I’m a System76 engineer / Pop!_OS maintainer. I’ve been a Linux user since 2007; and Rust since 2015. I’m currently working on COSMIC-related projects.
It will be possible to configure COSMIC to look like Unity out of the box. There’s only a few panel applets that need to be implemented to make the experience 1:1.
The compositor and its applications have been developed bottom up with a full Rust stack, so stability hasn’t been a concern. We spend very little time debugging since the logic usually works if it compiles.
There’s only a handful of applications slated for the first release, and they’re almost finished. Besides core applications, we need only develop a couple additional settings pages to be ready for release, and integrate COSMIC versions of the remaining desktop portals. Altogether, that’s really not that much compared to all the work in the last two years.
Besides feature development, the main focus will be ironing out theming issues in the toolkit to adhere to our design files, and writing documentation for developers interested in building apps for cosmic. As well as the necessary work to enable a smooth upgrade from Pop 22.04 to 24.04.
Yes, you can do anything with COSMIC’s dock and panel. No extensions needed. If an applet exists on the system, you can embed it into your panel or dock.
Our internal testing won’t begin until the first ISO is ready, which marks the alpha. As it is open source, our internal testing is also publicly available to everyone interested in downloading the ISO and testing it. The Alpha will not include all features that are planned for release. Then we will switch to Beta after all featues are implemented, where QA will begin reviewing every PR to ensure that no regressions make it to release. Then it releases after we deem the beta free of oustanding issues on the board.
It should be noted that COSMIC itself hasn’t been delayed. Development on the core applications progressed much faster than expected, so we decided to skip the Alpha 1 release and release Alpha 2 instead.
Why wouldn’t you like using it right now? I wouldn’t call it “very alpha”.
Static linking is not an issue. Binaries may require more space on disk, but the benefit is that they are self-contained, portable, with excellent performance, and low memory usage. Binaries are compiled with LTO, so unused functions are stripped from the binary. What remains is highly optimized to that application’s use cases.
COSMUnity (lemmy.world)
It will be possible to configure COSMIC to look like Unity out of the box. There’s only a few panel applets that need to be implemented to make the experience 1:1.
COSMUnity (lemmy.world)
Pop!_OS spotted in the control room of the Large Hadron Collider (www.reddit.com)
COSMIC: More Alpha, More Fun! (blog.system76.com)
COSMIC Store Prototype (lemmy.world)
cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/13038090...
COSMIC Desktop is spreading to more Linux distros (www.youtube.com)
Try COSMIC DE apps on virtual machine
install virt-manager...
Closing in on a COSMIC Alpha (blog.system76.com)