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Linux hardware vendor System76 launched today Pop!_OS Linux 22.04 LTS as the latest stable and long-term supported release of their Ubuntu/GNOME-based distribution for System76 machines and the general public.
Derived from the recently released Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) operating system series, Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS is powered by the newer Linux 5.16 kernel, which unfortunately reached end-of-life (EOL) earlier this month, rather than Ubuntu’s Linux 5.15 LTS kernel, in an attempt to provide users with top-notch hardware support, as well as with all the new features and improvements present in the Linux 5.16 series.
Highlights of the Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS release include a GNOME 42-based COSMIC UI, unchanged from the previous Pop!_OS 21.10 release, support for scheduling automatic updates for Debian, Flatpak, and Nix packages in the “OS Upgrade & Recovery” panel in Settings, a new System76 Scheduler that optimizes the performance of the OS by directing resources to the window in focus for a much smoother experience, as well as PipeWire as the default audio processing system.
The Pop!_Shop software manager tool has been improved in this release to offer users a new “Recently Updated” homepage section that highlights newly added or updated apps, improved reliability for package operations, window tiling support, progress bar support for the Update and Install buttons, as well as more responsive operations thanks to a bunch of recent backend code improvements.
Pop!_OS 22.04’s Settings app comes with the ability to set Dark Mode and Light Mode backgrounds from the Background panel in the Desktop settings, along with the ability to search for Desktop, Background, Appearance, Dock, and Workspaces settings directly from the Launcher, and a new Support panel for quick access to various troubleshooting resources from System76.
Among other noteworthy changes, Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS sets update notifications to appear weekly by default in an attempt to reduce distractions, improves multi-monitor and HiDPI support, shows installed NVIDIA drivers in Pop!_Shop and offers support for installing older versions, adds RDP support by default for remote desktop use, adds support for resumable updates, and adds a funky new user icon.
Of course, there are also numerous under-the-hood improvements to make Pop!_OS Linux a faster distribution. For example, System76 limited the maximum disk capacity for storing journald logs to 1GB, updated the Pop!_OS upgrade service to only activate when checking for or performing release upgrades, and improved the CPU scaling governor to keep your CPU running at the optimal frequency for your system.
Upgrades from Pop!_OS 21.10 are possible through the first-run wizard of the live ISO, but for new deployments you can download the Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS images for Intel/AMD or NVIDIA systems right now from the official website linked below. Being an LTS release, Pop!_OS 22.04 should be supported for the next few years. Meanwhile, check out our first look video below for a quick overview of the new Pop!_OS release.
Last updated 2 years ago
