System76 recently unveiled COSMIC, a groundbreaking desktop for Linux computers. This isn’t an iteration of Gnome, Cinnamon, XFCE, or KDE. It

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2024-10-01 18:30:05

System76 recently unveiled COSMIC, a groundbreaking desktop for Linux computers. This isn’t an iteration of Gnome, Cinnamon, XFCE, or KDE. It’s a paradigm shift for the Linux desktop, crafted in Rust.

“We aim to liberate the computer with a new desktop environment powerful enough to build custom OS experiences — for users, developers, and makers of any device with a screen.”

COSMIC stands for ‘Computer operating system main interface.’ I was eager to try this new desktop and downloaded the Alpha release ISO for my five-year-old Darter Pro laptop, which I purchased from System76 in early 2019. I created a bootable USB drive and was ready to install the new desktop.

I began the installation process and answered a few questions similar to those in earlier releases of Pop!_OS, which I am familiar with. After I completed the installation, I was quick to ‘kick the tires.’

I looked at the top of the display for the ‘Accessibility’ icon, which is on other Linux distributions, but it was missing. I later learned from reading that this feature of COSMIC has not been released. I briefly installed Gnome-Tweaks, which is how I usually tweak Linux computers so that a person with aging eyes can manage them. After installing that software, I discovered that the COSMIC desktop has a unique settings menu that is easily accessed by clicking the third icon from the left at the bottom of the screen.