System76's COSMIC desktop environment has been generating significant buzz since its initial alpha release in early August. Now, with the arrival of Alpha 2 as part of Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 2, the excitement continues to build.
This latest iteration of COSMIC brings a host of exciting new features and refinements, building upon the solid foundation established in the first alpha. From expanded settings pages and significant enhancements to COSMIC Files to highly requested window management features and substantial infrastructure work for screen reader support, Alpha 2 demonstrates a clear commitment to delivering a user-centric and feature-rich desktop experience.
A Deep Dive into COSMIC Alpha 2's Key Features
At its core, COSMIC Alpha 2 boasts a comprehensive theming system that allows users to customize the desktop to their liking. Whether you prefer a vertical or horizontal workspace layout, COSMIC offers the flexibility to tailor the environment to your specific workflow. The integrated tiling system seamlessly integrates with this customization, ensuring a smooth and efficient experience. Additionally, the highly customizable panels, including the dock and top bar, allow for further personalization, ensuring a desktop environment truly your own.
COSMIC's New Core Applications: A Comprehensive Suite for Everyday Use
The Alpha 2 release introduces a suite of new core applications, including COSMIC Files, Settings, Terminal, Edit, and an App Store replacing the Pop!_Shop. These applications are designed to provide a streamlined and intuitive experience, working seamlessly within the COSMIC ecosystem.
Settings App Improvements: Taking Control of Your System
The Settings app has received significant attention in this update, receiving several notable improvements:
Power & Battery: Users can now effortlessly switch between Extended battery life, High-performance, and Balanced modes, optimizing power consumption for different scenarios. Additionally, users can check battery levels of wireless devices like mice, keyboards, and headsets, ensuring they stay connected.
Bluetooth: A dedicated Bluetooth page in Settings allows users to seamlessly connect, disconnect, and forget devices, simplifying the Bluetooth pairing process.
Sound Settings: Users can now choose input and output devices, adjust volumes, and select from various sound profiles, including Analog Stereo Duplex, Digital Stereo Output, and Pro Audio. Support for Bluetooth (bluez5) devices adds further flexibility.
Network & Wireless: Monitor wired connections, select Wi-Fi options within range, and manage VPN connections all from the new Network & Wireless settings page.
Displays: New X11 Window Application Scaling options provide users with sharper visuals for X11 apps and games at their native display resolution.
Date & Time: A new toggle allows users to display seconds on the clock applet, providing greater precision for time-sensitive tasks.
Window Management: Enhanced Functionality for a Seamless Workflow
COSMIC Alpha 2 addresses user requests by introducing two highly anticipated features to Window Management Settings:
Focus Follows Cursor: Moving the mouse across the desktop layout automatically switches the active window to the one the cursor overlaps, providing a more intuitive and efficient workflow. Users can customize the time delay for this transition to suit their preferences.
Cursor Follows Focus: When changing window focus using keyboard shortcuts or opening a new window, the cursor immediately snaps to the window's top-left corner, eliminating the need for manual repositioning and streamlining focus transitions.
Additionally, users who prefer using the Super key solely as a modifier can now disable associated actions from the Window Management settings dropdown, ensuring the key's functionality aligns with their individual needs.
Interface Density Settings: Tailoring the Desktop to Your Preferences
COSMIC Alpha 2 introduces Interface Density settings, allowing users to choose from three distinct levels: Comfortable, Compact, and Spacious. This feature empowers users to adjust the spacing between elements throughout the desktop, ensuring a visual experience that complements their workflow and personal preferences.
The Interface Density settings impact the size of headers, the space between lists (such as file names or setting options), and the spacing between and inside applets. This feature, while in its early stages, aims to provide a customizable and visually appealing desktop environment for users.
COSMIC Files: A Powerful and Refined File Manager
The COSMIC Files app receives significant enhancements in Alpha 2, making it a powerful and intuitive file manager:
Enhanced Header Options: The header now includes a search bar, New Folder button, Grid/List view toggle, and Sort by options, offering users greater control over file organization and navigation.
Sorting Options: Users can sort files by Name, Type, Last Modified, Date Created, and Size, providing flexibility and enhancing file management.
“Recents” Sidebar: A new "Recents" section lets users quickly access recently accessed files, streamlining workflow and enhancing productivity.
File Previews and Gallery Mode: Users can preview files in a context menu before opening them, providing a quick glance at file content. Gallery Mode, accessible from the Preview, allows users to cycle through images within a folder, offering a convenient way to view image collections.
Compression Tools: The right-click menu now offers compression and extraction options, supporting formats like .tar, .tbz, .tgz, .txz, and .zip. Support for password-encoded zip files is planned for future releases.
Network Drives: Users can browse and connect to network drives, expanding their file access capabilities.
Sidebar Shortcuts: The Ctrl+D shortcut adds the selected item to the sidebar, simplifying the process of organizing frequently used files and folders.
Complete “File” Menu: The "File" menu now offers a comprehensive set of options, including opening new tabs, windows, or folders; opening files with preferred applications; renaming files; viewing details; adding files to the sidebar; moving files to trash; closing tabs; and quitting the application.
