Pop!_OS 21.04 Beta Released.
♞ Coming up on Runboxing ♞
Earlier this year Linux PC company System76 announced plans to develop a new desktop environment
for the company’s Ubuntu-based Pop!_OS operating system.
The COSMIC desktop environment is designed to be easy-to-use, but also highly customizable.
And now you can take it for a spin by trying out Pop!_OS 21.04 Beta, which was released
this week.
Keep in mind that this is very much a beta release – System76 notes that “bugs are
expected and re-installs are likely,” and when I tried running the operating system
in a virtual machine this afternoon, I had to reboot the machine several times because
the OS kept locking up.
But it does give us a first look at COSMIC, which is basically a heavily customized version
of the GNOME desktop environment with a Mac-like application dock, Workspaces and Applications
overviews, and a text-based launcher that you can trigger from any screen by hitting
the Windows/Super key and/or the search icon in the dock.
You can use the launcher to open programs, search for files, open settings, or perform
actions like rebooting your computer or adjusting the volume.
Most of the features can be disabled or modified – you can open the Extensions menu and completely
enable or disable COSMIC, the dock, or other features including the Pop Shell, which lets
you toggle the Pop!_OS tiling window manager, launcher, and some other features.
System76 plans to release the stable version of Pop!_OS 21.04 later this month, but if
you just want to see what’s new without downloading the beta, you can check out some
more screenshots below, or scroll down for a video from YouTuber DorianDotSlash that
shows off many of the key features of the COSMIC desktop environment.
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