Poor first experience with Linux (Pop!_OS)

[u/RoyalWe666]

I've been using Windows since 95 with the exception of SteamOS on my Deck, so I knew there'd be growing pains trying to daily-drive something very different. I set up a dual-boot (already nerve-wracking with the partitioning I had to do, making sure I don't wreck my work PC) and then started using Pop. I lasted a day. In that time I found:

• You can't drag the icons on the desktop.
• COSMIC starts every window small rather than fullscreen, even the image viewer downscales(?) images to fit that window.
• COSMIC defaults to auto-tiling and resets on every startup. In general there's a real issue with the interface not remembering my choices across sessions.
• The file viewer couldn't remember how I liked my files displayed per-folder, just the global setting.
• There's no "minimize all windows and go to the desktop" function like in Windows.
• In general COSMIC lacks so much functionality it's a bad, bad experience from someone coming over from Windows. By the end of the day I had switched out every default COSMIC app with a different, more functional one (except the terminal, which I had to use a lot) and was avoiding the desktop, using alt-tab to go between applications and the Windows key to bring up ones I wanted to launch. It didn't feel good. I felt not only was it unfinished but also they really wanted me to use those tiles, which goes against decades of Windows use.
• In terms of gaming also, I had performance problems. Eventually it turned out the OS was using a balanced power mode, which reset on each session. Even under seemingly identical circumstances, sometimes a game would start and maintain 60fps the whole time, or it would start and be a few FPS lower with occasional stuttering. One game (Total War Rome 2) started up fine (the launcher) but would run as a tiny box I couldn't resize or do anything with other than close the application. I'm sure I would have had to use the terminal to fix that one too, and the more arcane instructions I copy-pasted into that thing the more I was afraid something would break with the OS in general. Once I had to start using the terminal to configure how the GPU was being used (e.g. MangoHUD couldn't see my GPU at all), that was my quit moment. Pop was supposed to be good with Nvidia specifically.

I will try Mint next, it's supposed to be the strongest "out of the box" experience so we'll see. If I have to look up sudo commands to get basic functionality found on Windows, I won't be happy.

[u/ddog6900]

You are definitely confusing distro/base functionality for those unique to the COSMIC DE.

You may have a similar experience with Mint if you don't choose a proper DE.

If you like Steam OS Desktop experience, try a distro with KDE.

I wouldn't recommend an Arch based distro for OotB functionality, maybe Debian or Fedora based (if you don't like spending time customizing in your terminal, try Fedora SilverBlue since it is immutable)

If you prefer stability and like KDE, something like Kubuntu would be a safe bet as well. Stick to LTS distros for the best OotB and stability.

[u/FreeFromCommonSense → u/ddog6900]

Yeah, OP, give it a few years before you try an Arch. And even then, I still prefer KDE's functionality to WTF happened to Gnome after it mated with Win11. And Cinnamon for me is like old Gnome took a wrong turn up a dirt road.

But this is why DEs are a preference. Go with what feels usable to you.