System76 have today released the first alpha preview for you to try out COSMIC, their brand new home-grown desktop environment. Built with Rust, it should hopefully feel pretty familiar to most Linux users with a visual style that matches up to their current GNOME-based desktop.
While they're building it for their own Pop!_OS, with a alpha iso for Pop, it's designed to be cross-distro and they even have ways for you to test it out directly on a few other distributions already.
Pictured - COSMIC Alpha 1 using automatic tiling for opened windows
Their vision for COSMIC: "COSMIC began as our answer to user feedback we’ve received on improving Pop!_OS. The new desktop environment introduces a custom theming system, streamlined Auto-tiling, new core applications including an app store, and provides you more control over your workflow. Written in the Rust programming language, COSMIC is more stable, more secure, and better optimized for performance."
Keep in mind this is the first alpha build, there will likely be many bugs and unfinished features. Going by the press details they sent this is what's currently complete:
- Settings pages + applets for daily use for most users
- Applets provide many settings needs
- Connecting to bluetooth and wireless networks. Choosing audio input and output devices
- Highlight COSMIC’s unique features
- Panel and Dock Customization
- Appearance and Themes
- OS Interfaces
- Panels, Launcher, App Library, Greeter, Dialogs
- Apps
- Settings, Files, Text Editor, Store, Terminal
- Compositor features
- Auto-Tiling, Snapping (Manual-Tiling), Stacking, and Sticky Windows
- Excellent nvidia hybrid graphics support
- Fractional scaling
- Wayland native with XWayland support
And this is what's still to be done:
- Numerous Settings pages
- Frosted effect for OS interfaces
- Variable refresh rate
- Accessibility
- Initial Setup
- Need to set time manually
- Workspaces features, animations, and refinement
- Lots of COSMIC Files work
- Bug fixes and refinement
- Compositor software rendering
- Testing in VMs requires hardware acceleration
- GNOME Boxes uses software acceleration but it’s pretty smooth
- VirtualBox requires enabling VT-x/AMD-V and Enable Nested Paging
Check it out on the official website.
A promising start to what could be a really interesting Linux desktop environment, although as expected it is on the rough side being in alpha right now you can clearly see where they're going with it. I can imagine this becoming really popular.
When you've tried it be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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NathanaelKStottlemyer Aug 8
I use pop!_OS 22.04 and spun up a virtual box with 24.04 as soon as it dropped.
It was on a virtual box, while I'm video editing, so it was a bit slow, but it seemed pretty good. I could tell it was the virtual box slow and not the DE. It is kind of incomplete (I don't have half the settings I need to manage a computer) and the base apps are minimal (I can find my own though) but I kind of want to use it as my daily driver.
The biggest confusion I had though is whether the Pop!_OS 24.04 release is in alpha. I know COSMIC is in alpha, but until literally today, all information from system_76 seemed to say that they'd ship an alpha (but functional) desktop in a stable Ubuntu base. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem like it's the case (unless they want COSMIC out of alpha before Pop!_OS goes out of alpha?). I hope they hurry, yes I get the latest and greatest kernel and system libraries in Pop!_OS 22.04, but it's still a two-year-old distribution and on my brand-new adder WS their customized gnome was unbearably laggy. I have disabled all their extensions which made it better, but it's still kind of slow, and I'd at least prefer the two years worth of updates to GNOME if I can't get COSMIC.
However, no stable release date for the COSMIC alpha or the new version of Pop!_OS, and I'm kind of impatient. If I can find a way to upgrade to 24.04 without nuking my files, I might just to see if I can help get this stable before the end of the year. (Not going to lie, but kind of frustrated at the experience right now, I bought a system_76 laptop with the promise of Linux that just works, but it hasn't been.)
In all, I'm really excited for COSMIC and the future it brings to desktop Linux and I love that system_76 is making it, but I'm frustrated with my current iteration of Pop!_OS and really wish they'd hurry.
Last edited by NathanaelKStottlemyer on 8 August 2024 at 4:25 pm UTC
It was on a virtual box, while I'm video editing, so it was a bit slow, but it seemed pretty good. I could tell it was the virtual box slow and not the DE. It is kind of incomplete (I don't have half the settings I need to manage a computer) and the base apps are minimal (I can find my own though) but I kind of want to use it as my daily driver.
The biggest confusion I had though is whether the Pop!_OS 24.04 release is in alpha. I know COSMIC is in alpha, but until literally today, all information from system_76 seemed to say that they'd ship an alpha (but functional) desktop in a stable Ubuntu base. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem like it's the case (unless they want COSMIC out of alpha before Pop!_OS goes out of alpha?). I hope they hurry, yes I get the latest and greatest kernel and system libraries in Pop!_OS 22.04, but it's still a two-year-old distribution and on my brand-new adder WS their customized gnome was unbearably laggy. I have disabled all their extensions which made it better, but it's still kind of slow, and I'd at least prefer the two years worth of updates to GNOME if I can't get COSMIC.
