Achievements from COSMIC DE’s First Seven Months: Enhanced Gaming, UI, and System Monitoring

System76 announced on July 21, 2026, the development achievements of its custom desktop environment, “COSMIC DE,” over its first seven months via its official blog. COSMIC DE is being built entirely from scratch using the Rust programming language. The development has focused on enhancing gaming experiences, adding visual effects, expanding workspace management capabilities, and improving essential applications like system monitoring and file management. Below are detailed updates across various domains.

Enhanced Gaming Experience

COSMIC DE now supports displaying multiple full-screen windows simultaneously within a single workspace. This feature is particularly useful for gamers who rely on multi-monitor setups or frequent screen splitting. Additionally, bugs related to game launches have been fixed, and input protocols have been extended to include updates to Wayland input handling, enabling smoother gameplay. System76 has committed to further improvements tailored to gaming needs.

Gaming on Linux desktops has been advancing rapidly in recent years, driven by the success of Steam Deck and the evolution of Proton. COSMIC DE’s focus on gaming improvements reflects System76’s strategy to position COSMIC as the default desktop environment for Pop!_OS, targeting both general users and gamers.

Frosted Glass and Consistent Corners

On the visual front, the “Frosted Glass” effect has been introduced. This applies a semi-transparent, frosted-glass-style effect to windows and panels, creating a more organic and immersive desktop appearance. Users can access this setting via “Settings > Desktop > Appearance > Frosted Glass,” and choose from three levels—“Subtle and balanced,” “See-through,” and “Nearly opaque”—to match their preferred background image.

Another visual enhancement is the “Consistent Corners” feature. Now, applications developed for GNOME, KDE, and other environments will automatically conform to COSMIC DE’s rounded corner style when launched. This ensures a uniform appearance even in mixed toolkit environments. System76 anticipates further visual harmony across desktops as KDE applications adopt Wayland’s blur protocol in the future.

Expanded Workspace Functionality

Workspace usability has been improved. A search function within the “Workspaces Overview” has been introduced, enabling users to search for launchers or application libraries directly from the overview screen. This eliminates the need to exit the overview to launch apps, streamlining workflows.

Additionally, a “Workspaces Cycling Option” has been implemented, allowing users to control whether workspace navigation loops from the last workspace back to the first or stops at the last workspace. This feature is particularly useful for heavy users managing multiple workspaces, preventing unnecessary loops and enabling intentional workspace transitions.

System Monitor and File Management

The newly developed “COSMIC System Monitor” provides an overview of system resources via a dashboard, displaying total resource usage and top processes. Detailed resource pages feature graphs alongside top processes, offering contextual information. This feature builds upon the preliminary version introduced in COSMIC Epoch 1.1.

COSMIC Files has undergone significant upgrades, including the following:

• Automatic selection of file extensions during renaming or in save dialogs.
• Configuration options for selecting the first matching file or folder.
• Network path input support in the breadcrumb bar.
• Tab and Shift+Tab autocompletion during path editing in the breadcrumb bar.
• Display of an “Open” button in the details pane for multiple file selections.
• Ability to open multiple directories in separate tabs.
• Context menu options for “Move to” and “Copy to.”
• Addition of “Move to” and “Copy to” in the edit menu.
• Settings to enable/disable the Recents feature.
• Button to clear Recents history.
• Option to clear history via the navigation bar’s context menu in Recents.
• Support for pasting images, videos, and text directly from the clipboard.
• Context menu option for copying file paths.

These updates improve file operation efficiency while addressing privacy concerns. The enhanced control over the Recents feature is particularly valuable for users dealing with shared PCs or sensitive information.

Rust Ecosystem and Future Outlook

COSMIC DE is being developed using Rust, featuring components like “COSMIC Text,” a pure Rust-based text processing library. This library now supports rendering ellipses (…), enabling proper text truncation across the desktop environment. Additionally, tab drag-and-drop functionality has been added to COSMIC Files, COSMIC Edit, and COSMIC Terminal, improving tab management flexibility.

System76 plans to continue developing COSMIC DE, focusing on stability and feature additions. According to the current roadmap, a fully stable release is forthcoming, with most of the features reported here expected to be included in the next version of Pop!_OS.

Editorial Opinion

The rapid expansion of COSMIC DE’s features within just seven months is testament to the modern codebase facilitated by the Rust programming language and System76’s dedication to developing its own OS, Pop!_OS. The gaming-related improvements and the reinforced system monitor reflect a strong commitment to addressing usability challenges long associated with traditional Linux desktops like GNOME and KDE. These efforts may attract existing users of other environments to COSMIC.

In the long term, enhancements to Wayland protocols and cross-desktop visual consistency could elevate the overall compatibility and aesthetics of Linux desktops, potentially reducing barriers for users transitioning from Windows or macOS. Specifically, the planned blur protocol support for KDE applications could symbolize a new era of collaboration across desktop environments. However, whether COSMIC DE can fully replace GNOME or KDE ecosystems remains to be seen, contingent on the richness of applications and plugin ecosystems.

References

• “COSMIC DE’s First Seven Months”, by system76.com via RaphGL — Lobsters, 2026-07-21T19:57:49.000Z (ARR)
• Source URL: https://system76.com/blog/post/cosmic-de-first-seven-months