Pop!_OS Upgrades To The Linux 6.8 Kernel

[Artim]

This is complete nonsense.




The same is true of any Linux distribution and organization: Arch, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, KDE, GNOME, etc. It either runs on the hardware that their maintainers have on hand, or they don't see any issues and release it. It's also true of every Linux kernel maintainer only being able to test the hardware they have on hand.

There's a much higher chance that System76's hardware lab is able to identify hardware regressions affecting a wider population because System76 sells a lot of systems with a wide range of hardware. On top of all the testing performed by Linux kernel and driver maintainers, and the testing performed by Debian and Ubuntu, System76 adds an additional layer of testing with a wide range of hardware in the System76 hardware lab. Not only does QA test System76 hardware, but the HP Dev One and any personal hardware that they have access to.

Therefore, System76's testing coverage is greater than you will see in other distributions. After all, how many distributions do you know are testing every possible combination of AMD/Intel/NVIDIA hybrid graphics laptops with the latest AMD/Intel/NVIDIA hardware? As well as testing the latest AMD/Intel/NVIDIA desktop configurations? QA even tests games on Steam as part of their checklist.

Well who's surprised about the great mmstick crawling out of his hellhole to spew nonsense? I can tell you I'm not.

You really overestimate the importance of the company you're doing your worst at. Of course I'd never call Arch or Fedora stable, but it says a lot when pretty much any Distro that's not specific to a single system builder does a way better job at general hardware support than you guys will ever be capable of. May it be that they aren't rushing out updates nobody actually tested just for some ridiculous dick comparisons? Who knows...

Also, with an Open Source project that widely used it usually help to just wait. Just because you don't have a certain type of hardware to test for doesn't mean nobody has. And since Linux isn't fire-and-forget, waiting for a few weeks will result in the accumulation in a great many bug fixes. This very simple fact completely destroys your line of arguments. But I see, basic logic is still too much to ask for at S76, as always.

[Artim]

I'm sorry you have to describe how Linux works on a Linux forum.

Describing and failing miserably. What a surprise...

[Artim]

This is such a bizarre and ass backwards way to look at things. I thought the most interesting part of Michael's post was that they caught the issue with their own testing and none of their users had to deal with regressions from the 6.7 kernel. Of course they aren't testing every random hardware configuration possible that they don't sell. Guess what? Most distros have zero actual testing. They just have some tiered repo structure and let their users get hit by and report all the issues the maintainers don't notice on their own systems. Do you think Debian has a huge hardware lab set up for Unstable or Testing where they thoroughly test new kernels on a bunch of different hardware configurations?

It's saying a lot that Distros without testing are having was less issues than S76 with alleged testing.

[Artim]

Very sorry things didn't go smoothly for you, as you explain in your other comment. Consider this comment of mine just a bit of chitchat, I'm not here to discredit your experience.
I had a hunch Pop!_OS could work better on generic hardware compared to other distros (since they probably still support a range of very diverse Clevos going back many years), and my own experiments proved it. I'll take an OS coming from a company that does actual hardware integration any day compared to, say, Fedora or Ubuntu, that are found on one unimpressive laptop once in a blue moon. I've been on and off Fedora and Arch, tried openSUSE Aeon (prev. MicroOS) for about a year. I have been using Pop on desktop for years, but have been looking far and wide for something more "serious" to use on laptop. Now I realize just how stupid I was, and honestly believe that Pop is the most serious user-oriented distro since the inception of Ubuntu and the days of "Linux for human beings".

I recently wrote on these forums about a laptop that's pretty obscure for the west. I wanted something small, lightweight, with decent battery life (possibly with one hot-swappable battery, like ThinkPads up to the X270 as far as 12" models go), fairly rugged, serviceable, with ISO or JIS keyboard, with a decent screen, and most importantly, no braindead "upwards wedge" shape that cuts into your wrists. I tell you, I've been searching for years. Settled on the Panasonic CF-MX5, the last 12" model in that series, if I understand correctly (only Skylake-U, but I don't need much computational power on the go).
All this to come to a hopefully funny anecdote: I didn't even know it had a gyro before trying Pop!_OS on it. It's a convertible, and it automatically orients itself in any direction, but only Pop does it out of the box.
I had been using it for months with literally useless distros because I was adamant about transitioning to an immutable one. It's not like Pop is ever going to break if I use distroboxes and flatpaks for everything else. I can treat it like it's immutable with the advantage that, if I really need a system-wide package, I don't have to sit in front of the screen for (sometimes literal) hours for the thing to do its job. Immutable distros are absolute pigs right now; only openSUSE has somewhat usable technology.
But enough with my ramblings. Have a good day!

