5 EASY Things To Do After Installing POP!_OS

BrandonHopkins · June 29, 2020

Reviewing 5 things everyone should consider doing after installing Pop!_OS. Important tweaks, tips, and updates are essential to making sure you have a positive experience with this new Ubuntu based distro of Linux.

1. Update and Upgrade

After Installing POP!_OS you need to update your system. It’s easy, simple, and a must. Run these codes in terminal. Doing this will ensure everything else you do will go as smoothly as possible. The second command will update everything including all applications on your freshly installed

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

2. Enable Minimize and Maximize Buttons

Pop!_OS is comes packed with nearly everything you need for a perfect Linux distro. With this said this seems to be the silliest item on the list. Why is this not enabled by default? I don’t know; however, adding it is rather easy.

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks

Running this command will install gnome-tweaks. Once it is installed search for “tweaks” under activities. When it opens click on the ‘Window Titlebars’ tab to the left and then enable both options under the ‘Titlebar Buttons’ section.

Enable both Maximize and Minimize Toggle Switches.

This software will allow you to accomplish way more than just this. Check out all the different settings and configuration options to get the most out of your system.

3. Install Dash to Dock

“A dock for the Gnome Shell. This extension moves the dash out of the overview transforming it in a dock for an easier launching of applications and a faster switching between windows and desktops. Side and bottom placement options are available.”

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/307/dash-to-dock/

Click the link above and on that page click on ‘Click here to install browser extension’ and then allow the installation. Once it downloads click ‘Add’ to enable this in Firefox. This makes installing these extensions super easy.

Click ‘Click here to install browser extension’ and then ‘Continue Installation’

Now refresh the page and there will be a toggle switch set to off. Click on it and it will prompt the installation. Make sure you click ‘Install’ when the option comes up.

Once it is installed the dock will appear on the left of the desktop. If you right click on the bottom ‘Show Application’ button there will be a option to open the dock settings. I personally opted for ‘Panel Mode’ giving a Ubuntu feel in use to.

4. Load up on Apps

This operating system doesn’t come with hardly any applications. This is intentional. The OS is clean and it allows the user full control on what is loaded into the system. If you view all the applications it wont even make up an entire page.

Pop!_OS makes this really easy with the Pop!_Shop, a app store re-branded and borrowed from ElementaryOS. Under Pop!_Picks there are a ton of applications that are worth looking at. You’ll notice that many of them are intended for coders and computer scientists.

Some of the applications I’ll install right away include; Resolve, GIMP, VLC, Steam, Spotify, VirtualBox, Audacity, and FileZilla.

5. Install RestrictedFormats

After Installing Pop!_OS you notice it includes all free and open source media formats. To get other popular media formats you will need to install additional codecs. This will allow you to run popular non-free media formats, including DVD, MP3, Quicktime, and Windows Media formats. All you need to do is run the code below in the terminal.

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

If you’re having issues agreeing to terms of service hit the tab key to cycle though the selection options.

If you want to be able to play DVDs run the following command in terminal.

sudo dpkg-reconfigure libdvd-pkg

If you have any issues doing any of this after installing Pop!_OS there is a guide where you can follow some of the tips from System 76. View their guide here. Make sure you install VLC as it supports nearly every media file format.

Another recommendation is to check out our article on Installing Java in Linux. That page will help you easily get Java up and running on Pop_OS.