A few days ago, Michael Murphy over at System 76 let the world know that Pop!_OS, the well
known Ubuntu-based distro, would be skipping the upcoming 22.10 release to focus on building
their new Rust-based “COSMIC” desktop environment.
Is this fine?
Or are things starting to fall apart for System 76?
(Music starts, then stops right away)
It’s fine.
[music, SID chip then guitar]
Greetings! And welcome to another exciting episode of Veronica Explains!
I’m Veronica, and today I’d like to talk briefly about Pop!_OS, the recent news about
the change in release cycle, and why I’m planning on sticking with them on my main
work machine.
So first, a little background for folks who don’t know: Pop!_OS is a fantastic Linux distribution
based on Ubuntu.
System76 ships this distribution on their custom laptops and desktops, and full disclosure-
I’m a happy owner of a System76 laptop, which I bought a few years ago - with my own money -
and have fully enjoyed.
Personally, my favorite part of Pop!_OS is the i3-inspired tiling feature baked into
their COSMIC shell for GNOME, which I’ve covered in a previous video.
To sum it up briefly, I can get some of the benefits of a tiling window manager when I
want it, but can easily switch to a floating layout when it works out better for filming
and whatnot.
To tactfully tell it triumphantly, tiling has totally transformed my tedium from terrible
to terrific!
Anyway, while these awesome features work with GNOME for now, clearly GNOME
has their own plans for their desktop environment, and they don’t exactly align with System76’s
goals as a company.
And you know what?
That’s fine.
Open source is not a monolith, and I can hardly fault GNOME for wanting to do things their
way.
I don’t always love their choices, but that’s OK- there’s plenty of ways to get the job
done for desktop users.
And yes, I am aware of the fact that I pronounce it Guh-nome.
More on that later!
So what changed with Pop!_OS, and why are some corners of the internet nervous?
Well, to understand what’s going on, we first need to talk about Ubuntu.
I don’t like the new logo either.
Ubuntu traditionally releases a Long Term Support release every two years, which gets
five years of support from Canonical, the company developing the distro.
In between those Long Term Support, or LTS releases, every six months, Ubuntu puts out another release, which brings
in newer packages and software, and can be thought of as a sort-of “preview” of things
that will be in the next LTS version.
Like many, many other distros, System76 uses Ubuntu as a base for Pop!_OS, replacing and
customizing packages to meet their own needs, and the needs of their hardware customers...
...building on Ubuntu to deliver a distro that I’ve really come to rely on.
Now, traditionally, when Ubuntu releases a new version, whether it’s an LTS version
or one of those “every six month” versions, Pop!_OS has chosen to rebase their distro
against the new Ubuntu version.
This certainly takes time and energy to build, test, release, and host.
And with all of the work they’re doing on the new Rust-based COSMIC desktop environment,
they announced on Reddit that they’re going to sit out a rebase against Ubuntu 22.10,
making the next release 23.04, due sometime on-or-after April 2023.
Immediately after System76 announced the change via Reddit, there were folks-on-the-internet
saying they’d have to switch away from Pop!_OS.
And I have to admit, I gave some consideration to the idea myself, as I always do when a
tool I depend on announces they're going through some changes.
First off, as of the making of this video, they haven’t posted about the change on
their blog or any other official documentation source as far as I can tell.
Maybe Reddit isn’t the best place to be announcing major changes to your distro’s
release cycle?
I mean, sure, we should use social media to reach out to the public.
That makes sense.
But I don’t think a Reddit thread is a good substitute for official documentation and announcements .
I do wish they would have announced it in an email to customers.
Maybe they still will.
As of right now they haven't, but time will tell.
Beyond just the way the change was announced, another reason I was a little nervous is that
I’m a bit curious about what the upgrade path looks like here.
Now, ostensibly, they’ll include a mechanism to upgrade from 22.04 to 23.04, but that’s
not exactly a piece of cake, and I do worry about the impact this will have on less technical
users and System76 customers as a whole.
