I've mentioned this in a different subcomment, but I should note that the laptop I mentioned in the parent post is "ubuntu certified"[1]. I realize now that this means much less than having "official" support from the manufacturer, but there's certainly a lot of misleading bits about the way these things are marketed.

[1]: https://ubuntu.com/certified/201808-26387

Pop has gone from something that was expected to "just work" to deciding it's more of a developer or enthusiast product.

Linux still needs an 'it just works' version. I really thought pop would be it, but the last year of development has been very disappointing with system breaking updates being pushed (I'm on system 76 hardware).

Debian? Ubuntu? Mint? Linux is mostly it just works versions unless you're only looking for the trendy new thing.

I run debian stable on my headless desktops/television and testing on my laptops. It's so easy it's boring.

My Ubuntu LTS "just works" until the laptop decides it needs to have an heavier connection to download big data, then its wlan infrastructure dies and needs to be restarted.

It "just works" until I decide to view videos online, and despite all my hacking efforts, keeps using software decoding for videos.

It "just works" until I try some 3D stuff that requires GL 4.1, but the AMD open source driver for the GPU only does hardware acceleration up to GL 3.3.

Sleeping "just works" until I wake it up and is in such a frozen state that only taking the battery out makes the booting process work again.

Yeah it just works.

I run debian stable on my headless desktop and I could not get sound to work

I am pretty disappointed with System76. On my Galago with PopOS suspend doesn’t work properly , the fan sometimes goes into super speed mode overnight, the screen flickers when it wakes up from sleep so I have to reboot. It’s definitely not a smooth experience. Support couldn’t help either.