity and continue to develop it? It's become a pretty good desktop environment and I've come to prefer it over GNOME 3. I'd rather see Unity development continue independently and form the basis for another flavor of Ubuntu just like kubuntu and Ubuntu GNOME, which already exist. I'd like to see Unity development continue rather than creating something new that may or may not be a better alternative.
Nope!
Obligatory
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
I don't get why anyone cares that the default desktop environment is weird. You don't have to use it. You're just a couple clicks away from whatever's your favorite. Even back when Canonical suggested Unity, it still wasn't flame-worthy, and GNOME3 isn't nearly as bad as Unity. WTF, people?
Do you buy a Dell or an HP to use Windows, not Dell _!Windows, or HP %!Win!_Pop. Why does System76 feel they need to "own" the user experience to such a degree? Do people buy System76 machines to run Linux, or to run Pop!_OS?
punctuation abuse breaks google.
Just sayin'...
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
When you update to System76, make sure you get a Union 76 antenna topper for the wifi.
Gnome 3 is going to kill Ubuntu
I use the default desktop as a measure of a distro's developers'/maintainers' competency. If a distro's team has chosen to use Gnome 3 as the default desktop environment then I get very concerned. I don't think that a competent person or team would choose Gnome 3 for any reason, especially with so many better alternatives available. If a team has screwed up something as simple as choosing a good default desktop environment, then in my opinion the rest of their decisions can't be trusted, and I cannot justify using their distro.
How is this pronounced? PopBangUnderScore OS? Thanks.
Even if you absolutely hate Windows its cheaper to buy a Windows PC and just install a Linux flavor of your choice. Not that System 76 has a advantage that their hardware is matched a bit better to Linux and specifically Ubuntu. It's still a markup compared to a Windows PC. As for Ubuntu, this who organization is like Microsoft, come out with Unity or in Microsoft's case Windows 8, and users in general just hate it. Now you abandon it, leave everyone wondering what happens next? Personally I liked Unity because it set itself apart from all the other Linux distro's. Kind of think System 76 is jumping the gun a bit on this?
What's wrong with gnome 3?
Been using Mate for way too long. works well, not unity and not the default gnome3, either. -
Been using Linux off and on since 1993 with the now-defunct SLS distro. I drank the kool-aid back then. Now it's been 24 years now. The closet thing to a fun and attractive (to me personally) desktop there has ever been was using Enlightenment v14 (not the new phone-canvas garbage). In my opinion and experience, GNOME and KDE are big buggy jokes filled with Pottering-like personalities, lame half-working applications, and dozens of abortive ideas piled quickly on top of each other.
I also work very nearby the System76 folks. They seem to me like 20-something bearded hipsters trying to Python-script their way to Linux desktop glory. Good luck with that. At this point, after 24 years of crap-on-crap, I give up. I declare the Linux desktop fragmentation thoroughly fatal. At least it keeps these lamers all in one place, though. There is that!
I think just about everything is wrong with it. I'm being completely serious, too. I think they've screwed up every aspect of the desktop environment. That's why it's such a good indicator of competency, or the lack thereof. I don't think there is a single valid reason to use Gnome 3.
Does it allow you to access root? Probably not. I have to be able to access root for my work.
Sure, William Gates.
I love System76. Bought a desktop and several of their net top computers. In fact, by shear numbers I own more System76 computers than any other brand.
But why couldn't they just make a deal and take the Linux Mint Cinnamon DE and just add a few desktop images and screensavers and call it a day?
That would be a win for everyone.
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
You are coming across as a grumpy old man. Freedom certainly has its price, but buggy software and unique personalities certainly exist in the elite proprietary world too. I appreciate that you like to serve masters. I too have a lot of stock that needs to be supported. And remember, the more buggy the software, the more you should buy the next upgrade version. They might fix it. If not, then be sure to buy the next version after that. Me? I'm a grumpy old man who got burned too often by proprietary software, promising it "just works," and never does.
Oh, nothing, except the last time I tried to use it (which I'll admit was a while ago, back in Fedora 17), it tried to turn your computer into a friggin phone, which is STUPID! It was very clunky, VERY hard to use, and not intuitive at all. It seemed like the GNOME 3 team redesigned GNOME for the sake of redesigning GNOME, which is never a good motivation to do anything. Now, granted, this was a while ago, so GNOME 3 might be much better now. But my experience with GNOME 3 was SO bad, it scared me away from trying GNOME 3 again any time soon.
