I have mixed feelings about Cosmic.<p>On one hand, the amount of fragmentation on desktop Linux is absurd. On Mac and Windows the desktop environment is synonymous with the operating system. On Linux, you can run one of 30 different desktop environments <i>on the same distribution</i>. This means that userspace bugs can manifest for any desktop-distro combination.<p>On the other hand, System76 is well positioned to create a desktop environment that is cohesive and complete since they’re trying to sell computers running them. Linus on the server has financial backing, and Linux on the desktop has precious little.
A warning for anyone who tests the Cosmic Desktop on their distro: It’s possible (if very much in a pre-alpha state), but it makes your file system read-only, which can be a bit of a surprise if you’re not aware it’s coming.<p>It’s easily reversible, fortunately, but it really threw me for a loop when I wasn’t able to update my Tumbleweed packages. Heh.
I've been using linux for some 15-20 years depending on how you count. The last 3 i've been using PopOs! as a complete windows replacement. Gaming works great (with the usual caveats) and everything has been a pleasant experience.<p>I've never been a gnome fan almost always switching to xfce but on PopOs! its alright!<p>I'm very much looking forward being able to drop Gnome and use Cosmic instead - having thumbnailsupport is going to be an improvement.
I was working with a product designer as a UI/UX test subject a few years back before the first release of Cosmic. What a long way it has came since then! I am a huge fun of the effort put in to PopOS to make Linux interesting to the average desktop user.
> Dragging your cursor to a window’s title bar to move it takes an unneeded level of precision. To maintain focus — as well as comfort on trackpads — simply clicking any region of a window while holding Super will allow dragging it to your preferred location and quickly get back to your important task.<p>On most Linux DEs you hold Alt for that...
> Dragging your cursor to a window’s title bar to move it takes an unneeded level of precision<p>So does ... to a windows's resize border. Have they/do they plan to implement a similar thing for resize where instead you can drag to any ~20% of the side (with a modifier)?
They set out to build a superior alternative to GNOME. What I see is functionally just another GNOME.<p>If this was all it's going to be I don't understand what the point was.
Vaguely related I'm finding UIs are so flat, we must be getting close to single gold atom thickness. I wonder when bevels and skeumorphs will be back? These days there's tons of nostalgia for 90s magazine style serifs, but without the gonzo UI. What gives?
It's good to see that it still seems to be reasonable to create new compositors. The amount and diversity of requirements regarding this type of software seems to be still managable. That was one of the concerns I had regarding giving up Xorg.
The main problem I have with modern desktop environments is the lack of scriptable automation... I really hope they build something like this.<p>Although I could just save all dotfiles, configs and extensions via file backup, I always struggle to create a script based setup.<p>I would love to maintain a list of extension names, settings etc and have something like:<p><pre><code> gnome-extension install --config-file my-extension-config.txt
kde-plugin install --config my-plugin-config.txt
gsettings set --config-file my-settings.txt
</code></pre>
just a little more reliable... Maybe a hard problem, but I think this would be great.<p>Export settings would also be great.<p><pre><code> gsettings export --to my-settings.txt
</code></pre>
:-)
My biggest curiosity is how easy it hard it will be to use their UI widgets for third party software and release on other DE.<p>I like the idea of writing more apps with Rust and if the ergonomic fit is better than alternatives, this could be a great way Forward. Bridging themes with gnome/gtk in the other direction likely a necessity for that use case.<p>My only other concern is getting kde tray apps to work out of the box. With budgie/Gnome, I've had to install an add on for that.<p>Not that I have a lot of things needing the integration. Variety and Dropbox being the main ones for me.<p>It's also annoying when Windows don't have a corresponding handle in the taskbar.<p>If they deal with these annoyances well, I'll be more than happy with the next Pop release.
Unusable until moving your mouse to the edges of the screen and clicking makes it hit the scrollbar, or the exit button. Right now it initiates a resize. For maximized windows.<p>Illustrated example from a different compositor <a href="https://github.com/WayfireWM/wayfire/issues/570">https://github.com/WayfireWM/wayfire/issues/570</a><p>It's the only DE I'm excited about it so I hope they fix that. Very very promising and the best part is that it made the GNOME people mad.<p>GNOME: "Sorry I don't see the use case for that, PR closed. Make your own project."<p>Cosmic: "Yes"
I am looking forward to trying this. Currently use KDE(Wayland) and was looking to move to Wayfire as I really don't need all the things being offered in KDE and Wayfire satisfied all my needs from a WM/Compositor.
I appreciate that System76 is making the changes that they want to see in the DE themselves, and I think overall it looks very cohesive and I can understand what they are trying to achieve. But unfortunately it has the same problems that I have with modern GNOME - it looks like a mobile phone/tablet UI. I really can't understand the design trend of hiding all but basic functionality behind a hamburger menu, or if you're lucky a few unlabeled toolbar icons to decipher, on a destkop PC. Or shoving a search bar and all of the application's menu/toolbar (what's left of it) into the title bar. It makes perfect sense on a small screen, but their flagship products are desktop and laptop PCs.
The link is returning 500 - archive.org link: <a href="https://shorturl.at/eiuNR" rel="nofollow">https://shorturl.at/eiuNR</a>
Did I miss the link or so they not have one to actually test this "pre alpha" version?<p>I would like to fire up a VirtualBox VM to try it out.