I looked at other distros on Distrowatch, and was attracted by part of the description of Pop! OS therein: "Pop!_OS is designed to have a minimal amount of clutter on the desktop without distractions in order to allow the user to focus on work." But the Pop! OS website describes it as: "an operating system for STEM and creative professionals who use their computer as a tool to discover and create."

Besides that the latter description accomplished nothing but to make my eyes roll, having come off as simply pompous, I'm not sure how seriously I should take it. Is that nothing but marketing copy (the creator, System76, is a business), or does it actually mean Pop! is sort of a niche distro?

I'm still going to have a look for myself.

In no way niche, just another Debian (via Ubuntu) derivative, with shiny stuff added.

Edit: the STEM reference is probably because of the TensorFlow and CUDA packages.

Evo2.

1 members found this post helpful.

I agree. It's yet another *buntu with some limited customization for, as far as I can tell, branding.

System 76 computers used ship with Ubuntu, then System 76 developed Pop! and started shipping it.

Thanks for the post.

It complies with both descriptions in the original post - a general-purpose OS with developers in mind. As a 40+ y.o. guy who has recently discovered the Linux world and prefers stability over novelty and an optimal choice of necessary tools for everyday use and programming, I've been using it for 3 years now and am quite satisfied with the overall performance offered by the system. No clutter indeed, plus it was one of the main reasons why I began learning programming.