14 DAY TRIAL // System76 engineers are back at work this week, and they're kicking off the new year with another update on the work they will be doing in 2018 for their Ubuntu-based Pop!_OS Linux distribution.
Work on the second release of Pop!_OS Linux will continue this year with a rebase on Canonical's upcoming Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) operating system, due for release on April 26, 2018. The distro will also be released this spring, after Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, and will feature out-of-the-box support for HiDPI displays.
System76 says that it received great feedback from the community in regards to the HiDPI improvements they are adding into Pop!_OS Linux lately, and, besides the fixing many of the reporting issues, they are also working on better integration of the HiDPI daemon into the desktop, including support for tweaking its behavior.
Meet Repo-Man, Pop!_OS Linux's new software sources tool
Another cool new feature coming to Pop!_OS Linux, besides HiDPI, is Repo-Man, an in-house built tool that promises to offer users a more lightweight, distro-agnostic way of changing software sources within the GNU/Linux distribution, and you can see the first screenshots below.
"Happy New Years, Pop!_OS Fans! 2018 is here, and all of us here at System76 are looking forward to working on the challenges that the new year will bring," reads System76's latest blog post. "We have a new project that focuses on how we manage software sources in Pop!_OS. "
Work on the initial setup and installer scripts continues as well, and System76 promises to stay true to the "compelling story" idea behind this concept, which will make the initial configuration of Pop!_OS Linux more natural, fun, and user-friendly for newcomers. Other than that, Pop!_Shop will also see some improvements in 2018.
All in all, Pop!_OS Linux looks to be a great choice for those who will want to migrate from either Microsoft Windows or macOS to an open-source computer operating system in 2018. But, while System76 tries to make Pop!_OS Linux more independent of Ubuntu, the distro will borrow many of its core components and packages.
