The Pop!_OS team have just released the latest Alpha 7 version of their brand new Desktop environment called COSMIC. This release introduces numerous new features and improvements, including workspace management enhancements, accessibility options like high contrast mode and colour filters, global shortcuts for applications, and scaling optimisations.
Please note that this isn't the finished project. It's an alpha, which means it's still under development and you might stumble upon a few hiccups. But trust me, even in this early stage, there's a lot to get excited about!
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What is COSMIC Desktop?
COSMIC is a brand-new desktop environment that's being built with a clear vision: to give you more control and create a more beautiful and efficient experience.
The idea is to "liberate the computer" by allowing for really custom OS experiences, whether you're a regular user, a coding whizz, or someone who loves tinkering with their tech.
It all started because the people at System76, the company behind Pop!_OS, listened to feedback from people using their operating system. They wanted to make things even better, so they decided to build COSMIC from the ground up.
One of the key things about COSMIC is that it's designed to be modular. Think of it like building blocks – different parts of the desktop can be mixed and matched. This means that different Linux distributions (like different flavours of Linux) can easily package COSMIC with their own look and feel, without having to mess about with separate branding.
COSMIC is written in Rust programming language, which is known for being stable, secure, and really good for performance.
What's New in COSMIC Alpha 7?
Alright, let's discuss the new features and overall improvements in this Alpha 7 release. There's a fair bit to unpack, so let's have a look at some of the highlights:
Smarter Workspaces
If you're someone who likes to keep their digital life organised with workspaces (those separate virtual desktops you can switch between), then you'll be pleased with the updates.
Now, you can click and drag your workspaces to reorder them, even moving them between different monitors.
Ever wanted to keep a few important workspaces always there, no matter what? Now you can! Pinning a workspace stops it from disappearing when it's empty.
To do this, just hover your mouse over the preview of the workspace and click the little pin icon. Combine this with naming your workspaces, and you'll be a productivity ninja in no time!
Making Your Computer More Accessible
It's fantastic to see that COSMIC is putting a real focus on making computing more accessible to everyone.
Alpha 7 introduces some brilliant new features:
- High Contrast Mode: If you find it difficult to see things on your screen, this mode automatically creates a theme with higher contrast, making elements easier to distinguish. COSMIC's theming system calculates this automatically.
- Colour Filters: For those with common forms of colourblindness (Deuteranopia, Protanopia, and Tritanopia), you can now apply colour filters. There's even a grayscale filter for people with sensitive eyesight. You can find these options in the Accessibility Settings.
- Colour Inversion: This changes the theme colours using a different calculation, which can also help people with colourblindness differentiate between similar colours.
- Mono Sound: If you have hearing loss in one ear, this feature combines the left and right sound channels into a single channel, so you don't miss anything.
They've also made improvements to the Magnifier, which helps you zoom in on parts of your screen. You can now disable the overlay and the Super + Scroll shortcut if you don't need them, and they've fixed a few bugs too.
Helpful Hints with Tooltips
Ever wondered what a certain icon or button does? Now, when you hover your mouse over things in the app tray, workspaces, app library, and launcher, a little tooltip will pop up to tell you what it is.
It's a small thing, but it can make learning your way around much easier! For example, hovering over the icon for the app store will show "COSMIC Store".
Shortcuts That Work Everywhere (Almost!)
Global shortcuts are a clever idea that lets you use keyboard shortcuts for specific applications even when those applications aren't the one you're currently using. This could be really handy for things like push-to-talk in a game or muting your microphone during a call.
This feature is turned off by default to protect your privacy, but you can customise which keys trigger these shortcuts in the settings.
Better Looking Apps, No Matter the Screen
If you've got a fancy high-resolution monitor, you might have noticed that some older applications don't always scale perfectly, sometimes looking a bit blurry.
COSMIC Alpha 7 introduces new settings for XWayland fractional scaling to tackle this. You'll find options in the Cosmic Settings under "Applications-> X11 Window System Application Scaling" that let you optimise how these older apps are displayed, either making them appear crisp or matching your screen resolution.
Getting Around Your Desktop Faster
The developers have tweaked some of the keyboard shortcuts to make navigating your desktop feel more intuitive.
For example, when you're using the Super key and arrow keys to move between stacked windows, the original window will stay visible as long as you hold Super.
They've also made changes to how you switch between workspaces and displays, and you can now even zoom in and out of your desktop using Super + and Super -.
Finding Files in a Flash
The COSMIC Files app (the file manager) now has a handy seek-ahead search feature. Just start typing the first letter of a file or folder on the current page, and it will automatically fill in the path and give you suggestions to speed things up.
You can enable this in the View settings of COSMIC Files.
Faster Package Installation and Updates
When I update my COSMIC system, I wondered how it is significantly faster compared to other distros such as Ubuntu or Linux Mint. As per the System76 engineer's comment on Reddit, this is because the apt repositories for Pop!_OS are stored on Amazon CloudFront including a full mirror of the Ubuntu repository.
Audio Improvements
In the Sound Settings, you'll now find a Left-Right balance scale. This lets you control the volume in each ear independently, which could be useful if you have different hearing levels in each ear.
More Bug Fixes Compared to Previous Versions
Behind the scenes, the team has been hard at work squashing a whole load of bugs. This Alpha 7 release includes a significant number of fixes aimed at reducing CPU usage, improving stability, and generally making things run smoother.
Things like Bluetooth and audio issues causing high CPU usage have been addressed, along with many fixes for the file manager and other parts of the system.
Try COSMIC Alpha 7
Feeling curious and want to take COSMIC Alpha 7 for a spin? You can try it out on Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS alpha. You can even try it on other Linux distributions like Fedora, NixOS, Arch, openSUSE, Aeryn OS, Redox OS, and CachyOS, with instructions available for each on the COSMIC website.
Just remember, it's an alpha release, so it's not meant for your main, important computer just yet, as you might run into some unexpected behaviour. It's more for testing and getting a feel for what's coming.
What's Next for COSMIC?
The team is working hard towards the first proper release of COSMIC. Right now, they're focusing on finishing up the Settings pages, fixing any remaining bugs, and improving accessibility.
The next big step will be a beta release.
There are also more exciting features planned for the future, like a "frosted" blur effect and a night light mode, though these might come after the initial release.
The first release will include core applications like COSMIC Terminal, Files, Edit (text editor), Store (app store), and Settings.
Conclusion
COSMIC Desktop Alpha 7 is shaping up to be a really interesting and promising development in the Linux desktop ecosystem. With its focus on customisation, workflow enhancements, accessibility, and performance, it's got the potential to offer a fantastic user experience.
While it's still early days, this Alpha 7 release gives us a great glimpse of the exciting future that lies ahead for COSMIC and Linux users.
Have you tired it already? Great! What are your first thoughts on COSMIC Alpha 7? Are there any features you're particularly excited about? Let us know in the comments below!
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