To clarify, Cosmic desktop is not the default. It’s very much a WIP. Pop OS uses Gnome by default. They add some nice customizations to it too like tiling support and some enhanced power management options.

Pop OS is Ubuntu based, but they replace Snap with Flatpak, package a kernel as close to mainline as possible, and include Nvidia drivers (if you grab the Nvidia installer ISO).

I used Pop for a few years, loved it. Last I used it they still defaulted to Xorg instead of Wayland and that was a no go for me with an eGPU so I switched to Opensuse.

After trying i3 and sway for a bit I’ve landed on just using Forge and Gnome. I really would recommend trying it. It’s my daily driver for work.

It’s a fully dynamic tiling solution and on top of a traditional DE.

Have you checked out OpenSUSE MicroOS at all? It’s similar to Silverblue. Runs great on my Framework 13 with Intel 13th Gen.

I wouldn’t be too concerned with “officially” supported Linux on the Framework. It is a very Linux friendly machine. The folks they have supporting Linux are active in the Framework forums and very helpful.

I eventually went back to my tried and true Debain. I loved the immutable OS thing for all the reasons people have listed here. My one issue was direct access to external devices can be a pain. IE: I just could not get USB passthrough working with virt-viewer after all my fiddiling.

“If Books Could Kill”, they cover the airport books that captured our hearts and ruined our minds.

One of my new favorites.