I would hate to see System76 get slammed for a less-than-smooth upgrade in April 2023.
Beyond all of that though, I think the biggest reason folks are nervous is that skipping the upgrade means
that some packages will not get updated as expected in the next month.
That made me nervous at first, but honestly, after sitting with it for a little bit, I think I’m OK with it.
Via Reddit, I asked Michael Murphy over at System76 about backporting, and he provided me a list
of packages which System76 has chosen to backport.
Backporting, for those who don’t know, is replacing an older version of a piece of software
with a newer version which was designed for a newer distribution.
And in this case, the backported packages are pretty important stuff- the kernel, pipewire
(which provides audio support), and more.
This work in backporting important features is vital for their paying customers to continue
to be happy with their desktops and laptops, so it’s no wonder they’re putting this work in.
[ominous sound]
Another reason I’m not nervous is that, frankly, Flatpak is really good enough for
a lot of my needs.
I personally have been using Linux since about 2005, and know my way around package managers.
But, the thing is, Flatpak is quickly becoming a first class citizen in many of the most important distros
and operating environments.
Flatpak versions of software have come along really well.
In fact, I use the Flatpak version of Kdenlive to edit all of these videos, and it’s totally
fine.
If it's been a while since you gave the Flatpak version of your favorite software a try, I
suggest you try it again.
Because it is coming along pretty nicely.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I want that new desktop environment they’re working
on to actually work.
I was never much of a “tiling window manager” person before I starting using Pop!_OS back in 2020.
For years, I was mainly running KDE Plasma on Arch, and before that I was distro hopping
into oblivion.
[voice from outside room] "New band name, I call it!"
But the Pop!_OS window tiling and stacking has completely changed my workflow.
I was able to drop down to a single monitor thanks to this awesome feature, and it’s
made working on a laptop reasonably smooth.
At this point, I couldn’t imagine working without it, and I’m super eager to see what they come up
with next.
I want the team at System76 to have the easiest possible path to a great release for the COSMIC desktop...
...and if they say skipping 22.10 is the way to get there, I think that’s great.
I can wait a little bit for some updates.
Now, I’m not accusing all folks-on-the-internet of being reactionary when they say they want
to switch.
They aren’t necessarily spreading FUD...
(wind sounds)
...when they say they need certain package updates that were expected in the 22.10 release.
But my recommendation to Pop!_OS users who are otherwise happy with their systems is
to just sit tight.
I have a feeling we’re going to be OK.
What do you think?
Are you happy with the recent change?
Do a comment in the comment thing.
One thing I love about Linux is that there are so many different ways to get stuff done.
But I don’t know why that would surprise me at all, because Linux is awesome!
And so are you.
It’s time once again for “Ask Veronica”, where I answer a question from one of the
supporters of my channel.
Today's question is:
Why do you pronounce it "guh-nome" instead of just "nome"?
[kid shouting] "1, 2, 3, 4!" [punk music starts]
The big reason why I pronounce it "guh-nome" instead of just "nome" is
the GNOME project actually descends from the GNU project,
which definitely pronounces their project "guh-new" instead of "new".
It just made sense to me that GNOME should also be pronounced the same way,
and I think I've heard them pronounce it that way in the past.
Now, I don't necessarily fault anybody for pronouncing it "nome" vs "guh-nome" because,
you know, pronounciation is weird, and language is fluid!
And I don't think we should get hung up on this sort of thing.
For some reason in the comments, when I say "guh-nome" somebody thinks I'm pronouncing it wrong,
like I don't know, or like I pronounce the mythical creature the same way as I pronounce the project.
And, just trust me, I'm aware of the fact that these are pronounced differently.
That's how I've always heard the project itself pronounced.
Maybe you've heard it differently, maybe you say it differently, that's OK.
Thank you to all of the supporters of my channel, and to
all of you watching!
Thank you so much!