Most of the Linux distros I usually recommend to people tend to either use GNOME or KDE. Those 2 dominate the space, despite alternatives like XFCE and Cinnamon existing for years. There really hasn’t been a desktop environment built specifically with a particular distro or hardware in mind.
If you’ve been following Pop!_OS, you might know that the team behind it has been working on their own Rust-based DE since 2021, and now that it’s finally here, it feels like it could be a strong option for a lot of people.
COSMIC marks System76’s break from GNOME
Like kernel, like desktop environment
On Linux, the desktop environment is basically what you interact with every day. It’s the piece of software which controls the entire UI and overall look of your system. While going through different distros, you must’ve come across the most common ones, which are mainly KDE and GNOME.
if you’ve ever used Pop!_OS before, you must have noticed that it uses GNOME, similar to what Fedora uses out of the box. System76, the developers of Pop!_OS, never ran stock GNOME, though. It added its own tweaks on top, especially around features like window management and customization.
COSMIC is a brand-new desktop environment written in Rust made by the same people. It keeps a familiar GNOME-like layout, but with built-in tiling, configurable panels, and you’ll be surprised how common it is with its previous GNOME counterpart.
It’s also worth pointing out that COSMIC isn’t locked to Pop!_OS. While it’s the default there, you can already install and use it on other distros.
I’ve been using it with Fedora’s COSMIC spin, and it’s also available as an option with CachyOS, which is one of the best lightweight distros you can try. Obviously, you can even go out of your way to install it on your own on any distro too.
It’ll feel right at home if you’ve used Pop!_OS before
It’s not all that different (visually)
If you’ve used Pop!_OS before, COSMIC won’t feel very different when you first boot into it. The overall layout and workflow are still pretty much the same, which is intentional. COSMIC is not trying to come up with a brand-new design language, GNOME already does that pretty well. The focus is on performance and not overwhelming you.
Rather than piling more extensions on top of an already bloated GNOME implementation, COSMIC ships all those features natively. Earlier versions of Pop!_OS relied heavily on extensions to add features like tiling and other workflow tweaks, which worked, but it was definitely a bit too heavy on resources by Linux standards.
The same applies to things like the dock. You still get all the familiar options, such as moving it to the left side of the screen (take notes, Microsoft) or letting it stretch across the entire display. None of this is new if you’ve used Pop!_OS before, but it’s just much faster and more responsive now.
That said I do have to point out that the dock was still quite buggy in my experience. Things like changing the display resolution or scaling would just break it as shown in the image below. The only way to fix it was to change any dock settings and then flip it back.
The tiling window manager is still here, and it works almost exactly the same as before. The difference is that it’s now built directly into the desktop instead of being bolted on. You just toggle the option from the menu bar, and COSMIC automatically starts arranging your apps into tiles as you open them.
There’s no setup or config files. I just prefer this approach over something like Sway or i3 which can be a hassle sometimes.
Just like any other desktop environment, COSMIC comes with a set of new stock apps. You get all the essentials, including a file manager, a settings app, and a terminal. But what I really love is the customization options you get with them.
GlazeWM is a tiny open-source app that manages windows better than Windows does
Transform Windows multitasking with GlazeWM’s fast, keyboard-driven tiling workflow.
You get a ton of customization options
You can make it look amazing… or terrible
This is easily one of the best parts of COSMIC. You can change the colors of most major UI elements, similar to how Google’s Material Design works or how you can tint app icons on iOS. And no, it’s not just limited to picking an accent color.
Along with the ususal accent color option, you can also choose separate colors for window backgrounds, interface text, buttons, input fields, and more. Once you apply these changes, they carry across all COSMIC apps automatically. Keep in mind though, it doesn’t work with most third-party apps.
Keep in mind though, it’s really easy to get carried away and end up making something look like a disaster as shown in the 5th picture above.
One thing I would definitely change though, is the default font. COSMIC ships with Open Sans, which I don’t think is a great system-wide font. Swapping it out for something more modern is definitely worth doing early on.
It might feel underwhelming if you’re a Linux nerd
That said, if you’re full on into ricing your desktop, it isn’t for you. Unfortunately (or fortunately), KDE still stands as the king of tweaking and making everything look exactly how you want it to.
I’d say this is best suited for anyone who wants a more macOS-like experience and prefers handling all their customization through a simple UI. That said, it’s still a solid option overall and far from a bad choice.