And, really, saying "GNOME 3 isn't nearly as bad as Unity" is kinda like saying "Getting poked in the eye isn't nearly as bad as getting smashed in the nards." I mean come on...
There's a whole lot of subjective "me" in that comment but very little objective "fact". Look if Linux doesn't work for you, okay. You found something else to use? Great! I think we've all moved past the idea that there will ever be a year of the Linux Desktop.
They seem to me like 20-something bearded hipsters trying to Python-script their way to Linux desktop glory.
Really?! These people look like 20-something hipsters? Have you ever worked in a programming job? Because these folks look exactly like the last three groups of folks I've worked with which is typically a pretty diverse mix of folks.
I give up. I declare the Linux desktop fragmentation thoroughly fatal.
Well I'm sure we're all glad that you've finally declared that. We have all been waiting with bated breath for you to go one way or the other. We can all now rest easy knowing for sure which way you lean on the matter.
Yet another distro whose stated goals are better icons instead of better battery life and better gpu drivers. Or even working suspend/resume. Yawn... Mandrake, Lindows, Xandros, Ubuntu, Mint, Pop!_OS.... It never ends.
Well, it's System76, so everything will work in Linux.
I use so many Linux distros and so many UIs that I honestly don't know if I have ever used Gnome 3 or not. I think this has lead me to be ok with any UI that allows me to start my GUI apps (web browser, k3b, a terminal, etc), and all the other stuff not only doesn't matter to me, but I don't even notice it.
I can honestly say I don't know if I am typing this message to you from a web browser running on top of Gnome 3 right now. I could figure it out, but I've been using this install of centos 6.8 for half a year now, and I haven't yet.
I will admit I am not the right person to be giving my opinion on the merits of various UIs, but I am just curious if the things people hate about Gnome 3 are going to affect me or not. The things people hated about Unity (whatever they were) certainly didn't.
When you say they tried to turn your computer into a phone, what do you mean? The icons were bigger? It looked like windows metro? It had an app store?
We've gone from System V to System76, what about all the ones in the middle?
You can smell the ego tripping all over this news. Such vanity out of timidness and fear. My guess is someones kindergartner drew up a cute logo and they decided to put it on the corporate fridge.
Btw what is that gay artwork on the wallpaper? Its all retro hipster and not minimalism at all like everyone has come to appreciate among good digital art. I bet it saves them lots of ink when printing... haha as if anyone advertises with hard copy media now days!
If you listened to the Bad Voltage podcast, you'd understand that Ubuntu and eventually Redhat will get out of the consumer desktop arena. Ubuntu did its big mea culpa/reorg and abandoned development on Mir and Unity over the summer. System76 is committed to Linux, but is concerned Ubuntu may drop the ball entirely on supporting projects targeted towards individual users, and focus exclusively on paying enterprise customers. This is probably what prompted System76 to throw a few dollars into the distribution packaging game; to allow them to control what they can control for their client market.
You're probably not even running Gnome2 then.
I'll never use your stupid OS.
There's a whole lot of subjective "me" in that comment but very little objective "fact". Look if Linux doesn't work for you, okay. You found something else to use? Great! I think we've all moved past the idea that there will ever be a year of the Linux Desktop.
Well, given that early 1990's now-defunct operating systems showed more integration and functionality, I'd say 20-something years of failure ought to tell you something is wrong.
They seem to me like 20-something bearded hipsters trying to Python-script their way to Linux desktop glory.
Really?! These people look like 20-something hipsters? Have you ever worked in a programming job? Because these folks look exactly like the last three groups of folks I've worked with which is typically a pretty diverse mix of folks.
Yes. Really. Did you even *look* at the link you posted. Just like I said, pudgy bearded hipsters abound. The receptionist is nearly the only exception. Like I said I work close by. What's up, did that hit too close to home? You work there or something?
I give up. I declare the Linux desktop fragmentation thoroughly fatal.
Well I'm sure we're all glad that you've finally declared that. We have all been waiting with bated breath for you to go one way or the other. We can all now rest easy knowing for sure which way you lean on the matter.
You're welcome. Now that Python IDE is calling, you'd better get those DBUS scripts finished and make sure they integrate with Systemd, brah.
It seems to me that these guys have the right idea: target people who actually create shit, actually listen to them, then fix the fucking problem.
It's as if the small portion of the Linux Desktop Evangelism community with working brain cells all got together and formed a company.