- beta release: 2025.01-2025.02
- first release: 2025.02-2025.03
- likely a second release in 2025
- annual releases thereafter
Alpha 3 is out!
https://system76.com/cosmic?srsltid=AfmBOooqrnC1LxgR52VkyFJAwvbJl6AeQ5d629aBXFFqIjajL19gPTbL
Alpha 4 is out as well.
Tried it and loved it. I made a small video without sound to show some stuff fast. Tried the latest osb for the first time and record this video at 30 fps (not a pro video). I also tried lutris and steam and they all work great on the old hp notebook.
Weird thing i encountered, in zorin os steam refused to start on this older notebook. I had to use the terminal to get steam to launch. With pop os it works just as it should. First i thought the notebook whas to old to fire it up but now i am thinking zorin os might had a configuration set wrong (dedicated gpu refused steam)
There's still some odd around full screen gaming (some, not all)I have encountered in Cosmic DE, but so far the ride have been a breeze.
Well that i did not really test. This laptop cannot handle new games haha.
Does POP OS have a preinstalled Firewall? At least ufw? Or does it come without one?
Yes, but you have to enable it as administrator via terminal. That’s the first thing i do after a fresh install.
Okay, at least ufw. Better than nothing. Thanks for the Info.
Pop! OS 24.04 got installed a week or 2 ago on my wifes 11 years old HP Pavilion G7-2310ED notebook. It works great!, today they send out updates and to my surprise it translated everything. When i installed it 2 weeks ago the settings app and other stuff where not translated.
Cosmic makes good progress
Noticed 2 things that did not translated, but these are very minor
I am also impressed by how stable wayland is on this 11 years old notebook. Zorin 17.2 worked perfectly fine on it without 1 single issue, and so does Pop! OS 24.04 with wayland.
Well, Cosmic is a Wayland-only modern Desktop. So, only this Implementation is needed and the Programmers can focus on that. And it is a System for there PC's that System76 is selling. So, it will be better that it works stable at the End, hahaha! Now it is still an Alpha. When the Final Release happen, I will it install beneath Zorin and take a Look at it.
I hope zorin will ditch gnome and switch over to cosmic. If they add their layouts to it it would be a instant win for the entire linux family.
The Thing is: It is a whole different Desktop Environment. And we must see how Cosmic will be able to customize. It brings some good Stuff out of the Box, yes. But how it is when goning further?
And on Gnome this comes with the Gnome Extensions. And You can't simply take them to Cosmic. And when Zorin would switch, all the Development over the Yeasr in the Tools and Extensions would be obsolete. That would be a hard cut. anf for such a big Step, we simply don't know enough form Cosmic I would say. So, we should wait, let Cosmic come, look at it, try it and then we know where it stands.
In general I see Cosmic - if it really works well - as an Alternative to the Gnome Desktop. But it wouldn't be the only one. You have Budgie; that is near Gnome, too but more open and have more or less the same minimalistic Look. You have Cinnamon, too. By default maybe not the nicest Desktop but customizable und functional.
Cosmic does look very promising, but let's give it some time to mature. Not that I think there's any reason not to look into this further, but one advantage in the Gnome's ecosystem is the number of extensions available.
Upcoming versions of Gnome (I'm referring to version 43 onward) also have increasingly better support for Wayland, so we can expect fewer bugs, or at least for the most common type of glitches.
I wouldn't also want the developers to lose track of Zorin OS Lite, despite the announcement of it losing support in 2029, it's still a few years away and should get the love it deserves.
Pop! OS 24.04 Alpha 5 got released
I noticed Pop! OS 24.04 comes with pipewire, if i am not wrong they used pulse audio in their previous release (need to check this tommorow). Pipeware seems a good choice 
. The sounds on the HP Pavillion notebook sounds amazing, for years the sounds used to be bad on Windows 10-11. When i set it on 100% in windows the sound sound like 20-30%....in linux if i set it to 100% i get perfect sound, even Dolby advanced audio is working 
. I really cannot complain at this notebook, it does an amazing job so far (12 years old)
Edit: Pop! OS 22.04 also ships with pipewire.