Well, I'd never use Arch or Fedora as an example for anything other than how not to do things. And Ubuntu has it's own bunch of issues, that's why Distros like Pop, Mint and many other unofficial Ubuntu "spin-offs" exist in the first place. And I wish my case was an isolated one. But besides the fact they pretty much have abandoned their Distro for about two years now just for a buzzword-riddled shiny new reimplementation of Gnome. As they say to have less issues with the desktop, but actually because they lost interest and anything written in Rust just causes free media buzz. Because if they actually cared, they'd just had gotten rid of ugly Cosmic theme that just look fallen out of time while Gnome looked more modern with every new version. And they'd have replaced that unusable garbage piece of "store" by Gnome Software, doing the same but not being riddled by bugs and glitches. That would be if they actually wanted to be a beginner friendly distro. But that would be efficient and effective. Instead - today probably even more the then back when they actually updated more than Mesa and the Kernel - their Reddit was filled to the brink with issue reports just nobody have a damn about - besides all the spammy comments void of any content, as a Reddit can't have a chit-chat corner like a proper form, so everything is just a chronological shit show.

[Artim]

They have "Edit on Github" button on that page. So perhaps you can also contribute via pull request.

True. But question is if you would actually would want to do that for such a company. LibreOffice doesn't cost anything, so does the LanguageTool extension - given that you wouldn't want to send all your texts to their servers - and it does have a very good grammar and spelling error detection. Even was superior than what e.g. Word would offer - something you pay for with both your money and your data.

But if people are too lazy to help themselves, incentive to help them just isn't that high.

[Artim]

I am pleasantly surprised. I had no idea they were so soaked.

He's just deflecting from his own incompetence as he's literally working for S76.

[mmstick]

Artim Aren't you the person I had to ban 30 times on Reddit because of trolling and harassment?

https://www.reddit.com/user/Artim2/

I see that you're still the same loudly complaining sore loser that hates that System76 is successfully developing COSMIC in Rust instead of using GNOME. No wonder your only achievement in life is trolling on Phoronix.

[chocolate]

Because if they actually cared, they'd just had gotten rid of ugly Cosmic theme that just look fallen out of time while Gnome looked more modern with every new version. And they'd have replaced that unusable garbage piece of "store" by Gnome Software, doing the same but not being riddled by bugs and glitches. That would be if they actually wanted to be a beginner friendly distro.

You mean the theme resulting from the use of libcosmic (I think) as seen in some of the preliminary screenshots? Can't say I dislike it, but personally I'd love for the colors of the "Pop" theme to stay around (i.e. what's in the stable version of Pop!_OS). I find the slightly earthy tones, leaning towards brown, very pleasing. I have crazy nostalgia for the first versions of Ubuntu for this reason lol. And the orange and cyan accents give a good contrast both in light and dark mode; in addition, they themselves are good complimentary colors. I guess we'll see how far themeability goes in COSMIC: if it's granular enough, the default theme will be a moot point.
Their current Pop!_Shop app is already built on different technology than GNOME Software, I think, but unfortunately I must admit it's still the weakest point of the DE. As part of treating the base system as an immutable one, I definitely want to upgrade it infallibly via a robust GUI going forward. Fingers crossed this is going to be a reality with the new COSMIC store. They are moving very quickly and never seem to make a false step. Definitely a space to watch with a healthy dose of optimism.
Cheers!

[mmstick]

Artim's been complaining for 2+ years that everything System76 develops in Rust is garbage and that we should scrap our GTK theme and ship GNOME without any patches or extensions instead of building our own desktop environment. Truly the dumbest idea of all time.

[rmfx]

Artim's been complaining for 2+ years that everything System76 develops in Rust is garbage and that we should scrap our GTK theme and ship GNOME without any patches or extensions instead of building our own desktop environment. Truly the dumbest idea of all time.

Don't pay attention to this tiny tiny minority of mentally ill and toxic people
COSMIC is massively popular and everyone is super excited for it. Actually, I never saw a project that has so many people excited about while still being in alpha stage.

Unfortunately, OSes and desktop environments are a bit like game consoles. Some lame people will insult those not using the same platform as the one they choose. That will likely always happen...