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Pop OS 22.04 LTS – New Features and Release Updates
System76 released the Pop OS 22.04 LTS Beta copy on GitHub.
System76’s POP OS is based on Ubuntu releases, and the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS release is around
the corner.
Following the release schedule, the beta ISO of Pop OS 22.04 is now available for download
and test on GitHub.
The BETA ISO is not stable yet, but you can download and do some hands-on to find out
the new features.
POP OS 22.04 LTS – New Features
The major highlight of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS is the customized version of GNOME 42.
Because the vanilla GNOME 42 brings the libadwaita/GT4 conversion of entire GNOME Core and native
applications.
But Ubuntu 22.04 LTS plans to include some of them with its unique flavours, such as
Accent Color.
Obviously, you might be wondering how GNOME 42 looks inside Pop OS 22.04.
The Cosmic desktop in POP OS 22.04 features GNOME 42 at its core.
But it is heavily stripped-down to align with Cosmic desktop principles.
The GNOME Shell version is 42 with a mixture of applications versions.
For instance, the look and feel remained almost the same as earlier releases of Pop OS, such
as the buttons, colour pallets, rounded corners, menus, etc.
In the same way, this LTS version has Gedit 41.0 – that means the new GNOME Text editor
is not included, nor is the new GNOME Terminal.
Files 42 in this release look almost the same as earlier versions.
However, the Files get its latest version, 42, with all of its core features, not the
looks.
For example, the stock Files 42 has new folder icons, compact spacing of widgets and new
menus.
But the Files 42 in Cosmic desktop retained its own folder icons and colours.
In addition to that, the newly designed Dark, Light theme support with auto wallpaper change
is not picked up.
Because Pop OS already had the Light/Dark theme support for quite some time since the
inception of the Cosmic Desktop.
Another critical application GNOME Settings (gnome-control-center) version remained at
41.1, which means the massive uplift of the Settings app with GNOME 42, is not available
with additional features.
Clearly, it is understandable from the Pop OS team’s decision because the gnome-control-center
version 42 is a complex converted application to libadwaita and GTK4 with many features.
Some of those features are built-in in the Pop OS via different means (such as the Light/Dark
theme switcher).
Summary of the changes Therefore a summary of the apps and their
versions are as follows
Linux Kernel 5.16 Based on Ubuntu 22.04
GNOME Shell 42 GNOME Settings 41.4
Firefox 98 GNOME Terminal 3.43.9
GEdit 41.4 Apart from this, there are no other significant
changes in the Pop OS installer.
Although Ubuntu 22.04 LTS uses Linux Kernel 5.15, Pop OS 22.04 LTS have the Linux Kernel
5.16.
I could not find a changelog published, so I assumed these were the visible changes that
caught my eye.
How to download Pop OS 22.04?
I would recommend you not do an upgrade at this time.
Because of the BETA ISO image which I tried, it is extremely buggy.
There are many boot problems, installation failure, updates breaking the boot process
and Cosmic desktop freeze problems.
So, when I took a look at the GITHUB BETA issue list, I was confident that it’s not
yet stable, being a BETA copy.
And to make this video, I had to spend a couple of hours getting it installed in virt-manager.
Because the first time it got installed perfectly, I did an upgrade, and it broke the installation.
So I had to re-install again.
That said, if you still want to test, get a hands-on or contribute to the testing, download
the ISO image.
You can try it in a virtual machine or a physical system.
But prepare yourself for some issues and report them when you find any.
Release timeline?
Well, Pop OS follows their releases after the stable release of Ubuntu.
Therefore, an optimistic release timeline should be after April 21, 2022.
Looking at the past release history, the Pop OS 22.04 should release between May and June
2022 as a stable release.
Thanks for watching,
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that, I will see you in tomorrow's video, peace out.