System76 has officially released COSMIC 1.1.0, the newest version of its Rust-based desktop environment. It is a substantial update, adding a new system monitor, wider theming and window-management controls, and a long list of refinements across the desktop’s core apps.
COSMIC is built in Rust and licensed under GPLv3 for apps and MPL-2.0 for libraries. It follows Freedesktop specifications, is not tied to any single distribution, and uses the Iced toolkit for a clean, type-safe, and reactive interface.
Highlights of COSMIC 1.1.0
- New cosmic-monitor app for system information, running processes, and visual resource tracking.
- Rounded corners and shadows for all windows — not just COSMIC apps, tiled layouts included — configurable under Settings > Desktop > Appearance.
- Better X11 support via XWayland: improved window activation, cross-desktop system-tray focus, adjusted icon sizes, full-screen fixes, and a new
--no-xwaylandlaunch option. - Compositor upgrades: named pinned virtual desktops and multiple full-screen windows on a single desktop (handy for Steam Big Picture), smooth mouse-wheel zoom, and a configurable cursor-hide timeout.
- File manager improvements: text-file preview, better MIME handling, keyboard navigation, user-defined context-menu actions, search in recent files and Trash, multi-directory tabs, and network paths with autocompletion.
- Settings and applets now use the Varlink API, with additions such as Bluetooth PIN pairing, external-monitor brightness, custom keyboard layouts, quick search in any settings section, and VPN with 2FA.
- App updates: cosmic-store gains an rpm-ostree backend, RPM support, multi-threaded downloads, and Flatpak data cleanup; cosmic-term adds a 100,000-line scrollback and open-in-current-directory; cosmic-player adds playback speed, looping, and fast-forward/rewind.
- Broader compatibility: systemd/logind functionality is separated for OpenRC + elogind (including laptop-lid handling), Qt theming via qt5ct/qt6ct, and OpenRC support for Bluetooth services.
- A new Iced release brings performance optimizations, smoother animations, and input-method support.
The result feels fast and responsive, with the work on animations, panel hiding, and touchpad scrolling making everyday use noticeably smoother. Decoupling the systemd components is also a sensible step toward running COSMIC on a wider range of setups.
Availability
COSMIC 1.1.0 ships now in Pop!_OS 24.04. You can grab the latest ISO from the official Pop!_OS download page, and existing Pop!_OS 24.04 users can simply update their system. Packages are also expected soon in Fedora, NixOS, Arch Linux, openSUSE, Redox, and CachyOS, among others.
Source code and build instructions are available in the cosmic-epoch repository.
Source: DebugPoint
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