However, no stable release date for the COSMIC alpha or the new version of Pop!_OS, and I'm kind of impatient. If I can find a way to upgrade to 24.04 without nuking my files, I might just to see if I can help get this stable before the end of the year. (Not going to lie, but kind of frustrated at the experience right now, I bought a system_76 laptop with the promise of Linux that just works, but it hasn't been.)
In all, I'm really excited for COSMIC and the future it brings to desktop Linux and I love that system_76 is making it, but I'm frustrated with my current iteration of Pop!_OS and really wish they'd hurry.
Last edited by NathanaelKStottlemyer on 8 August 2024 at 4:25 pm UTC
4 Likes, Who?
ExpandingMan Aug 8
This looks nice but I have to say I'm pretty bummed that this does not look nearly as modular as I had initially hoped. I'm not really interested in a desktop environment, but I do want a window manager and the current options are less than ideal for various reasons (nvidia re wayland having been a huge pain in the ass). I would be happy to use this if I could strip it down to basically just be a window manager but it's not really looking like it'll quite do that without elaborate modification.
0 Likes
EagleDelta Aug 8
Quoting: ExpandingManThis looks nice but I have to say I'm pretty bummed that this does not look nearly as modular as I had initially hoped. I'm not really interested in a desktop environment, but I do want a window manager and the current options are less than ideal for various reasons (nvidia re wayland having been a huge pain in the ass). I would be happy to use this if I could strip it down to basically just be a window manager but it's not really looking like it'll quite do that without elaborate modification.
And that's completely ok. This isn't necessarily targeted towards users like yourself or others that do heavy WM customization, but primarily targeted for general users that want some customization, but also want simple UX/UI out of the box.
2 Likes, Who?
This is so exciting! Been keeping my eye on this forever. I very much look forward to trying it out. Might boot up a live usb later tonight if I have the time. I think we desperately need some new blood in the de space, and this could be exactly that. I use pop on my living room htpc, so will be interesting to see when that naturally updates over to this.
1 Likes, Who?
Purple Library Guy 
Aug 8
Aug 8
Quoting: JarmerThis is so exciting! Been keeping my eye on this forever. I very much look forward to trying it out. Might boot up a live usb later tonight if I have the time. I think we desperately need some new blood in the de spaceThis is such an amazingly Linux thing to say. Consider--if you use Windows or Mac, you use the single DE that comes with it--not only do you have no choice, the very concept that there could be a choice does not exist. But we Linux users are so spoiled we can be saying "Oh, the bunch of choices we have are getting a bit long in the tooth, it was about time there was a new contender or two!"
Just to be clear, this is a happy thing.
9 Likes, Who?
Quoting: Purple Library Guyif you use Windows or Mac, you use the single DE that comes with itI'm not sure, but I think there have been 3rd party replacement shells (is that the right term?) for Windows before.
0 Likes
pleasereadthemanual Aug 9
My excitement is still at the same level because I'm not using COSMIC until it has a stable release. The excitement level is high, though. I watched The Linux Experiment's video going through the desktop and it seemed to be in a better state than the last time I saw it.
The one thing I really dislike about COSMIC is the lack of an Activity Overview, which is such a killer feature even KDE has it now. I want to see my workspaces and be able to search to launch a program at the same time; the way macOS divides Mission Control, Launchpad and Spotlight makes the entire experience feel fragmented and inefficient. Say what you will about GNOME, but the Activity Overview is done 100% right and doing it any other way results in a worse experience.
If it just had that, I really wouldn't mind switching to COSMIC for the tiling functionality. I'm really lazy, so having a desktop with sane defaults that has reliable tiling is enough for me. Setting up Sway is one week of my life I'll never get back.
My favourite part about COSMIC is that configuration options are stored in text files you can easily edit and move around. Thank you! No more bash scripts hooking into gsettings!
Oh, and each monitor has their own workspaces! Take that, KDE and GNOME.
And it has a proper system tray. Take that, GNOME.
And the UI isn't complex and the settings app isn't confusing. Take that, KDE.
I'd also like to see headless remote desktop sessions like what GNOME Remote Desktop is pioneering, and I'd like a fully-featured Graphics Tablet settings page (in fact I'd like that more than RDP). That was the primary reason I switched off Sway.
Overall, really excited. COSMIC is a Wayland-only full-fledged desktop written entirely in Rust! And it combines Tiling with a desktop easily accessible to anyone! I'm really looking forward to a future where I can recommend any distribution with COSMIC instead of Linux Mint to complete beginners.
COSMIC is in a great state already from what I've seen. Once it has the graphics tablet settings screen (hopefully when it hits stable), I'll consider switching to it on one of my computers. I still have a lot of love for GNOME and I'll be using it for my servers because it's the only option for remote headless sessions (X11 with VNC/XRDP is awful), but COSMIC might be what I use on my desktop moving forward...
