Pop!_OS Punk!_Chew!_(Action)
The first thing you should know about Pop!_OS is that it has two weird punctuation marks in its title. It would be incorrect to call it PopOS, even though that is far more appealing.
My computer died a few weeks ago. Prior to its final demise, it died temporarily several times. Each time the fan went nuts, and the screen turned off. I guess something was overheating.
Not knowing exactly what was going wrong, my first attempt to avoid further issues was to blow out my tower in case too much dust was partially to blame. The problem was much bigger than mere dust.
After a thorough cleaning, reseating of various components, and reapplication of the CPU fan (with new thermal paste), my computer wouldn't start up at all. I couldn't find any error logs to pinpoint the problem. I ordered a new power supply (PSU) since it's the cheapest component to replace and historically something that can sometimes go out.
Nothing changed with the new PSU, so I ordered a new motherboard and CPU. I figured it was one of those two that went out, but I had no way to test either component. If I had money to spare I would have ordered a whole new computer, but that is a luxury far beyond my current means.
My computer is six years old, and it is not super expensive to replace components in an older setup. I wasn't trying to upgrade with modern specs. I just need it to be operational again. Strangely, it would have been more expensive to buy exact replacements for what I already had. It was cheaper to do a modest upgrade. While not a giant leap forward, there should be a slight increase in performance according to the tech specs. Arguably the GPU (video card) is the most important component in modern builds, and I didn't update that - so it won't likely be a noticeable difference. I'm glad my GPU didn't go out, as those are considerably more expensive to replace.
Thankfully the motherboard, CPU and CPU fan replacement got me running again. However, unfortunately Linux is terrible at adapting to new hardware. There isn't a process you can run that restores all the functionality I worked hard to achieve before the crash. In fact, the process was be so complicated, that it was easier to wipe Linux clean and start over. Windows can of course adapt to any hardware change without any installs or configurations - it just works. I don't know if Linux will ever achieve that kind of seamless hot-swap status - I doubt it. I made an honest attempt to get Linux Mint to recognize the new hardware and recreate various links, but it was a nightmare. Not even hours with in-depth AI intervention could get me anywhere close to stable. My guess is that 0.000001% of all humanity could figure it out from their own unaided knowledge. Probably less than 5% of all Linux users could do it either. It takes incredibly advanced knowledge. I'm well outside that 5%, and even AI couldn't help me figure it out. So clean wipe it is.
Installing Linux from scratch was annoying because it took me weeks to refine my Linux Mint installation. There's no chance I would remember the thousands of steps I went through to get it to that point again. It's like when you explain your life story to someone over a 6-hour gathering, and after all that they say, "Did you say something?" You either try to repeat the whole thing verbatim or just say "nevermind" and walk home, never to meet with that annoying person again. Except much, much worse since I spent countless hours over weeks to configure Linux and various apps. No way to remember all that. I did document some key steps, and for the rest I asked AI's help.
The only bright side of this annoying process is that I took the opportunity to reconsider my Linux distribution. Initially I installed Linux Mint again, but it seemingly had difficulties, perhaps because of my new hardware. I remember watching videos about Pop!_OS, and everyone mentions that it is among the best for hardware support, particularly with NVIDIA GPUs. I gave it a try, and I can vouch for that. It is better than Linux Mint, and likely better than Ubuntu as well. Pop!_OS provides a far more modern graphics card driver than Linux Mint and there are more frequent updates (not annoying ones like Windows).
Basic audio devices were detected better with Pop!_OS than Linux Mint, but setting up advanced audio for OBS Studio wasn't any easier. The setup of virtual audio sinks via various bash commands and config files and routing them in Pulse is quite confusing. There is no fully graphical UI visualize or connect devices like Windows or Mac provide. Worse yet, Pop!_OS uses Pipewire instead of Pulse Audio and seems to lock everything down to accept less configuration than Linux Mint in certain respects. To make it more complicated, there is a virtual Pulse Audio layer on top of Pipewire. AI had a terrible time figuring this out, though it eventually concluded (with my suggestions) that the configuration of audio sinks is essentially the same as without Pipewire. I only have nominal understanding of this audio stuff. I can't imagine most live streamers going through this insane technical setup. The only reason I'm willing to tinker with it is because of my determination to step away from Windows.
The default appearance of Pop!_OS is ugly in my opinion. I hate to be cruel, but it's simply true.👿
Luckily with Linux you can pick from many desktop environments such as GNOME, Cinnamon, XFCE, KDE Plasma, MATE, and others. Pop!_OS uses a customized version of GNOME, which I'm not a fan of. Ubuntu also uses GNOME which provides severe UX regression in later releases. Oddly, the personality and distinction of most Linux distros is largely attached to the desktop environment they use. However, as far as I know, most if not all distros can adopt any desktop environment. So if you like Ubuntu but hate GNOME, just install something like Xfce4. Same goes for Pop!_OS. I can't stand it's default UI, so I installed XFCE, which I became familiar from using it in Linux Mint last month. I like XFCE best from those I've tried, though admittedly I'm only familiar with GNOME, XFCE and Cinnamon. The menus of XFCE are very lean and highly customizable, which is primarily what I care about. They can be configured to take up very little screen real estate, unlike the default Pop!_OS menus. I downloaded hundreds of themes in order to find a few I like. It's hard for me to imagine going back to a light theme. Dark themes are the way to go in modern times. For background images I'm ok with solid RGB colors - Red, Green and Blue for my various monitors. In Mint I had outdoor images - which I like - but I figure I might as well save a little video memory and RAM by keeping things simple with solid colors. If I had a brand-new computer with good specs, I'd probably care less about such things. XFCE is also easier on older hardware than other desktop environments.
Because I already became slightly familiar with Linux over the last month or more, it took me considerably less time to get a basic setup going in Pop!_OS than when I did the same in Linux Mint. It's a never-ending tinker fest with Linux though, a "party" that never stops. 🤦
As with the Linux Mint post, I had AI make me some pointless images to use for the cover image on this one. They randomly cycle out of a set of 18. AI refused to properly render the underscore in the name, no matter which free image generator I tried.