{"id":1446,"date":"2024-12-06T00:00:48","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T00:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serverhost.com\/blog\/cosmic-desktop-alpha-update-new-features-and-vrr-support-added\/"},"modified":"2025-02-11T06:06:46","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T06:06:46","slug":"cosmic-desktop-alpha-update-new-features-and-vrr-support-added","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serverhost.com\/blog\/cosmic-desktop-alpha-update-new-features-and-vrr-support-added\/","title":{"rendered":"COSMIC Desktop Alpha Update: New Features and VRR Support Added!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Development on COSMIC, a new open-source desktop environment by System76, is progressing with the release of its fourth alpha. System76 plans to release new alpha versions approximately once a month to expand features and gather feedback from users and developers.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside this alpha, a new ISO of Pop!_OS 24.04 (Alpha) is available, making it easier for users to try out the latest changes on different setups. The COSMIC DE is also accessible on other distributions, including Arch Linux.<\/p>\n<h3>Key Changes in COSMIC Alpha 4<\/h3>\n<p>The previous alpha versions laid the groundwork for COSMIC, adding basic features and refining the user interface. The latest alpha continues this trend with several new options:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Settings App Enhancements<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A new <strong>Region &amp; Language<\/strong> panel allows users to set their preferred languages and the formatting for date, time, and numbers independently.<\/li>\n<li>A <strong>System &amp; Accounts<\/strong> section now includes <strong>Default Applications<\/strong> preferences, enabling users to select default web browsers and applications for specific file types.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>New Power Management Options<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <em>Power &amp; Battery<\/em> settings now allow for more control over display timeout and suspend options for battery-powered devices.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) Support<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Users can now control VRR settings within the <em>Display<\/em> options, choosing to enable it automatically with fullscreen content or keep it activated at all times.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>COSMIC Store Updates<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The store has incorporated a collapsible details panel for tracking app updates and installations along with a list of recent activities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Accessibility Features<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An <em>Accessibility<\/em> applet is now available in the dock, allowing easy toggling of screen reader support. The feature is currently implemented in COSMIC Settings, Mozilla Firefox, and GNOME applications, with plans for further integration.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Additionally, users can expect performance optimizations, bug fixes, and improvements in user experience, such as dynamic adjustment of tiling layouts based on display settings.<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead, the development of a new Gstreamer-based media player, COSMIC Player, is underway. The player can currently be installed from the repos in Pop!_OS 24.04 using the command:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"language-bash\">sudo apt install cosmic-player<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>These updates mark a significant step forward for the COSMIC desktop environment, showcasing its potential as a unique option in the Linux ecosystem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Development on COSMIC, a new open-source desktop environment by System76, is progressing with the release of its fourth alpha. System76 plans to release new alpha versions approximately once a month to expand features and gather feedback from users and developers. Alongside this alpha, a new ISO of Pop!_OS 24.04 (Alpha) is available, making it easier [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[581,4,319],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cosmic-de","category-news","category-system76"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cosmic Desktop Alpha Update: New Features &amp; VRR Support serverhost<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cosmic Desktop Alpha update adds exciting new features, including Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support, improving visual performance and user experience on Linux systems.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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