When comparing Recalbox vs Pop!_OS, the Slant community recommends Recalbox for most people. In the question“What is the best OS for gaming?” Recalbox is ranked 2nd while Pop!_OS is ranked 3rd. The most important reason people chose Recalbox is:
It has a simple and easy to use UI.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Easy user interface
It has a simple and easy to use UI.
Pro PLUG & PLAY - if you boot on it, it works
- It can be portable and ready to use.
- You can dual boot (wiki support for dual booting.)
- Updates and support by the community.
Pro Easy to configure
Almost all configuration are done via user interface.
Pro Faster
Build on top of buildroot, the system only have the necessary services to run.
Pro Custom EmulationStation built for Recalbox
EmulationStation is customized to fit Recalbox features, making the configuration a lot easier.
Pro Pop! makes GNOME look really good
If you're a fan of flat desktop interfaces reminiscent of Material design on Android, you'll like the theme that comes as a default in Pop! OS. The desktop and title bars all use a bright turquoise theme that makes the interface feel happy and borderline retro-chic. I found it to be like something you'd find printed on a ringer t-shirt.
Pro User-friendly installer
The visually appealing and easy to use installer makes dual booting as easy as it can be.
Pro Nice gnome theme dy default
Has nice gnome theme looks really good.
Pro Ready to play games, out of the box
If you still miss how easy it was to just click-install and play games in Windows, Pop! will give you that similar expectation.
Pro A separate NVIDIA version
Most linux distros seem to hate Nvidia's graphics cards e.g. Fedora and OpenSUSE. System76 have decided to be kind. They have decided to form a good relationship with Nvidia fans and Nvidia itself. By creating a separate installation media that is dedicated for providing support to Nvidia's graphics cards. Even going as far as putting Nvidia's driver updates on Pop!_Shop for users to easily access and install.
Pro Optimized for modern hardware
Whereas normally, to use a brand new computer with a Linux OS, you would typically try to use unstable and sometimes buggy drivers - or struggle without hardware support until a stable release comes along.
Pro Made by a hardware seller
System76 is a hardware company. It configures machines to ship with Linux pre-installed. This means its entire business model centers around delivering a quality desktop Linux experience.
As a result, the company pours more attention onto the desktop. It can fix visual issues and may be able to provide a smoother overall experience than you would have installing a different version of Linux on your machine yourself. Providing Pop!_OS also empowers System76 to make certain fixes for users directly rather than having to coordinate with Canonical or the broader Ubuntu community.
Cons
Con Toxic community
If you're not French, they will make zero effort to help you. Switch to Batocera, their community is miles ahead from Recalbox.
Con Needs the whole disk
There is no option to install the system in dual-boot with another OS on one hard disk drive.
Con 64-bit only
Some older PCs still have 32 Bit processors. This limitation will be a major con for those who use an older PC since they will not be able to install, run it in a VM or live media