I hope there's a stable release before October 2025 :)
Edit: Here's the issue for Drawing Tablet settings in COSMIC: https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-settings/issues/141
macOS has Yabai, Windows has Komorebi.
Well, they're really just tiling window managers rather than their own shells.
Last edited by pleasereadthemanual on 9 August 2024 at 4:05 am UTC
The one thing I really dislike about COSMIC is the lack of an Activity Overview, which is such a killer feature even KDE has it now. I want to see my workspaces and be able to search to launch a program at the same time; the way macOS divides Mission Control, Launchpad and Spotlight makes the entire experience feel fragmented and inefficient. Say what you will about GNOME, but the Activity Overview is done 100% right and doing it any other way results in a worse experience.
If it just had that, I really wouldn't mind switching to COSMIC for the tiling functionality. I'm really lazy, so having a desktop with sane defaults that has reliable tiling is enough for me. Setting up Sway is one week of my life I'll never get back.
My favourite part about COSMIC is that configuration options are stored in text files you can easily edit and move around. Thank you! No more bash scripts hooking into gsettings!
Oh, and each monitor has their own workspaces! Take that, KDE and GNOME.
And it has a proper system tray. Take that, GNOME.
And the UI isn't complex and the settings app isn't confusing. Take that, KDE.
I'd also like to see headless remote desktop sessions like what GNOME Remote Desktop is pioneering, and I'd like a fully-featured Graphics Tablet settings page (in fact I'd like that more than RDP). That was the primary reason I switched off Sway.
Overall, really excited. COSMIC is a Wayland-only full-fledged desktop written entirely in Rust! And it combines Tiling with a desktop easily accessible to anyone! I'm really looking forward to a future where I can recommend any distribution with COSMIC instead of Linux Mint to complete beginners.
COSMIC is in a great state already from what I've seen. Once it has the graphics tablet settings screen (hopefully when it hits stable), I'll consider switching to it on one of my computers. I still have a lot of love for GNOME and I'll be using it for my servers because it's the only option for remote headless sessions (X11 with VNC/XRDP is awful), but COSMIC might be what I use on my desktop moving forward...
I hope there's a stable release before October 2025 :)
Edit: Here's the issue for Drawing Tablet settings in COSMIC: https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-settings/issues/141
Quoting: KlaasThere still is;Quoting: Purple Library Guyif you use Windows or Mac, you use the single DE that comes with itI'm not sure, but I think there have been 3rd party replacement shells (is that the right term?) for Windows before.
macOS has Yabai, Windows has Komorebi.
Well, they're really just tiling window managers rather than their own shells.
Last edited by pleasereadthemanual on 9 August 2024 at 4:05 am UTC
3 Likes, Who?
I've got it running on my laptop and it's really snappy!
There are clearly missing settings/features, but for a alpha-v1, it feels way more solid than I was expecting.
There are clearly missing settings/features, but for a alpha-v1, it feels way more solid than I was expecting.
1 Likes, Who?
I just hope it's possible to change the clock format to something sensible (I'm partial to '%A %F %R', for example 'Friday 2024-08-09 10:22'). It's the main thing keeping me from using GNOME (there's extensions but those break every time an update comes out, so not worth the hassle).
1 Likes, Who?
pleasereadthemanual Aug 9
I installed COSMIC on Fedora Silverblue for the sake of it, which was really quick and easy: https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/ryanabx/cosmic-epoch/
I've changed my mind about the aesthetics. They look worse through screencasts for some reason. When I'm actually using it, it looks quite nice. The sidebar is easily the weakest aspect of the design, but I'm sure they'll work on the aesthetics later.
The COSMIC App Store is wonderfully pointless on Fedora Silverblue as it doesn't support Flatpak. The Files app is nice enough but it's not Nautilus.
I think the Workpace view is actually nicer looking than GNOME's Activity Overview...but please let me open apps while in this view!
Focus follows cursor would be good to have.
It's a pretty nice experience with things missing and a few small bugs. What you'd expect from an Alpha. I think I'll continue using it for now.
I've changed my mind about the aesthetics. They look worse through screencasts for some reason. When I'm actually using it, it looks quite nice. The sidebar is easily the weakest aspect of the design, but I'm sure they'll work on the aesthetics later.
The COSMIC App Store is wonderfully pointless on Fedora Silverblue as it doesn't support Flatpak. The Files app is nice enough but it's not Nautilus.
I think the Workpace view is actually nicer looking than GNOME's Activity Overview...but please let me open apps while in this view!
Focus follows cursor would be good to have.
It's a pretty nice experience with things missing and a few small bugs. What you'd expect from an Alpha. I think I'll continue using it for now.
1 Likes, Who?
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