System76 unveiled Recently, the launch of the sixth alpha version of its COSMIC desktop environmentKey improvements include the ability to display icons on the desktop, new scaling options, and optimizations in virtual desktop management.
Other innovations include a magnification tool for visually impaired users, an updated COSMIC media player, and a text editor with new features.
Key new features of COSMIC Alpha 6
With the release of Alpha 6, It is now possible to enable the display of icons for directories, drives and the Recycle Bin via a context menu (right-click on an empty area). Users can adjust the size and spacing of icons, and move files and directories between the desktop and the file manager using the mouse.
In addition to that, Additional scaling options have been added, allowing the maximum zoom level to be increased up to 210% and offering incremental zoom adjustments of 5 to 20% from the base scale.
COSMIC Alpha 6 also features the ability to navigate virtual desktops in overview mode. Also, Names and serial numbers are now displayed next to the thumbnails of each desktop, and it is now possible to move minimized windows between them with the mouse. Memory consumption has been reduced in tasks related to virtual desktops, window minimization, handling of text fields (cosmic-text) and icons (freedesktop-icons).
Along with it An option to “Snap floating windows to nearby edges” has been added, so that windows automatically snap together as you approach an edge. The file manager's search bar now supports auto-completing paths by pressing the down arrow, as well as allowing you to copy a path for use in other applications. Home and End keys make it easier to navigate the file list.
In terms of accessibility improvements, for users with visual disabilities, a new feature has been incorporated tool that allows you to enlarge individual areas of the screen. This feature is activated from “Settings > Accessibility”, from the accessibility applet in the panel, or by using the Super + “+”, Super + “-” and Super + mouse wheel combinations.
The accessibility applet in the panel, now includes options to enable a screen reader and a magnification tool. Future updates are planned to include options for enabling high contrast modes, inverting colors, and applying filters for color-blind people.
In the COSMIC media player, added a navigation bar to view the directory tree during playback, showing details such as song title, album, artist and year. Additionally, playback control has been integrated from the volume control application using the MPRIS protocol and a File menu has been added to open files and directories.
The text editor «COSMIC Edit» now features a function to undo all changes and restore the file to its last saved state. A “File > Close Project” option has been added to make it easier to start a new document, keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab) have been implemented to switch between tabs, and buttons to adjust the scale have been added from the “View” menu.
Of the other changes that stand out:
- In the text editor, the spell check menu has been restored and all matches are highlighted during a search.
- Open Sans has been adopted to replace Fira Sans as the default font in the COSMIC environment.
- Improvements have been made to the libcosmic library to avoid memory fragmentation, and the display and wallpaper configurators have been optimized.
- Support for copying and pasting from the clipboard using the middle mouse button has been added, thus improving the user experience.
- The launcher now supports scrolling in search results, making it easier to navigate large lists.
- Added support for creating and decompressing password-protected ZIP archives.
- A visual timer is displayed for actions such as system shutdown or reboot.
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 (3.1 GB) or only for systems with Intel or AMD processors (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.