System76 Unveils Its Own Ubuntu-Based Linux Distribution Called 'Pop!_OS' (betanews.com) 117
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.
"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.
And so the irritation begins (Score:5, Funny)
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.
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"Pop-bang-underscore-oh-ess". You're right, it just rolls off the tongue.
Re: And so the irritation begins (Score:5, Funny)
Actually there has been a horrible mistake: this wasn't the name, but the developer site password.
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Obligatory. [youtube.com]
Re: ssytemd (Score:1)
As Linus pointed out, the systemd guys ignore bugs. As he said, they are "too cavalier about bugs." Ted Tso said "they don't consider or their responsibility to fix."
I'd be willing to live with the problems if they would just fix their logger.
whoopie (Score:5, Insightful)
>"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!
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Why would you want a highly divergent fork away from mainstream development?
to attract some investor money. why the fuck do you think ubuntu did the exact same thing?
Re:whoopie (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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I have indeed slowed down my distro hopping. I just run applications nowadays. I prefer dnf but can get by with apt-get. I am about to try TrueOS just to try Lumina, however.
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I agree. Why can't they just take SteamOS, and make their computers gaming platforms? Load it up w/ something like LX/QT or Razor/qt or something.
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Do they really have to follow the crap things that we get phone manufacturers doing with Android? Adding their own "style" to it?! As for drivers, contribute those to Ubuntu so that everybody benefits from that work rather than just those using a downstream fork.
Ultimately this is just going to be "whatever RedHat decides" + "whatever Ubuntu decides" + "yet another not invented here syndrome UI styling" anyway.
And Pop!_OS? Really? I never thought I'd see the day that Microsoft's branding style would be a be
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Quite agree. They should have called it Popi-Linux or some Linux, to make it obvious to the customer that it's Linux. Or if they did a FreeBSD based thing, they could have called it Popi Unix or Popi BSD.
Like I suggested, they should have improved on SteamOS, which is itself an Ubuntu distro
Ob. systemd thread (Score:1)
Hope their installer has a option for choosing the init software suite. ... :)
Systemd vs. Launchd
Drafting Canonical is a mistake. (Score:2)
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If they had any brains, they'd simply put ~~Debian~~ err Devuan on it.. Since Debian (and Ubuntu) have fucking up those distros with systemd, I've moved my systems to Devuan 1.0, I had high hopes when they forked Debian a couple of years ago, and now I couldn't be happier.. Debian WITHOUT systemd... Fuck you, Poettering...
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My god, will you people ever shut the fuck up about systemd for one second?
No Plasma? How hard could that be? (Score:3)
The stubborness upon which Ubuntu and now System76 insist on choosing the clearly inferior choice (GNOME) when there's a much better option (KDE's Plasma), is impressive.
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System76 was Ubuntu before it was believed killed in the incident at Linux's Switzerland headquarters.
Re:System who ? (Score:5, Funny)
Who the fuck are System76 ?
If you don't know, you should go back to Reddit.
Modern vs. Retro (Score:5, Insightful)
"...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".
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You might want to have a look at XFCE too. It has a proper, "Yeah, we solved this UI thing 10 years ago" interface. And, because it's been solved for so long, almost every knob and dial you'd want to fiddle with is exposed and thoroughly supported. It has quirks, to be sure, but, if you take a weekend to configure something like Debian+XFCE, you're unlikely to ever look back. That combo feels like a proper workstation and not some UI developers playground.
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> Mint appears to force me to have no scrollbar button. I would have to check what distros/environments still have scrollbar buttons and how the hell can you switch scrollbar style or if it's forever forbidden from now on.
I noticed that too when I briefly looked into Mint. What were they thinking? I didn't stick with it long enough to see if I could change that in the theme somehow.
The default theme in Ubuntu MATE provides large, green, always-visible scrollbars. It does make Window resizing very fid
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Smart? Really? (Score:2)
In other words, the company is better controlling the user experience, and that is smart.
Is that really smart? What attracts customers to System76 computers? Is it their superior software, or their (from what I've heard) sturdy, reliable hardware? You are given the choice between running Ubuntu or some obscure distribution that hardly anybody uses. System76 will probably not be able to make a community which is even the tenth of the size of the one for Ubuntu. If you run this distribution, few people will be able to help you if the issue happens on a component that differs even slightly from va
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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Yeah and it would be great if unicorns existed too. The reason for the 600+ distros is that there is an increasing level of overhead the more people are involved in a project, especially if those people are volunteers.
