I really am enjoying I just received a beautiful new Thelio Mira from System 76 (they don’t advertise here, but they make a great product and I highly recommend them). When I get a new computer I install the programs and add-ons that I want on it. POP_OS is great for this. It is very minimal out of the box, you don’t have to “uninstall” any bloatware. Here is my journey into making this new computer and OS my very own. These are the things to do after installing POP_OS.

Update and Upgrade the OS

Even though I got my shiny new computer direct form the maker of the OS, I still wanted to know that there my system was fully updated and patched. Pop_OS didn’t disappoint me, there were a couple new things that someone had added and now I was up to date. All I had to do is go to the terminal and type in:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

After that, simply hit the enter key and “Y” to agree to everything and it updated.

Install restricted-extras

This will give you some Microsoft fonts that are proprietary, but many people use.

sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Enable SNAP

Pop os natively has support for Flatpak and DEB packages. SNAP come in handy for a lot of things that I want to install.

sudo apt install snapd

After that is completed, reboot the system to apply the changes.

Install Gnome tweaks

Pop OS is Gnome based and the desktop configuration is a bit limited by default. I got around this by installing Gnome tweeks.

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks

Enable UFW

While enabling the firewall is not essential, it does provide an added layer of security which is nice to have.

sudo apt install gufw

Enable the Maximize button

Go to the settings button in the dock then to the Desktop Options, scroll down to find Window controls and click to show the Maximize button.

Setup Restore points

Taking snap shots of your operating system is important and Timeshift makes it easy to do. I recommend keeping it on a backup drive or separate drive from the os itself.

Install Synaptic

Synaptic is an old-school graphical package manager and it makes a good addition to Pop Shop.

sudo apt install synaptic

Disable Bluetooth (if you re not constantly using it)

Go to settings (in the system tray it is the Gear Icon)
Scroll down to Bluetooth
Slide the indicator to the left to turn it off.

Explore the system

Pop_OS is different from Ubuntu and can take sometime to get used to. Luckly I bought a new machine from System 76 and they are great with documentation and have a forum that came in handy a few times. I urge you to “kick the tires” and get used to the operating system. Once you get used to the work flow it is fairly easy to get things done.

There are other things that I am going to install on the system to make it my own, but this will get me started!

Wrapping it all up

It takes time to get things working like you want them to on any new system. These are just some of the things I like, if you have other needs you can use this as a starting point. Some other articles worth looking at are: The best privacy and security software for Linux, the best organization apps for Linux, Linux terminal email clients, and Terminal web browsers. As with anything in the computing world – make it your own and learn while you are doing.

What to Do After Installing Pop_OS