news
Desktop Environments (DE)/Window Managers (WM): COSMIC in System76, Xlibre in Peppermint, and WIMP
-
System76 ☛ COSMIC Download
COSMIC is on your favorite distros!
-
PeppermintOS ☛ Testing updated PepDebian build and shift to Xlibre. – Peppermint OS
We are shifting the display server Xorg over to Xlibre for our upcoming PeppermintOS ISO refreshes. What this does is, handles basic graphical rendering, window drawing, and input devices (keyboard/mouse) under the X11 protocol.
The reason Xlibre exists is, development on original Xorg is stalled since some organizations shifted focus to Wayland. XLibre was created to maintain, modernize, and clean up the original Xorg codebase adding security updates, bug fixes, and feature improvements for users who prefer X11 over Wayland. XLibre is created to be a drop-in replacement for xorg-server, it tries to not break standard desktop environments, window managers, or old drivers, and so far in the current testing of things seems to be working as expected .
-
LWN ☛ Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop
Scott Jenson has been working on user interfaces (UIs) and user experience (UX) for many years at Apple, Google, and other companies. Now, he's trying to convince open-source projects to experiment more and drive the desktop beyond the age-old "windows, icons, menus, pointer" (WIMP) model. At Akademy 2026, KDE's annual developer conference, he shared his complaints and ideas in a talk aimed at convincing those in attendance to take the lead on desktop design.