System76's Rust-based COSMIC desktop for Linux is here — and it's amazing

posted by Rianne Schestowitz on Jan 05, 2026,
updated Jan 08, 2026

Quoting: System76's Rust-based COSMIC desktop for Linux is here — and it's amazing —

Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents:

Most of the Linux distros I usually recommend to people tend to either use GNOME or KDE. Those 2 dominate the space, despite alternatives like XFCE and Cinnamon existing for years. There really hasn’t been a desktop environment built specifically with a particular distro or hardware in mind.

If you've been following Pop!_OS, you might know that the team behind it has been working on their own Rust-based DE since 2021, and now that it's finally here, it feels like it could be a strong option for a lot of people.

Read on

From the sister site:

• I switched to the COSMIC Linux desktop, and I can't wait for the future

  There's never a dull moment in the Linux world. Sure, the kernel itself isn't the source of all that much news, but with all the distros, desktop environments, and general software out there, you always have something to talk about and experiment with. One of the most recent names in the Linux space is COSMIC, a desktop environment created by System76, the company behind the Pop! OS distro, to replace its GNOME-based solution.

  I went hands-on with COSMIC a while back when it was still technically in beta, but now, a stable release has hit the internet, and it's finally safe to try. So, I wanted to revisit it and tell you why it's worth being excited about this new way to use your Linux PC.