System76 enhances COSMIC Desktop with new features and tools ahead of alpha release

System76, the renowned computer manufacturer and creator of the Pop!_OS Linux distribution, has announced several enhancements to the COSMIC DE (desktop environment). The company aims for the COSMIC DE alpha to function as a complete product, even though certain features are yet to be introduced. The focus is on refining the alpha version to gather usability feedback and complete the Settings panels, with an eye on a potential 24.04 release in the summer.

The alpha version still requires work, according to System76. The remaining tasks include feature completion, design enhancements, bug fixes, documentation, and .ISO files.

In the interim, System76 has developed a terminal application for COSMIC DE, known as COSMIC Terminal. This terminal emulator, constructed using the Alacritty terminal framework with a custom renderer based on COSMIC Text, boasts features like bidirectional rendering, ligatures, desktop themes, syntax themes, and GPU rendering.

System76 has also introduced COSMIC Randr, a command-line utility for listing and configuring displays in Wayland. This utility will be utilized by the display settings page in COSMIC Settings.

COSMIC Terminal is the latest addition to a series of COSMIC DE projects that have been packaged for NixOS. Although COSMIC DE is set to be the premier desktop for Pop!_OS, it is designed to allow distros to create their own custom, branded user experiences. Information regarding distro packaging will be made available concurrently with the alpha release.

In addition to these developments, System76 has released numerous new features and enhancements for the COSMIC DE. These include a screenshot tool, hybrid graphics, a frosted glass effect, a tiling applet, and many others.