The System76 team has announced the release of Pop!_OS 21.04. It is the latest stable release of user-friendly GNU/Linux distribution created by System76 - A popular GNU/Linux hardware vendor.

Pop!_OS 21.04 is coming with a lot of improvements experience. Especially, it has further improved the COSMIC customizations to accommodate a variety of use cases.

Pop!_OS 21.04 release

What’s new in Pop!_OS 21.04?

The noteworthy changes in the Pop!_OS 21.04 release are briefly explained below.

  • COSMIC configuration during initial setup - While the initial setup, Pop!_OS will ask the users to personalize their defaults. During this initial setup, the user can see how the current settings will look like. Users may also make the changes later.
  • Dock - The COSMIC dock is much more customizable now. It can either fill the screen or remain at the center. Or arrange at the top, bottom, left, or right side. Or can configure to intelligently hide, or can customize icon size and a lot more.
  • Activities Overview - Activities Overview is split into two views: Workspaces and Applications.
  • Top Bar - The items on the top bar can be customized/removed to match users’ mental habits.
  • Super Key - With the default configuration, the super key will trigger the launcher. From the launcher, users can select applications, settings, perform web searches, do calculations, run a command, etc. If you don’t like the super key opening launcher, you can customize it to open either workspaces or applications view.
  • Trackpad Gestures - Some trackpad gestures help you trigger some action, which includes the below.
    • Swipe four fingers right on the trackpad to open the Applications view
    • Swipe four fingers left to open the Workspaces view
    • Swipe four fingers up or down to switch to another workspace
    • Swipe with three fingers to switch between open windows
  • Other changes - The other changes in Pop!_OS 21.04 includes, optional minimize and maximize buttons, tiling windows with mouse, improved launcher’s search algorithm to prioritize applications, etc.

How to upgrade before version 20.10 reaches End of Life in July

In Pop!_OS, the system upgrade is user simple. If you want an upgrade from the previous release 20.10, ensure you have applied all the updates. Then go to System Update in the Control Center, then perform the upgrade.

If you prefer a more advanced way to upgrade, you may use the terminal application. Open terminal from the desktop or with Super + T key combination, then input following commands. Provide the password if asked.

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade
pop-upgrade release upgrade

Downlaod Pop!_OS 21.04 ISO

For further information, read Pop!_OS 21.04 official release announcement in project’s website.

Pop!_OS 21.04 screenshots

01 Desktop01 Desktop02 About Pop_OS02 About Pop_OS03 Launcher03 Launcher04 Fullscreen Launcher04 Fullscreen Launcher05 Application Overview05 Application Overview06 Nautilus06 Nautilus07 Terminal07 Terminal08 Multitasking Overview08 Multitasking Overview09 Overview with light theme09 Overview with light theme10 Tiling Menu10 Tiling Menu11 Tiling Enabled11 Tiling Enabled12 Tiling Enabled - 212 Tiling Enabled - 213 Firefox13 Firefox14 Videos14 Videos15 LibreOffice Writer15 LibreOffice Writer16 About LibreOffice16 About LibreOffice17 Calendar17 Calendar18 Background Settings18 Background Settings19 Appearance Settings19 Appearance Settings20 Dock Settings20 Dock Settings21 Workspace Settings21 Workspace Settings22 Pop Shop22 Pop Shop23 System Monitor23 System Monitor24 GNOME Terminal24 GNOME Terminal25 Calendar Widget25 Calendar Widget26 System Menu26 System Menu27 Shutdown Confirmation27 Shutdown Confirmation

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