I was initially waiting for Windows 10 to be officially unsupported before I switched to Pop_OS, but today, I just got sick of looking at the Windows 10 UI and decided to jump the gun.

As a complete normie, I am so glad I didn’t fuck up my computer because my laptops settings to get into the BIOS was completely different than how most videos instructed.

I’ve been playing around with it for a bit, and I most say that using this distro is a lot easier than I expected! The Pop Store is a lifesaver! I’m not sure if I could’ve made it if I had to manually install my browser and all that.

I feel like my laptop is now a bit slower and the graphics look a bit lower? Maybe I missed something when reading the rec specs. Oh well…

  • 1XEVW3Y07@reddthat.com
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    17 hours ago

    Congrats!

    As a quality of life upgrade, I’d recommended downloading the COSMIC app store. It’s still made by the developers of Pop!, but is significantly better than the Pop Shop.

  • NeoPunk@lemmy.ml
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    24 hours ago

    Sorry to break it to you, but going off your wallpaper, you’re in fact not ‘a complete normie’

    You do you tho

    • NeedyPlatter@lemmy.caOP
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      15 hours ago

      Lmao

      I was referring to how I have never used anything out of Windows and have only seem a BIOS screen when I called HP for tech support. I guess having a Miku wallpaper made nobody think that was the case lol.

    • HelloRoot@lemy.lol
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      22 hours ago

      a complete normie

      a total non-entity

      ‎(somebody with that wallpaper might get the reference)

  • Resplendent606@piefed.social
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    1 day ago

    Welcome to the GNU/Linux family! Your desktop setup is lovely! I highly approve of the use of Librewolf. Pop_OS! is a great choice choice for a new GNU/Linux user. As for your system feeling slower, you might be missing something. Can you share some of the basic specs, like cpu/ram and/or brand/model of the laptop? What feels slow, the internet or the actual loading/power of the system?

    • NeedyPlatter@lemmy.caOP
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      1 day ago

      I think is more of the loading power of my computer, sometimes there’s a bit of a delay when I open an application or try to close it, opening some setting will have more loading time than others. Although now that i think about it, I most likely had this problem with Windows, so its probably a hardware thing. My laptop is “old” by today’s standards (or at least, that’s what HP thinks lol). I have an HP Pavillion x360 2017 model. It has 8GB Ram, Intel Core i3 7th Gen processer, Mesa Intel® HD Graphics 620 and a 1TB SSD.

      • Resplendent606@piefed.social
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        1 day ago

        That is an older laptop. I run an even older HP laptop on Arch that still feels zippy, even compared to my gaming desktop pc. One thing to remember is POP_OS! is designed for newer computers as it is built by a company who sells them. There are known issues with POP_OS! and Mesa drivers. The Mesa driver might not be efficiently handling the graphical demands of the default POP_OS! desktop. I’m not suggesting to switch your distro, just keep in mind going forward that it is made for newer systems.

        Some further troubleshooting you can try:

        • Check for Driver Updates: Ensure the system is fully up-to-date by running sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade in the terminal .
        • Use a system monitor tool like htop, btop or the built-in system monitor to see if the CPU or RAM is maxing out when opening a program.
        • Check for Overheating: Check if the laptop feels unusually warm. This could indicate a need to clean the cooling vents and fan.
        • Tundra@sh.itjust.works
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          23 hours ago

          In regards to your last point, this is something I always overlooked and couldnt understand why my laptop was severely underperforming (thermal throttling)

          Ive never seen a distro utilise any form of fan control that works with my hardware, but utilising NBFC and its GUI has completely fixed the issues that have been plaguing me for the past few years.

      • adarza@lemmy.ca
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        1 day ago

        you definitely encountered similar performance in windows. the processor isn’t speedy, by any stretch. kaby lake u-series i3 is slower than a desktop 4th gen i3.

      • RogueBanana@piefed.zip
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        1 day ago

        How many ms do you think it usually is? Those specs aren’t that bad for Linux but given it is an old laptop, maybe needs some maintenance work. Run some hardware tests and check.

  • hobbsc@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 day ago

    if by lower graphics, do you mean fonts and such are larger or your resolution is off?

    if so you might have window scaling at 150% or 200%. this has happened to me with GNOME in the past. it might be worth checking your display settings.

      • hobbsc@lemmy.sdf.org
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        13 hours ago

        sure. i’m not saying fractional scaling looks bad but if they came from no scaling, suddenly having scaling can be a little jarring and can feel like a “lower” resolution. i regularly run fractional scaling in GNOME and it looks just fine. it’s a pretty solved problem at this point for the major desktop environments.

  • Jankatarch@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    One of us! One of us!

    Different desktop environments have different speeds for graphics.

    Pop-os is currently making one in-progress so you might be essentally using an unreleased DE for developers to test and optimize?

    You can install some other ones and switch to them from login-screen to test their speed. Tiling window managers blew my mind when I first saw them.

    Check out unixporn they have lots of WM/DE setups over there. i3/sway for instant and efficient work or hyperland for lots of animations etc. KDE is practically windows but improved.

    Tho might also be pop-os being made for new computers.

  • HubertManne@piefed.social
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    1 day ago

    I have been on linux for awhile but my distro uses gnome by default. So today I installed kde. So I too finally did something. So far liking it better.

  • orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts
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    1 day ago

    Welcome to your new life! It’s nice having such a lightweight OS that isn’t constantly trying to send your data to every advertiser on earth. I love the peace of mind. Pop_OS is a good choice too! Even as someone that has been using Linux for years, I still go for the it-just-works-out-of-the-box distros.

    • NeedyPlatter@lemmy.caOP
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      1 day ago

      Thanks! I’m so happy I’m free of seeing Copilot, Cortana, or Bing results each time I try to search for something on my computer its very refreshing.

      • Admetus@sopuli.xyz
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        22 hours ago

        AI should be an add-on, not built in. Microsoft is constantly bulldozing their AI product into Windows. I always hated that.

        Gnome is introducing embedded AI but that is an actual add-on despite the AI hate. So there’s nothing to hate about gnome giving features to the users who do want to embed AI.

    • NeedyPlatter@lemmy.caOP
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      11 hours ago

      I heard about this on Lemmy a couple weeks ago. I’m so jealous, I wish my city would host something similar.

  • Jay🚩@lemmy.ml
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    22 hours ago

    For newbie i would KDE neon or LinuxMint cinnamon. PopOS environment is still not stable