COSMIC Is the Linux Desktop of the Future

System76 has been working on its own Linux desktop environment for years, called COSMIC Desktop. The first public alpha release is now live, giving you a chance to try the company’s vision for the future of desktop productivity and customization.

System76 has released the first public alpha version of COSMIC, its new desktop environment intended as a replacement for GNOME Shell, KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, and other similar projects. It has been in development for years, primarily as a replacement for the customized GNOME Shell used in Pop!_OS Linux. However, the desktop is intended to work across many desktop Linux distributions, and the applications created for COSMIC won’t be limited to just Linux.

The COSMIC desktop might look familiar to anyone who has used GNOME Shell, and especially the modified versions used in Pop!_OS and Ubuntu. However, it’s rewritten from the ground up in the Rust programming language, which System76 hopes will improve performance and reduce freezes. It has options for either vertical or horizontal workspaces, an integrated tiling system, and customizable panels for the dock and top bar.

System76 said in a press release, “COSMIC is written in Rust, a programming language System76 engineers loved working with for its readability, stability, maintainability, and memory safety; many modern computer vulnerabilities happen in the system’s memory, and Rust makes it easy to write memory-safe code. As a newer language, this required a lot of groundwork in building the compositor, text rendering, and the toolkit.”

System76 is also making appearance customization a priority. There’s an integrated theme system, with the ability to easily share themes for other people to try. That’s a stark contrast with the GNOME desktop environment, which has phased out custom themes and other customization options over the past few years.

The first alpha release of COSMIC also includes new Files, Settings, Terminal, and Edit applications, as well as an App Store intended to replace the Pop!_Shop used in current versions of Pop!_OS. System76 built a custom Rust-based toolkit for COSMIC apps, called libcosmic, which will eventually support Windows and macOS in addition to Linux.

System76 plans to focus on touch screen support for the next alpha release, and the rest of the roadmap includes accessibility features, frosted glass design elements, and a more complete Settings application. This is the very first public alpha, so there’s still a lot of functionality missing.

You can download the COSMIC alpha ISO from the System76 website.

Source: System76