COSMIC, is a desktop environment of Pop! _OS which is based on a modified GNOME Shell
By the end of September, System76 (the company that develops the Pop!_OS Linux distribution), published a new report on the development of a new edition of the user environment COSMIC, which was rewritten in Rust language.
Of the recent news and changes that are made known in the report, highlights the Window-Swappin mode implementation (swap mode for tiled windows) which comes to replace windows when using a tiled layout.
Thanks to the Auto-tiling function, this allows the user to automatically select the position of new windows on the screen, which may not always correspond to user expectations. The window can be moved manually, but this requires additional manipulation and is distracting to the user. To simplify the window rearrangement operation, A rapid replacement mode has been proposed, Pressing and holding Super + X creates a small version of the selected window, indicating that you are now in window swap mode. While holding Super + X, use the arrow keys to place this small window over the window you'll swap it with. Release the keys and that's it! A swapped window.
COSMIC Screenshot
Another change that stands out is that widgets have been implemented such as text entries, search fields, insert characters in place and inline entries, in addition to it is also mentioned that We worked with symbolic icons such as the magnifying glass found in the search fields of the desktop environment, this now provides improved use of symbolic icons, such as a magnifying glass, whose size and color now better match the design theme so that its size and colors are more accurate to their context.
It is worth mentioning that The color of these icons can now be determined by the set theme by the user, and its size can be influenced by its properties. This helps keep our styling consistent across all widgets while completing features for COSMIC app developers.
In addition to this, it is also mentioned that for keyboard and mouse, support for dynamic configurations has been implemented, which implies instant application of changes after changing settings in the configurator.
As well, panel configurators added that allow you to change the location, transparency, layout and size of the main panel and the docking panel, as well as configure the auto-hide mode and define the list of applets on the desktop (wi-fi, battery charging, virtual desktops, clocks , etc.). It is mentioned that each also has the ability to auto-hide, meaning that the panel or base will remain hidden until the mouse approaches it.
Of the other changes that stand out:
- The frozen library code is in sync with version 0.10. The library has been redesigned to work with animation.
- Added support for the Wayland “pointer-gestures” protocol to control on-screen gestures from touchscreens and trackpads.
- Added support for the Wayland “security context” protocol to identify clients through sandbox isolation. Improved panel placement on the left or right.
- Work done on Smithay profiling, the library on which cosmic-comp is based, received performance improvements that directly help COSMIC with performance and power consumption.
- Implemented the security context protocol for Smithay and Cosmic Comp.
- The fork of iced was updated to version 0.10
- Refactored and updated the cosmic-time animation library to be compatible with Iced 0.10 and the latest version of the libcosmic widget library.
- Improved handling of unexpanded panels with applets configured for left and right sides
finally if you are interested in knowing more about it, you can check the details in the following link