Moving to Pop OS

These are notes for myself, chronically my learn linux by doing experiences when moving to a Linux Distro, known as Pop OS. So after a bit of research to confirm I could keep using the software I use, I backed up my data and made the switch. The main reasons I choose Pop OS include;

  • Pop OS is a flavour of Ubuntu, which I’ve used before.
  • It has NVidia graphics card support,
  • And why not, really

Research

There were a few changes out of the gate I needed to make to support what I usually use. And most of the list are available on Linux and a simple sudo apt install ... to get working, but there have been a few exceptions.

Programming

  • PyCharm for programming and teaching
  • Visual Studio Code for the same, but for work.
  • Notepad++, because I like it, but it did require WINE

Multimedia

  • Blender for 3D Animation, modelling and design
    • apt install blender
  • Ultimaker’s Cura for 3D printing
    • via the Pop Store
  • Darktable
    • preinstalled
  • Krita
    • apt-get install krita
  • Inkscape
    • preinstalled
  • OBS for screen recording
    • apt install ffmpeg
    • apt install obs-studio
  • DaVinci resolve for video editing

Games

  • Steam, and most of my Steam Library came over 🙂 or at least the important games, well the ones I go back to.
    • Via the Pop Store
  • Artemis, fun bridge simulator (via WINE)
  • Arkenforge, for local virtual tabletop. (also via WINE, but I’m still working out the bugs)

Just in case

  • Virtual Box for handling the few windows app that do not run natively on Linux 🙁 Mainly for Affinity Photo, Designer, & Publisher.
    • apt install virtualbox
    • The Affinity was installed on Windows 10 inside Virtual Box

First Steps & Hiccups

The first thing I did was install KDE (a windows like Desktop Environment) and Terminator (an improved terminal)
apt install terminator
apt install kde-standard

My mouse when buggy (well almost unusable), I found the drivers and with a apt install openrazer-meta the problem was solved.

Most of the software has been very easy to add, but as I found the solutions to the edge cases I’ll update things.