My First Experience with Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS on My Acer Nitro V16 Gaming Laptop

Last year, I purchased an Acer Nitro V16 laptop for a project I was bidding on. It's a powerful machine with 16 GB of RAM, an AMD Ryzen 7 processor, and an NVIDIA RTX 4050 Max-Q GPU. However, I haven't used it much until now—I prefer my desktop for daily work and stick to my old MacBook when traveling.

I've been a Windows user since I first owned a computer, so switching to Linux felt like a big step. Recently, I came across a video about Pop!_OS that piqued my interest. Pop!_OS is a Linux distribution developed by System76, known for its excellent out-of-the-box support for NVIDIA graphics and gaming. Intrigued, I downloaded the latest version—Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS, based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS—and installed it on my laptop.

Pop!_OS Login Screen

About Section of My Laptop

The installation was smooth, and most of the apps I use daily worked perfectly right away: VS Code, Brave browser, and even some Steam games ran without issues. I'm planning to test some high-resolution games soon to see how the RTX 4050 performs under Linux.

Overall, my experience has been excellent. The latest version introduces the brand-new COSMIC Desktop environment, a complete departure from the GNOME-based setup in previous Pop!_OS releases or standard Ubuntu/Fedora desktops.

Desktop UI of COSMIC Desktop

A Bit More About Pop!_OS and the COSMIC Desktop

Pop!_OS is a user-friendly Linux distribution created by System76, optimized for productivity, gaming, and creative workflows. It's particularly popular among users with NVIDIA hardware due to its seamless driver support and dedicated ISO variants.

The standout feature in Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS (released on December 11, 2025) is the debut of COSMIC, System76's custom desktop environment built entirely in Rust for better performance, memory safety, and security. Unlike traditional desktops, COSMIC is highly modular and customizable, with features like advanced automatic window tiling, intuitive workspace management, multi-monitor support, and a modern, sleek aesthetic.

It includes a suite of native COSMIC apps (such as Files, Terminal, Store, and Text Editor) that are faster and more responsive. COSMIC is Wayland-native, offering improved security and smoothness, and it's designed not just for Pop!_OS but for the broader open-source community—it's available on other distros too.

If you're considering switching to Linux or trying something fresh, Pop!_OS with COSMIC is definitely worth a look—it's beautiful, efficient, and feels like a modern take on the desktop experience!