System 76 released the third alpha version of your new desktop environment «COSMIC», which comes with a large number of updates, fixes and, above all, performance improvements.
Compared to the second version alpha, COSMIC has introduced a number of significant improvements, for example in the power management settings, It is now possible to set options to automatically turn off the screen and put the system into sleep mode.
Also in the appearance settings panel, has been added a block of experimental options that allows further customize the environment, such as changing the system font, choosing a monospaced font, modifying icons, and adjusting the theme of the graphical toolset.
The file manager COSMIC Files It has also been improved, as it now It is possible to pin favorite directories to the sidebar, while long file names that do not fit on a single line are displayed in a popup window on hover. A new feature has been added option in the “View” menu to show hidden files and directories, and in searches, the separation of results by tab has been implemented.
Other features include lthe ability to mount encrypted drives, run executable files, empty the trash with a dedicated button and support for JPEG XL images. “Open” and “Open with” options are available in both the side and navigation panels.
In addition to that, The gallery mode of the file manager has evolved to function as an image viewer, with an option in the “View” menu to launch it andthe possibility of opening selected images by pressing the space bar. It is worth noting that the preview of files before opening them is disabled by default, and now must be activated from the context menu, using the shortcut Ctrl + Space or the “show details” option in the View menu.
In COSMIC Store, “Made for COSMIC” section has been added, which highlights community-developed applications specifically for this environment, mentions that applications must add “COSMIC” to their metadata categories to appear in this section. URLs, licensing information, and the ability to install packages in deb or flatpak format via external links have also been included.
As for connectivity, eThe Network Information applet now supports automatic restart of the connection after waking up from sleep mode or recovering a lost connection. On the other hand, the blibcosmic library, which is used to build applications graphics in COSMIC, incorporates a new widget to implement footers and presents updated icons for the open and close buttons.
Other notable advances include Search performance improvements and the option to remap the Caps Lock key to work like the Ctrl key. In terms of accessibility, it has been added Screen reader support, although initially limited to the use of Orca in Firefox and GNOME applications, it is expected that within the next month Orca will be fully functional in the COSMIC interface and applications. In addition, an applet is in development to enable or disable the screen reader directly from the panel, although currently it requires running Orca from the terminal.
Of the other changes that stand out:
- Fixes for file and folder naming issues
- File names are placed in quotes when named in the copy
- It is now possible to remap the Caps Lock key to Ctrl
- Desktop view options removed from right click menu when not on desktop
- Fix to avoid pinning duplicate items to the sidebar
- Fixed crash issue with Thunderbird when changing keyboard settings
- Fixed a bug that caused app icons to be missing or have low resolution.
- Fixed an issue that caused the top panel to become inactive.
- The “Show Password” button on the login screen now works when clicked
- The Input Volume in the Sound applet now displays the input volume, instead of the output volume.
- Fixed “Remove from Sidebar” option appearing for non-favorite items
- Fixed tree view behavior in COSMIC Edit single column view
An issue with sound volume bouncing has been resolved. - Context menu radius now respects radio preferences in Appearance Settings
Finally, if you are interested in trying out the environment COSMIC desktop, Two Pop!_OS ISO images are offered with COSMIC, designed for systems with NVIDIA GPUs (3 GB) or Intel/AMD (2.6 GB). These images are based on a test version of the Pop!_OS 24.04 distribution.
If you want to install COSMIC on other distributions, you can refer to the detailed installation instructions found here. In the following link. To learn more about COSMIC and its features, you can access the full details In the following link.