This post is a few days late since I was at the Tokyo Games Show when the news were out. I almost fell off from my seat when I saw that Pop!_OS was back with a new build based on 24.04 Ubuntu LTS (the current version is based on the now super OLD 22.04 LTS). Note that this is a beta image for now, so you might want to wait a little if you are currently using Pop!_OS.

The main reason why this release is SOOOOO late, is mostly what I supposed all along. System76 has been actively at work on their COSMIC desktop, and it turns out that they wanted to have the new distro image using COSMIC from the get go. And since COSMIC was deeply infested with bugs since its alpha release in 2024, it took probably quite a while to get it into proper shape. But here we are now.

Note that for the beta the following is recommended:

• 4 GB RAM, 16 GB storage, 64-bit processor
• Computers with Intel or AMD graphics or 10 series NVIDIA and older (e.g. GTX 1060 and previous)
• Disabled Secure Boot in your BIOS

So looks like modern Nvidia hardware is NOT supported!! Beware if you are a Nvidia user.

COSMIC Desktop?

Just in case you did not follow such developments, COSMIC Desktop is a modern Linux desktop environment developed by System76. Originally, the name “COSMIC” referred to a customized version of GNOME used in Pop!_OS, but it has since evolved into a standalone desktop environment built from scratch. The new COSMIC is written in Rust and is native to the Wayland display protocol. It puts a special focus on performance, customization, and aesthetics, offering users more control over visual elements.

As part of their announcement of the new beta version, they have produced a few videos to showcase how COSMIC is different.

This one shows the launcher and the tiling effects:

Here’s another showing how you can customize the trays and applications bars:

COSMIC also comes with its own file manager (not very fancy):

What is really new is the stacking feature for windows, when you can stack windows from different apps onto existing windows, as if every application was a tab (just like in your browser).

Pretty cool.

Upcoming Share Recovery for Pop!_OS?

As you know if you follow our recurrent distro popularity articles, Pop!_OS has fallen out of fashion for a while now since it did not get any upgrade for many years. According to ProtonDB, Pop!_OS is now at less than 3% so there’s a long way up to come back to where it used to be!

Since they have finally caught up with a new version, I would expect Pop!_OS to bounce back in market share a little. But this time, I don’t think it will eat the lunch of Arch or CachyOS, but rather other Ubuntu-based distros, be it Mint, or Ubuntu itself. There’s much less effort involved in switching between Ubuntu based distros if you start from there, so I expect most of the switch to start from there. We’ll see!