After almost two years of development, System76, the company behind the Linux distribution Pop!_OS, has unveiled the first alpha release of the Cosmic desktop environment, built in Rust. This new version of Cosmic is not to be confused with the old version, which was based on Gnome Shell. Two ISO images have been released for systems with NVIDIA GPUs and Intel/AMD processors, both based on the Pop!_OS 24.04 distribution. Additionally, ready-made packages are available for Fedora, NixOS, Arch Linux, and Serpent OS.
Cosmic is being developed as a universal project that adheres to Freedesktop specifications and is not tied to any specific distribution. The interface in Cosmic is built using the iced library, which incorporates safe types, modular architecture, and reactive programming model. It also offers a familiar architecture for developers experienced with the declarative construction of interfaces using ELM. Cosmic supports multiple drawing backends, including Vulkan, Metal, DX12, OpenGL 2.1+, and OpenGL ES 2.0+. Developers have access to a set of widgets, asynchronous handlers, and adaptive layout for interface elements based on window and screen size. The project also includes a composite server called cosmic-comp, based on Wayland.
The alpha release signifies the completion of the minimum basic set of features needed for everyday use and serves as a foundation for further enhancements based on user feedback. Distributions can now customize Cosmic with their own color schemes, applets, settings, and design themes.
