It will be possible to configure COSMIC to look like Unity out of the box. There's only a few panel applets that need to be implemented to make the experience 1:1.
this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2024
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I am still a bit confused that it's considered pre-alpha, when a final release is scheduled for later this year. That will be an awfully short alpha, beta and RC cycle then.
The compositor and its applications have been developed bottom up with a full Rust stack, so stability hasn't been a concern. We spend very little time debugging since the logic usually works if it compiles.
There's only a handful of applications slated for the first release, and they're almost finished. Besides core applications, we need only develop a couple additional settings pages to be ready for release, and integrate COSMIC versions of the remaining desktop portals. Altogether, that's really not that much compared to all the work in the last two years.
Besides feature development, the main focus will be ironing out theming issues in the toolkit to adhere to our design files, and writing documentation for developers interested in building apps for cosmic. As well as the necessary work to enable a smooth upgrade from Pop 22.04 to 24.04.
Don't get me wrong: I didn't want to downplay the work or doubt the progress. Quite the contrary. I think the current state is alpha and once the first sets of apps are finished it should be beta. Then polishing until release, a few weeks of release candidate phase and then release.
Basically I think it's too far along already to call it pre-alpha.
(Unless the intention is to "release" it as beta with 24.04 to emphasize the missing apps... then consider what I said pointless.)
Our internal testing won't begin until the first ISO is ready, which marks the alpha. As it is open source, our internal testing is also publicly available to everyone interested in downloading the ISO and testing it. The Alpha will not include all features that are planned for release. Then we will switch to Beta after all featues are implemented, where QA will begin reviewing every PR to ensure that no regressions make it to release. Then it releases after we deem the beta free of oustanding issues on the board.
Thanks for the clarification. Seems sensible.
It got delayed, and that is very much needed.
COSMIC is huge, they implemented like all the base components (compositor, xwayland, font rendering, refresh rate stuff, own GUI toolkit, ...) which is incredible, but the GUI is very alpha and I wouldnt like using it tbh.
Their groundwork is awesome, and with a style like KDE I think it woulf be incredible. Their apps are very fast too.
It should be noted that COSMIC itself hasn't been delayed. Development on the core applications progressed much faster than expected, so we decided to skip the Alpha 1 release and release Alpha 2 instead.
Why wouldn't you like using it right now? I wouldn't call it "very alpha".
Thanks for the reply!
I find some things confusing to use. Like maximizing/tiling windows my dragging them to screen edges doesnt work. I think documentation about the tiling would be awesome, as meta+arrows also didnt do anything.
It seems the tiling is only active when using tiling mode? That mode is slick as fuck, but having super+arrow always available or at least the tiling applet always shown would be great.
I am also not a fan of the color scheme, which is too black and I would prefer a less aggressive "active window" border.
The screenshot tool is very minimal but works well, its hard to reach a (bugfree ;D) KDE spectacle.
Same with the Filemanager and Editor, Dolphin is the best piece of software in existence, I love it. Kate is also great. (Main dolphin features: filter, search, preview size, column selector, custom right-click actions, custom buttons, custom places bar with custom names and icons,
And there is this issue with 3rd row symbols and keyboard layout not working at all. I have an en-GB keyboard, en-US either has no 3rd row or this is actually not working, and I also needs to disable capslock and use it to switch between 2 layouts.
The app menu has no "show all apps" view which makes searching a pain for me. I also prefer the layout of either GNOME (showing all apps with folders and rearranging) or KDE Kicker (WinXP like with search and favorites).
I will try and see what my problem with the search was, because that would probably be my preferred way.
The ability to remove the top panel, and to resize the applets independently of the app icons is crucial for creating a laptop-friendly one-button-panel layout. The GNOME-style only makes sense in GNOME I think.
Style-wise I think it already looks great, and its snappy and modern and has better dual-monitor support than Plasma 5, which is kinda crazy.
Disclaimer: using the latest ublue cosmic 40 image, no idea if the RPMs are up to date.
The editor is meant to be a regular text editor. If you want a code editor, there is https://lapce.dev/
It's funny how I find cosmic-editor to be perfect for code too
Nice, I already tried that editor. Thanks!
The best source seems to be COPR titaniumtown/lapce
Wait, xwayland is something that the compositor has to handle? I thought it was a separate program. Really nothing is built in with Wayland, is it?
Wayland compositors have to implement the whole display server, including special handling of XWayland windows. XWayland windows can be very finicky and require caution to handle.
Uhm I dont know, but it needs to be handled by them, there also is xwaylandvideobridge (only in KDE?) which is also important