Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS with the COSMIC Desktop Environment is out now

System76 have today finally released Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS with the newly launched COSMIC Desktop Environment. Giving the team at System76 their own foundation to build upon and help make their hardware more tailored and unique, it will be interesting to see the wider reception for the COSMIC desktop.

I'm certainly not expecting perfection from the first proper release of COSMIC, but from the time I've spent playing around with it - I am quite impressed with what they've done. The way everything flows is quite nice. Although, I really don't like the big thick borders by default.

Pictured - Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS with COSMIC

Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS Highlights

• New COSMIC Desktop Environment Experience
• New Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS for ARM computers
  ◦ Officially supported on the System76 Thelio Astra desktop
  ◦ Community support for non-System76 hardware enabled by Tow-Boot
• New hybrid graphics support for longer battery life
  ◦ No need to change modes
  ◦ Apps that request the discrete GPU will automatically run on the correct GPU
  ◦ Manually run an app on your preferred GPU by right-clicking on the app icon
• Easy installation with full disk encryption
• Refresh install feature by holding Space at boot or from the ISO
  ◦ Reinstall the OS anytime while keeping files, settings, and Flatpak user applications
  ◦ The Refresh feature will also arrive in COSMIC Settings after release
• Broad hardware support

COSMIC Desktop Environment Highlights

• Intuitive window tiling that can be used with the mouse or keyboard
  ◦ Activate tiling with a simple toggle in the panel
  ◦ Tiling per workspace and per display
  ◦ Easy to learn keyboard shortcuts
  ◦ Rearrange windows by dragging them with the mouse. Visual hints show where the window will land.
• Featureful Workspaces
  ◦ Horizontal or vertical workspaces
  ◦ Workspace per display or spanned across displays
  ◦ Drag workspaces to re-arrange them or move an entire workspace to a different display
  ◦ Pin workspaces so they’re never removed
  ◦ Workspace settings are persistent. A tiled and pinned workspace will be tiled and pinned after reboot.
  ◦ Add the “Numbered Workspaces” applet to your Panel or Dock to always see the workspace number you’re on
• Smooth multi-display experience
  ◦ Effortlessly mix and match hi-dpi and standard resolution displays
  ◦ Displays are automatically scaled based on pixel density and display scaling can be fine-tuned in Settings
  ◦ Display settings are persistent. Plug in the same display and its settings will return.
  ◦ Unplug a display and the windows on that display will move to a new workspace on a remaining display
• Customization galore
  ◦ Theme your desktop from Settings with easy color pickers
  ◦ Setup your personalized layout
  ••• Panel + Dock or single Panel
  ••• Put the Panel and Dock on any screen edge
  ◦ Add and arrange features (Applets) on the Panel or Dock from Settings
• Fast desktop navigation and easy keyboard shortcuts
  ◦ Press the Super (or the Windows key) to activate the Launcher
  ••• Type the app you want and press enter
  ••• Type the name of an open app then enter to switch to it
  ••• Type ? to learn more features like web and GitHub search, calculator, and running commands directly from the launcher
  ◦ Use the same keyboard shortcuts to focus or arrange windows across workspaces and displays
  • Super+Arrows to change the focused window. Super+Shift+Arrows to move windows.
• Stacks, snapping, and sticky windows
  ◦ Stack windows to combine them into tab groups like a browser
  ••• Right click on the header and choose Create Window Stack. Then drag another window to the stack.
  ••• When tiling windows, simply drag the window on top of another to create a stack.
  ◦ When using floating (non-tiled) windows, drag them to the display edges to snap them into a quarter or half tile
  ◦ Make a window stay on top of other windows and follow you around to other workspaces or displays by right-clicking the header and choosing “Sticky window”
• Faster, more responsive applications
  ◦ COSMIC Files
  ◦ COSMIC Store
  ◦ COSMIC Terminal
  ◦ COSMIC Text Editor
  ◦ COSMIC Media Player
  ◦ COSMIC Screenshot
  ◦ Install more apps Made for COSMIC from COSMIC Store
• Written in the Rust programming language
  ◦ For memory safety and high performance

See more on the System76 website.