Settings Shortcut and Floating Defaults: The "Ctrl+," shortcut opens the Files app settings, providing quick access to customization options. When opened via xdg-portal, the app defaults to floating, streamlining workflows for tasks like uploading or downloading.
Sidebar Separators: Separators in the sidebar visually divide Trash, Networks, and additional drives, enhancing organization and navigation.
COSMIC Applets & Store: Improved Functionality and Performance
COSMIC Applets have also received improvements, with devices supported by system76-power now supporting battery charge thresholds, offering greater control over battery management.
The CPU usage of audio applet volume sliders has been optimized, ensuring smooth performance. The time now updates automatically when timezone changes occur, while the displayed time format has been refined for enhanced readability.
The COSMIC Store has experienced significant performance enhancements, boasting vastly improved initial startup load times, resulting in a smoother and more enjoyable user experience.
Under-the-Hood Enhancements: A Foundation for Stability and Performance
COSMIC Alpha 2 features significant technical updates, including a rebase of Libcosmic on iced 0.13, along with updates to Winit and sctk. These updates contribute to system stability, performance, and overall reliability.
The Alpha 2 release addresses issues with freezes on certain X11/XWayland apps when full-screened. Widget sizes and spacing have been adjusted, optimizing rich text rendering for a more visually pleasing experience.
Fractional scaling in games running through Proton has been improved, offering a more consistent and visually appealing gaming experience. Accessibility improvements include work on ATSPI and portal plumbing for screen reader support, as well as accessibility fixes for the iced rebase.
The system-config-printer has been added to cosmic-session, while pop-wallpapers have been replaced with cosmic-wallpapers, refreshing the visual experience and introducing a new aesthetic to the desktop environment.
Notable Bug Fixes and Improvements: Enhancing the User Experience
Alpha 2 includes several bug fixes aimed at improving the overall user experience:
COSMIC Apps now launch in the Live ISO for NVIDIA desktops, broadening accessibility for a wider range of users.
Disk I/O and dbus performance have been improved when using sliders or changing theme settings, resulting in a more responsive and efficient desktop.
The timezone issue on the "Date & Time" settings page has been resolved, ensuring accurate time display.
COSMIC Greeter now defaults to the previous session when logging in, offering a seamless transition between user sessions.
Language support has been added, expanding accessibility for a global user base.
Volume sliders in Sound Settings no longer shrink during resizing, offering a consistent visual experience.
Battery percentage no longer shows decimals, streamlining visual presentation.
Custom keybindings are now searchable, simplifying keybinding management.
The "Open" button in the COSMIC App Store now functions correctly, improving app discovery and installation.
A comma has been added to the clock after the date, enhancing readability and clarity.
An issue with apps in the system tray not responding to input has been fixed, ensuring proper functionality.
The resizing shortcut "Super + Right-click" no longer erroneously opens a context menu, maintaining a streamlined workflow.
Problems with libcosmic apps not being built and some apps not being reopened after closure have been addressed.
A bug with the clipboard not working for some applets has been fixed, ensuring clipboard functionality across the desktop.
Issues with keyboard shortcuts in Settings have been resolved, improving usability and efficiency.
Errors causing GIMP to crash and external monitors to freeze before login have been fixed, enhancing system stability and reliability.
Fixes have been made for swapping or moving multiple focused windows, streamlining window management.
The switch workspaces gesture now respects the natural scrolling setting, enhancing the consistency of user interaction.
COSMIC: A Promising Future for the Linux Desktop
System76's COSMIC desktop environment represents a bold reimagining of the desktop experience. Its departure from the traditional GNOME desktop environment aims to provide a more user-centric and feature-rich experience, reintroducing functionalities deemed unnecessary by GNOME developers and introducing a host of new features.
Although still in its alpha stages, COSMIC Alpha 2 demonstrates a strong commitment to user feedback and iterative development. Its user-friendly interface, responsive performance, and stability in testing offer promising glimpses into a future where COSMIC could become a popular choice for millions of Linux users.
How to Experience the COSMIC Alpha 2 Magic
COSMIC is currently available for testing on various Linux distributions, including Pop!_OS, Fedora, NixOS, Arch, openSUSE, Serpent OS, Redox OS, and CachyOS. For those using any of these distributions, installing the COSMIC desktop environment is a simple command away.
Users participating in Alpha 1 on Pop!_OS can seamlessly transition to Alpha 2 via the COSMIC App Store. Monthly alpha releases will follow, building upon the existing foundation until all core features are fully implemented.
A Look Ahead: The Future of COSMIC
While COSMIC's progress is impressive, the future holds even greater promise. The development team remains committed to listening to user feedback, incorporating it into future releases, and delivering a desktop environment that meets the needs of a diverse user base. As COSMIC progresses through its alpha, beta, and release candidate stages, expect to see further refinements, new features, and an increasingly robust desktop environment.
With its focus on user-centricity, feature-richness, and ongoing development, COSMIC has the potential to be a game-changer in the Linux desktop landscape. As it continues to evolve, it will be fascinating to witness its journey and see how it shapes the future of desktop computing.
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