Now, get those people who are introverts to self select themselves and you can see why the OSS landscape is the way it is. Volunteer hackers want to write code, and not manage projects, and they're usually quite opinionated about the way-things-should-be and so its a lot easier to fork and get
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I used to feel this way, and I still do to some degree, but I think Linux fragmentation also has some advantages. Many of these obscure distros are trying out new ideas, they're experiments, and that kind of experimentation can't happen in the Windows and Mac worlds.
Also, they give us a way to route around failure. Gnome Shell was not well received by many. So what happened? Ubuntu created the Unity interface. Well, that wasn't well received by many either. So what happened? Mint created Cinnamon, an
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It is cute that you think something should be centrally controlled. If you disagree with my assessment, re-read your own words. Central control is implicit within what you are saying.
For myself, I fail to see a problem, and in all actuality, I see the numerous competing distros as ideal. To me, this is just like evolution: lots of little variations with constant pressure killing off the less useful variations. Eventually, we will end up with some fairly advanced, possibly sentient, Linux distributions. It m
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Stop focusing on the aspects that are designed to target menial users who wouldn't know why they're supposed to chose linux in the first place
I don't think those are the clientèle that visit System76's retail site.
counterpoint... (Score:2)
What if this had ALWAYS been done? We most likely wouldn't have many of the great things we have now. Would we have a single perfect linux distro? I think that is wishful thinking.
Just have a look at this: Linux Distro Timeline [wikimedia.org] and tell me that none of those things should have happened. Maybe SOME of them shouldn't, but that's a simple determination in hindsight.
Just look at what Knoppix spawned, and what it inspired. Sometimes you have to let the ones passionate about something run with it. Otherwi
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Of course, it's rather hard to say for sure, and the counter-argument will be "but we could have created that anyway". But just off the top of my head..
- bootable distros. I remember the days when if you wanted to install a new version, you had to just do that. Everyone was thinking "just make the installer easier" but then the bootable distros came along and changed the game.
- Raspberry Pi. If there was only one distro, nobody might think it was worth it to create a small set of hardware if the thinki
I for one understand they think about it... (Score:3)
We now have two laptops that we bought with Linux preinstalled, and specs above Apple's at the time we ordered (in January). We didn't get them from Syst76 because delivering abroad from the US and with 'local' keyboards wasn't feasible for them, we ordered from Tuxedo in Germany. Honestly, from casings to processors they really look similar, there musn't be so many equipment suppliers.
Well, Tuxedo explain they also raised this question of developing their own versions of linux flavors (you can select which linux you want with Tux), but they instead chose to prepare a separate package dedicated to their hardwares, which one can apply after a standard linux install.
(Their commitment on this only works with a 'short list' of linux versions -most of them Ubuntu based IIRC.)
I believe, if you are serious in proposing a range of hardware with linux preinstalled, sooner or later you cannot but consider you are at risk whenever any linux update is issued, and these are issued in a manner you can't control.
Syst76 way is one reaction, Tuxedo's is another, but I do understand that when your full business is potentially killable by an unexpected update you think about it.
And when I say killable it's very real, just imagine suddenly all your machines do not support e. g. bluetooth -a single, minor feature like that. Within hours, in ten forums, hundreds of posters will insult you, you sell sh.., doesn't work, don't buy that.
I for one wouldn'd sleep before deciding for a strategy...
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System76 has sold rebranded Clevo laptops for years. They've also offered their own apt repo for updates and drivers for years (at least the 5 or so years I've had my laptop).
Personally, I think developing a new OS is completely wasted effort on their part. Especially considering they have an alternative means to push whatever drivers they need on their equipment via repos. They could also push configuration that way for whatever flat crap look and feel they want.
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Re: not compatible with itself (Score:2)
> The 14.04 LTS I use in work cannot even have the latest version of VLC)
--You pick an LTS distro for *long-term stability*, not the latest versions of software. Things tend to break sometimes when you use the testing or unstable branches. I use 14.04-64-LTS myself, and it's pretty rock solid - but starting to show its age after 3 years. If I want newer versions of software, I put up a Vmware or Virtualbox VM and install Antix or MX (no systemd) or even go beyond my existing triple-boot setup if it re
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More pop culture? (Score:2)
Don't we have enough pop in our culture already?
Get rid of Systemd .. (Score:1)
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See:
http://without-systemd.org/wik... [without-systemd.org]
--Of course, if the hardware requires custom drivers that aren't in the Linus tree, I'd look elsewhere...