The first alpha release of Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS with the highly anticipated COSMIC desktop environment has been released for download and testing.
Yes, the wait is over!
System76, a company known for selling computers running Linux, has released the first public alpha of their new desktop environment, COSMIC.
COSMIC is built using the Rust programming language, known for its performance and reliability. This alpha release, available alongside Pop!_OS 24.04 alpha, showcases COSMIC's capabilities, including a new design language, enhanced theming, and a modular applet system.
While currently in its early stages and not without its quirks, COSMIC aims to provide a compelling alternative to established desktop environments like GNOME and KDE.
Table of Contents
Key Features of COSMIC
COSMIC is designed to be a modern, customizable, and performant desktop environment. Some of its key features include:
- Built from scratch using Rust: This design choice prioritizes stability, security, and performance.
- Familiar yet Refined User Experience: It retains the core UX elements of the previous Pop!_OS releases, ensuring a smooth transition for existing users, while reimplementing them to allow for future expansion and improvements.
- Wayland-First Approach: COSMIC is designed primarily for Wayland, but retains compatibility for legacy X11 applications via XWayland.
- Auto-tiling, Enhanced Theming, and New Core Apps: The alpha release boasts features like improved auto-tiling, a new theming system allowing custom themes to be shared, and a suite of new core apps like a file manager, terminal, and text editor.
What's new in COSMIC Desktop
Well, I have been using COSMIC Epoch 1 on my Fedora machine for a while. Some new features included with the release of COSMIC Epoch 1 (alpha 1) on Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS are given below:
New Design Language and Theming:
COSMIC introduces a new design language and a comprehensive theming system that allows users to customize colours and create shareable themes.
Please note that, at least for now, this theming system primarily affects COSMIC and its native apps built with the libcosmic/iced toolkit. Other GTK/Qt/Electron apps will continue to use the standard Pop GTK theme.
Horizontal Workspaces:
Users now have the option to use horizontal workspaces, in addition to the vertical workspaces that were previously available.
Panel Applets and Customisation:
COSMIC features new panel applets and provides enhanced customisation options for both the dock and the top bar.
The applets run as independent processes, meaning an error in one won’t affect the rest of the system.
New Core Apps:
The release includes a suite of new core apps built specifically for COSMIC. These include a file manager, terminal, text editor, settings app, and a new "Pop Store" software hub.
Beyond these highlights, there are several other smaller features and improvements, including:
- Enhanced Dock and Top Bar Customisation: You can now adjust the placement of applets, the dock size, and even combine both panels into one.
- Streamlined Auto-tiling: COSMIC's auto-tiling feature, which arranges windows in a grid, has been improved and now supports more layouts.
- Sticky Windows: You can designate certain windows as "sticky", ensuring they remain visible even when you switch workspaces.
It's worth noting that COSMIC is designed to be adaptable and customizable by Linux distributions. This means other distributions can package COSMIC with their own branding, preferred configurations, and even create unique features and user experiences using the COSMIC Applets system.
What's Done, What's Left, and Future Plans
The alpha release includes the core features necessary for day-to-day use. However, being an alpha release, it's not feature-complete and still has a lot of work in progress. Some of the areas still under development include:
Settings: Numerous settings pages are yet to be completed, including sound, user accounts, network settings, accessibility options, and default applications. For example, I chose Asia/Kolkata as my preferred timezone. But after reboot, it's gone back to Europe timezone.
Compositor: The compositor, responsible for rendering and managing windows, still needs work on features like DPMS (screen turning off), a frosted glass effect for UI elements, variable refresh rate support, and HDR and Night Light functionality.
Other Features: Accessibility features, calendar integration, and improvements to workspace window management and animations are also planned.
System76 plans to release "Epoch 2", the second official version of COSMIC, in about a year. Epoch 2 is planned to introduce features like touchscreen support.
Download Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS alpha with COSMIC Desktop
If you're interested to try COSMIC Epoch 1 (Alpha 1) on the Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS alpha, head over to the COSMIC Download page and download your preferred edition. ISOs are available for Intel/AMD and Nvidia hardware.
I tested the Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS Alpha 1 briefly on Proxmox VE. The performance is not bad. Despite being an Alpha release, it is stable and fast. I haven't try it yet in a real hardware. Some users say it performs much faster on a physical machine. Give it a try and let us your experience via the comment section below.
