Pop!_OS, the popular Linux Distribution powered by System76, announced the Beta release of 24.04 LTS few days ago.
As the version number says, it’s based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, but features Linux Kernel 6.16 and its own COSMIC desktop environment.
Pop!_OS is developed by System76, a American Linux computer manufacturer. It features COSMIC desktop, which was previously a customized GNOME desktop, but now a standalone desktop environment built from scratch.
Since version 18.04, Pop!_OS updated regularly with versions based on every Ubuntu releases. And, it was ranked as 12th popular Linux Distribution according to Google Trends Scores between Jan 2023 and Jan 2024.
The development however slows down since 22.04. There’s no Pop!_OS 22.10, 23,04, or 23.10.
The first Pop!_OS 24.04 development release (first alpha) was available in August of last year. Then, it got another few more alpha releases, and finally announced this Beta few days ago!
This is the first release that ships with new standalone COSMIC Desktop environment. It replaced Nautilus, Gnome Terminal, Gnome Text Editor, and Totem with its own COSMIC specific files, terminal, text editor, and video player apps.
Pop!_Shop is replaced by COSMIC Store, which prefers Flatpak when both Flatpak and Deb are available. And, the GDM display manager is replaced by new COSMIC Greeter with a redesigned login appearance.
Drag’n’dropping files from Wayland apps to X11 apps is not supported so far, though user may use the applications upload option as a work-around until the feature is added.
Other changes include new and redesigned settings app, as well as:
- Single bottom panel layout.
- Variable refresh rate (VRR) support.
- NVIDIA driver 580.82.07.
- Mesa 25.1.5-1
- New fonts, themes, and more.
Get Pop!_OS 24.04 Beta
The official release note as well as the .iso images are available in system76 website via the link below:
For Pop!_OS 22.04 users who want to upgrade to the new beta release, it can be done by opening terminal and run command:
pop-upgrade release upgrade -f
Though, it’s highly recommended to make a backup first, as bugs are expected in beta that may break things!
