System 76 just announced the alpha release of their Linux distribution, Pop!_OS and their Cosmic desktop environment. Pop!_OS is still based on Ubuntu, in this case version 24.04. Cosmic desktop is a completely written-from-scratch environment in the Rust language. Because it’s an alpha release, anything that works I consider a victory. Anything that doesn’t is probably something that has yet to be implemented, or at the very least, needs to be completed. So far it looks good. The fact I can install an instance in a VM I attribute in part to being based on Ubuntu.

As for the desktop environment, it looks to be in pretty good shape, especially for an alpha. It took very little to get it into a reasonable shape I prefer, such as moving the dock to the left edge of the screen. I can even live with the alpha wallpaper.

I’m looking forward to see how this version of Pop!_OS continues to develop and evolve.