--- title: Stop Using Pop!OS — It's Failing New Linux Users in 2026 description: Pop!OS with the Cosmic desktop environment is criticized as unsuitable for new Linux users in 2026. The Cosmic DE is still in beta/alpha stages yet ships as... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/stop-using-pop-os-it-s-failing-new-linux-users-in-2026-gf3ztvfob twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Stop Using Pop!OS — It's Failing New Linux Users in 2026 | daily.dev og:description: Pop!OS with the Cosmic desktop environment is criticized as unsuitable for new Linux users in 2026. The Cosmic DE is still in beta/alpha stages yet ships as... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/stop-using-pop-os-it-s-failing-new-linux-users-in-2026-gf3ztvfob og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Gf3ztvFob.png og:image:alt: Stop Using Pop!OS — It's Failing New Linux Users in 2026 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Stop Using Pop!OS — It's Failing New Linux Users in 2026 **[Chris Titus Tech](https://daily.dev/sources/christitustech)** · 11 min read · 0 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary Pop!OS with the Cosmic desktop environment is criticized as unsuitable for new Linux users in 2026. The Cosmic DE is still in beta/alpha stages yet ships as the default in Pop!OS 24 LTS, which contradicts the stability promise of an LTS release. Key issues include significant memory leaks (Cosmic launcher consuming up to 17GB RAM), GPU/display driver bugs, audio problems, and over 1,700 unaddressed GitHub issues with little community engagement from System76. The author recommends Linux Mint for stability-focused users, Bazzite for gamers, and CachyOS for power users instead. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@andradei** · 0 upvotes > Oh, wasn't Rust supposed save software from memory issues? ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Pop\!\_OS 24.04 LTS Review: Is This the Linux Distro of the Year 2025?](https://daily.dev/posts/pop-os-24-04-lts-review-is-this-the-linux-distro-of-the-year-2025--vwsqqjwms) · It's Foss · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Pop\!\_OS 24.04 LTS & COSMIC Desktop Aim For December Stable Release](https://daily.dev/posts/pop-os-24-04-lts-cosmic-desktop-aim-for-december-stable-release-paq3nrnp1) · Phoronix · 1 upvotes · 1 comments - [Every major Linux distro wants COSMIC, and it hasn't even finished its first year](https://daily.dev/posts/every-major-linux-distro-wants-cosmic-and-it-hasn-t-even-finished-its-first-year-hd27rcwzp) · XDA Developers · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [Pop\!\_OS 24.04 review: Was the two-year wait for COSMIC Desktop worth it?](https://daily.dev/posts/pop-os-24-04-review-was-the-two-year-wait-for-cosmic-desktop-worth-it--do1zdkrnd) · All Things Open · 102 upvotes · 15 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/stop-using-pop-os-it-s-failing-new-linux-users-in-2026-gf3ztvfob) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Stop Using Pop!OS — It's Failing New Linux Users in 2026","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/stop-using-pop-os-it-s-failing-new-linux-users-in-2026-gf3ztvfob","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/stop-using-pop-os-it-s-failing-new-linux-users-in-2026-gf3ztvfob"},"datePublished":"2026-04-20T11:30:31.463Z","dateModified":"2026-04-20T11:30:50.732Z","description":"Pop!OS with the Cosmic desktop environment is criticized as unsuitable for new Linux users in 2026. 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