Pop!_OS Cosmic Desktop by System76: Alpha Incoming..

RUST Cosmic Desktop on Pop!_OS will be also available on Asahi Linux, Fedora and on NixOS as a Nix Package in the main repo.. Let's talk about the quality of life updates and dev in this Pop!_OS Cosmic Rust Desktop Environment.
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[@SavvyNik]

What other features would you like to see in Cosmic?

[@CalvinB_]

I hope they add a toggle for hiding the application title bars. I love that KDE lets me do it(but its kind of complicated) and it just gives that little bit extra space back, especially when using tiling.

[@thesullivanstreetproject]

A global menu bar would be great, and the ability to choose which side window buttons are on. Not sure if these already exist in there.

[@Lanzetsu]

I am not sure if it can BUT... if not... then the option to change the Login Screen... I hate how GDM is managed and how hard it is to simply change even the Background Image...

[@LeeFry]

If it's not already present I'd love to see a move whole workspace to [left, right, above, or below] monitor, I use this all the time in sway- a very handy feature!

[@chrisxdeboy]

Someone explaining what its selling point is. From a user standpoint, nobody is going to care if it's written in Rust, only developers care about that.

[@averagemamil4523]

Personally really looking forward to the COSMIC desktop - tried more than a few, but keep coming back to it - just works for me and my workflow. If I was super pernickety I would like the addition of a profile/settings manager similar to the Tuxedo control center 👍

[@SwimmingEagle14]

Nice vid. Really looking forward to Cosmic!

[@SavvyNik]

Thanks

[@davidwayne9982]

I have it on my system with 4 other distros NOW-- and it's working well... looking forward to the full final polished release. (and updates on the one i have).

[@tonycosta3302]

Cosmic Edit and Terminal should use the same mechanism for creating tabs. But looking forward to this DE releasing.

[@formation4]

I'd like to see more focus on files.. Drag and drop with options to select what I want it to do after I select drag n drop. Will we be able to upgrade from pop os to cosmic? Or would it require a clean instal?

[@user-lq2ip9si7y]

Great progress. Can't wait to try it out.

[@xthebumpx]

Glad to see it will be on NixOS! I'll definitely try it out when it is ready.

[@tristen_grant]

The store needs to also show the application version.

[@iamkartiknayak]

Things like preview when hover on items in dock and a native clipboard which works like Windows11 would be a blast. Easier to switch OS

[@shannonrae9955]

I am honestly not the best in the Linux world, but I do enjoy using Pop OS, more so than my MacBook Air. There's just something about how buttery smooth it is, and also I love editing my photography work on it. I just feel like I get things accomplished more fluidly on it.

[@Turok2493]

what kind of mac are we talking about?

[@shannonrae9955]

@@Turok2493 M2 Macbook Air. Why do you ask?

[@AngeloBandiziol]

What's the app used to draw on the screen? Thanks.

[@asdfasdffdcd]

looks very promising.

[@Nearnface]

wowowow

[@merthyr1831]

Im not gonna get it on version 1, but once it's mature I might consider moving from my KDE Neon setup. I only ever left pop!OS because of GNOME's dodgy support with newer AMD hardware.

[@mmstick]

It will not release unless it is mature.

[@josesilvestre-bautista8176]

I would like to see support for background images for ultra wide monitors, specifically 5120 x 1440.

[@arenaling]

is there any way to ungroup apps on dock ?

[@Cipherius117]

Some amazing work going on here, a lot of ticks off the wishlist! Huge kudos to the Cosmic project, Pop!OS, and S76 dev teams! 🏆♥

[@the.dorgas]

Looking forward to the alpha! I hope they give us a official channel for feedback. I still don't know why the title bar has to be that big (look thicker then gnome) and vastly empty. Also even though I like the file edit view menu style, fits more complex applications like IDE, video editor rather then a File Browser (even the KDE File Browser doesn't use application menu as default). I can't wait for the alpha!

[@mmstick]

The header bar is not thicker than GNOME. It's not thick at all. What gives that impression?

[@the.dorgas]

​@@mmstick From this latest update you guys posted about Cosmic progress, the first picture is showing the Cosmic theme being applied to other gnome applications. Comparing the Cosmic Settings against the gnome System Monitor you see the height (thickness) is the same, but gnome has a different style of windows that uses a lot of buttons/controls ratter then application menu. Cosmic has only 3 application menus and the rest of the bar is completely empty. If you guys want to use the bar with application menus and with maybe some buttons in the future, maybe you could set somewhat in between Gnome and KDE.

[@the.dorgas]

@@mmstick A good example of a modern looking application, using alot of buttons that also have application menu is new Jetbrain's UI design, in applications like Rider or PyCharm.

