Pop!_OS 21.10

Keyboard-driven Jonni Bidwell is excited by the prospect of new shortcut keys and swish application launchers. Will his enthusiasm be curbed?

- Jonni Bidwell

Linux distribution

We’ve been using Pop!_OS on a seventh-generation Dell XPS 13 since the 20.04 LTS release, so were excited to see how the new edition worked. The upgrade was smooth (if a little slow, which was probably the result of our root partition being quite full) and as is becoming the norm, takes place after a reboot in a minimal environment behind a splash screen.

To make the most out of Pop it’s worth learning some keyboard shortcuts. They occasionally differ from Gnome’s incantations, but there’s an undeniable consistency to them. Being able to launch the file manager, web browser and terminal with simple Super-key combos, for example, will save you a lot of effort compared to doing so with a mouse. All the more so if you’re using a trackpad. If that’s the case, then good news. Pop has (even) more three and four-fingered trackpad gestures. So (on supported hardware, which happily includes our XPS) an authoritative swipe right will bring up the new Applications Library, and in the opposite direction will summon the Workspaces view.

The last release introduced a tiny, efficient launcher to replace Gnome’s full-screen affair. This is now complemented with a medium-sized Applications Library (what you used to see when you clicked the grid icon in Gnome’s in your face launcher). Applications are categorised into Office, System and Utility rubrics. Or you can search, which will also show programs available from the Pop!_Shop. If you’re happy with the small launcher you may not use this so much, but it’s nice to see large application icons when you’re browsing.