The holidays are upon us, and it’s time to check under your tree as we light another candle for the 4th COSMIC Alpha release. There’s lots of gifts to share in the latest early release of our new Rust-based desktop environment for Pop!_OS and other distros: COSMIC. These gifts include updates to settings, COSMIC apps, and another big batch of bug fixes. Let the festivities commence!
Update or install at: https://system76.com/cosmic/
Region & Language Settings
Region & Language Settings have been added to COSMIC. Here you can select your preferred language, as well as preferred formatting for date, time, and numbers used by COSMIC.
Default Applications Settings
A settings page has been added to System & Accounts Settings enabling you to set your default applications for various purposes, including your preferred browser, file manager, email client, music and video players, image viewer, and calendar.
You may notice that “COSMIC Media Player” is listed as the default video and music player. COSMIC Media Player is a Rust-based media player currently being developed! More info on that when it’s closer to being ready!
COSMIC Store
While performing updates and app installs, clicking “Details” in the bottom-left corner will open a context menu where you can view a list of all in-progress and completed tasks.
Display Power Management Settings
Implementation of power management settings for your display are now complete. In Power & Battery Settings, you’ll find options for setting how long until the screen turns off after remaining idle, as well as independent settings for when your system suspends when plugged in and on battery power.
Accessibility Applet & Screenreader Support
Though still in its very early stages, the new Accessibility applet provides a toggle for turning screenreader support on and off. Screenreading now works for COSMIC Settings, Firefox, and GNOME applications. For the alpha, Screenreader testing is performed in COSMIC Settings, and then will be applied to the rest of the COSMIC apps when it’s ready.
