System76, the company behind the Linux distribution Pop!_OS, has released the fourth alpha version of the COSMIC desktop environment, written in Rust (not to be confused with the old COSMIC based on GNOME Shell). ISO images with the latest version of COSMIC are available for testing, built on top of the alpha builds of the upcoming Pop!_OS 24.04 distribution for systems with NVIDIA GPUs (3 GB) and Intel/AMD (2.6 GB). Ready-made packages are also available for Fedora, NixOS, Arch Linux, openSUSE, Serpent OS, Redox, and CachyOS.
COSMIC is evolving as a universal project, not tied to a specific distribution and compliant with Freedesktop specifications. The Iced library is used to build the interface in COSMIC, which employs safe types, a modular architecture, and a reactive programming model, offering an architecture familiar to developers experienced with the declarative interface-building language Elm. Several rendering engines are provided, supporting Vulkan, Metal, DX12, OpenGL 2.1+, and OpenGL ES 2.0+. Developers are offered a complete set of widgets, the ability to create asynchronous handlers, and the use of responsive layout for interface elements based on window and screen sizes. The project is also developing a compositor. server cosmic-comp based on Wayland.
Key changes compared to the third alpha version of COSMIC:
- A page has been added to the configurator for selecting the interface language and formats for date, time, and numbers.
- A page has been added to the configurator for configuring default applications to launch, such as the browser, file manager, email client, music player, video player, image viewer, and calendar-scheduler. The new COSMIC Media Player, developed in Rust, is utilized for sound and video playback.
- Development of the own application manager, "COSMIC Store," has continued, where during the installation or updating of applications, it is now possible to view a list of all running and completed tasks (a new context menu "Details" has appeared in the lower left corner).
- The power management interface now includes separate settings for switching the screen to sleep mode when operating on battery or connected to a stationary power source. An option to turn off the screen after a specified period of inactivity has also been added.
- A new applet called 'Accessibility' has been prepared for the panel, designed to enable and disable the screen reader for individuals with visual impairments. The screen reader's content narration works in COSMIC Settings, Firefox, and GNOME applications.
- Support for the VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) mechanism has been added to the osmic-comp composite server and screen settings, allowing for adaptive changes to the monitor's refresh rate to ensure smoothness and eliminate tearing during gaming and video playback. In addition to keeping VRR constantly enabled, there is an option to activate VRR only for fullscreen applications.
- Issues leading to high CPU load, freezes, and memory leaks have been resolved.
- A vulnerability that allowed bypassing the screen lock and accessing the desktop without authentication after an emergency shutdown of the composite process has been fixed. server and the cosmic-greeter component, which displays the system login screen. The process would terminate upon screen disconnection; for instance, to log in without entering a password, one only needed to turn off and then turn on the monitor.
Source: opennet.ru
