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…


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.
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:
sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgradein the terminal .htop,btopor the built-in system monitor to see if the CPU or RAM is maxing out when opening a program.I’ll try that out, tysm!