[@mmstick]

@@the.dorgas You are comparing a text editor to a system monitor application. They have completely different use cases. The header bars in COSMIC are functionality identical to GTK's. There is a start, center, and end section. Each of which can contain any elements. Most applications will have a nav bar toggle button. Some will have search toggle buttons. I wouldn't expect to see many applications using menu bars. The Settings application does not use menu bars.

[@mmstick]

@@the.dorgas JetBrain's UI is the antithesis of modern. It's just as ugly as VS Code.

[@mladenskrbic9439]

If there is one reason to switch to COSMIC from GNOME it is the compositor. For me GNOME is perfect in terms of look and workflow, but mutter is just too buggy and limited. One area that is much better on Gnome atleast for me is overview centered workflow. I hope cosmic workspaces will have search and simmilar ux to Gnome overview. i dont like app menu on cosmic i think it is not needed if overview is good enough. That said i dont mind if there is app menu i will just not use it and change shortcuts.

[@CRYPTiCEXiLE]

Tauon Music Box is a nice audio player program it would be nice if popOS can make something like that for their audio player.

[@Vancha112]

Would also make for a good third party app :D they are working hard on making it easy to let other people easily build apps for cosmic.

[@michaelmcdonald3275]

I wonder what file system it will use?

[@guilherme5094]

👍

[@MinaSchloch]

Some things: - edit: would be nice to hide the tab bar when only one is used, putting the plus to the title bar - appstore: the long description needs to be put in a shorter container, this is pretty bad to read. Scrolling the screenshots on the extreme edges too.

[@Adamy-69]

Is it planed transparency and themes?

[@chrisxdeboy]

So what does cosmic do differently from GNOME, other than being written in Rust? Like is it actually configurable?

[@mieszkomazurek3033]

It even consumes more memory and is actually slower than GNOME. Just wait for the release and the hype will disappear.

[@chrisxdeboy]

@@mieszkomazurek3033 Like, if it were at least configurable, unlike GNOME, I could see the hype, but right now, it just seems like "rewrite it in Rust" applied to GNOME. I really don't get the hype.

[@babakfp]

As far as I've seen, it's just content creators talking about it having the same things that already existed in other places. Some content creators are making a big deal of it. It looks like hype and nothing more.

[@happygofishing]

it avoids the gnome devs, which are annoying.

[@babakfp]

@@happygofishing What is annoying about them?

[@robrob8936]

I see the cosmic devs love using big corner radius for everything. It looks pretty bad IMO

[@grtitann7425]

Video sponsored by Intel?

[@SavvyNik]

That’d be great

[@goldilockszone4389]

my belief is that Cosmic will replace Ubuntu

[@yzxc222]

Well, Cosmic is Desktop Environment and Ubuntu is Linux distro so it`s the whole different things. When you talk about how Ubuntu looks you talk about Gnome which is default Desktop Environment for Ubuntu and many others distros.

[@goldilockszone4389]

@@yzxc222 Go get educated before you comment & make a fool of yourself. Cosmic is *NOT* a DE. Cosmic is as much a distro as is Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Mint. Gnome, KDE, XFCE are what's called a DE. Nobody is talking about "looks" here.

[@yzxc222]

@@goldilockszone4389 Can you provide a link to the "Cosmic" distribution? On the Pop_OS! website, I found only a mention of it as DE.

[@mladenskrbic9439]

@@goldilockszone4389 Cosmic is DE, popOS is distro. Gnome is DE, ubuntu, fedora ... are distros

[@hopperstreams4487]

​@@goldilockszone4389You're wrong about this one lmao you should go get educated yourself son

[@babakfp]

So, what? It looks ugly. It takes them a ton of time to rebuild the same things that have been made decades ago. I don't see any actual real benefit. They could have spent money to design something that looks good and stands out, but no. They are just rebuilding the same stuff. Also, Linux people don't know anything about good looking design. They look at a 90s UI and say it's the most beautiful thing that they have ever seen.

[@happygofishing]

escaping gnome and redhat is always a benefit.

[@lucolesco]

nice hate

[@Kelticfury]

The reason I personally am interested in the Cosmic DE is that it is not KDE or Gnome. They are building Wayland support for Nvidia which will be coming with the Nvidia 555 series of drivers so I don't have to downgrade and can run all the local AI and LLMs that I want without having to keep a dual boot of MS Windows just to run a few quick image gens or be stuck paying for a chatgpt like service. It is written in a lightning fast language (Rust) which Linus himself has said is already becoming a part of linux. All computers are ugly. If I want to look at something pretty, I open a window.

[@mmstick]

No one asked for your opinion. It's about time someone told you to touch grass and kick rocks.

[@mladenskrbic9439]

I agree that it looks bad in terms of UI, but it will probably evolve as time goes on. I also think much of UI issues is connected bad colors. Also some issues are connected to applets design, but good thing is we can build our applets. I find gnome quick settings much nicer than current applets on right on cosmic