Very much not a fan of recent Gnome last time I tried it (some months ago). Performance is so very bad. Dropped frames everywhere (maybe blame Linux for generally having fine-grained performance that isn't exactly bad but is more variable and unpredictable than other platforms) and generally sluggish. Used to like Gnome, but back then it was much lighter than KDE, but now the tables have (much to my surprise) entirely turned.

I like the idea of pop!_os but part of the flagship experience is a big ol' Javascript extension on top of Gnome. I can't imagine I'd find that enjoyable.

Last time I had a Linux working and I didn't hate the experience was a "so small I could drown it in a tub" install/config of Void with mostly Suckless tools/programs. I find Linux to be most tolerable in those kinds of configs, these days. Doesn't do much, but what it does do actually works and behaves fairly consistently. Start trying to get fancy, and the machine begins to feel haunted in a hurry.

Funnily I just did. My machine has now one entry in grub that doesn't work because pop didn't bother to sign the kernel or prompt me for it and I'm using secure boot.

Oh man, I’ve used Pop exclusively for 2 years now. I run it on a Thinkpad X1 Extreme, and I love it. I switched from using Macs (for the better part of 20 years) after the whole 2018 keyboard debacle. I can’t imagine going back. Only downside is the terrible battery life on the X1 Extreme.