{"id":2486,"date":"2025-04-25T04:00:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T04:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serverhost.com\/blog\/exploring-the-exciting-new-features-in-cosmic-desktop-alpha-7\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T04:00:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T04:00:45","slug":"exploring-the-exciting-new-features-in-cosmic-desktop-alpha-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serverhost.com\/blog\/exploring-the-exciting-new-features-in-cosmic-desktop-alpha-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the Exciting New Features in COSMIC Desktop Alpha 7"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>System76 has announced the release of COSMIC Desktop Alpha 7<\/strong>, a significant update to its Rust-based desktop environment. This alpha release focuses on incorporating features leading up to its first stable version, Epoch 1. While COSMIC is still in development and won&#8217;t fully compete with established desktop environments right away, its progress is noteworthy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>New Features in COSMIC Alpha 7:<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Workspace Improvements<\/h3>\n<p>The latest version introduces the ability to <strong>reorder workspaces<\/strong> by clicking and dragging thumbnails, providing a more intuitive workflow for arranging app sets. Users can also <strong>pin workspaces<\/strong>, preventing them from being cleared when not in use, ensuring certain spaces remain available.<\/p>\n<h3>Enhanced Accessibility Options<\/h3>\n<p>Accessibility aids have been expanded in Alpha 7, which includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A <strong>Colour Filter toggle<\/strong> that applies one of three preinstalled LUTs to aid users with colorblindness (Deuteranopia, Protanopia, Tritanopia).<\/li>\n<li>An <strong>Invert Colours<\/strong> option for better differentiation of colors.<\/li>\n<li><strong>High Contrast Mode<\/strong> and a <strong>Greyscale<\/strong> filter.<\/li>\n<li>A <strong>mono sound option<\/strong> merging stereo audio into a singular channel to help users with hearing impairments.<\/li>\n<li>A magnifier feature now allows the disabling of overlay and adjustment of scrolling behavior.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Global Shortcuts<\/h3>\n<p>COSMIC Alpha 7 supports <strong>global keyboard shortcuts<\/strong> primarily for X11 applications, allowing users to create app-specific shortcuts that function even when the app is not in focus.<\/p>\n<h3>X11 Scaling Control<\/h3>\n<p>The new desktop version enhances scaling for legacy X11 applications with settings for fractional scaling. This enables customized scaling behavior, either optimizing for applications or for full-screen and gaming experiences.<\/p>\n<h3>Additional Enhancements<\/h3>\n<p>Several other features and improvements include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tooltips for app trays and workspaces.<\/li>\n<li>System shortcut enhancements and an audio balance slider.<\/li>\n<li>COSMIC Files adds seek ahead search and single-click options to open files.<\/li>\n<li>Improvements in the COSMIC Media Player and Text applications.<\/li>\n<li>A <strong>Permanently Delete<\/strong> option in the Trash context menu.<\/li>\n<li>Support for EAP and PEAP network authentication.<\/li>\n<li>The date applet now highlights the current day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These updates accompany typical bug fixes and performance improvements, marking steady advancement as the team prepares for a beta release.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Try COSMIC DE in Pop!_OS 24.04<\/strong>You can experience the COSMIC desktop firsthand by downloading the new Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha ISO, which comes preinstalled with COSMIC Alpha 7. Interested users can flash the ISO to create bootable media or run it in a virtual machine.<\/p>\n<p>For more information, visit the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.system76.com\/post\/cosmic-alpha-7-never-been-beta\">System76 blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>System76 has announced the release of COSMIC Desktop Alpha 7, a significant update to its Rust-based desktop environment. This alpha release focuses on incorporating features leading up to its first stable version, Epoch 1. While COSMIC is still in development and won&#8217;t fully compete with established desktop environments right away, its progress is noteworthy. New [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[581,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cosmic-de","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Exploring the Exciting New Features in COSMIC Desktop Alpha 7 - ServerHost Hosting Solutions Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/serverhost.com\/blog\/exploring-the-exciting-new-features-in-cosmic-desktop-alpha-7\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Exploring the Exciting New Features in COSMIC Desktop Alpha 7 - ServerHost Hosting Solutions Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"System76 has announced the release of COSMIC Desktop Alpha 7, a significant update to its Rust-based desktop environment. 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