Linux distribution
Pop!_OS 21.10
Keyboard-driven Jonni Bidwell is excited by the prospect of new shortcut keys and swish application launchers. Will his enthusiasm be curbed?
IN BRIEF
A slick, easy-to-use that’s not afraid to deviate from its Ubuntu and Gnome underpinnings. See also: Zorin, elementaryOS, Linux Mint.
SPECS
Memory: 2GB RAM
HDD: 16GB
Build: 64-bit only
We’ve been using Pop!_OS on a seventh-generation Dell XPS 13 since the 20.04 LTS release, so were excited to see how the new edition worked. The upgrade was smooth (if a little slow, which was probably the result of our root partition being quite full) and as is becoming the norm, takes place after a reboot in a minimal environment behind a splash screen.
To make the most out of Pop it’s worth learning some keyboard shortcuts. They occasionally differ from Gnome’s incantations, but there’s an undeniable consistency to them. Being able to launch the file manager, web browser and terminal with simple Super-key combos, for example, will save you a lot of effort compared to doing so with a mouse. All the more so if you’re using a trackpad. If that’s the case, then good news. Pop has (even) more threeand four-fingered trackpad gestures. So (on supported hardware, which happily includes our XPS) an authoritative swipe right will bring up the new Applications Library, and in the opposite direction will summon the Workspaces view.