Here we go! Congrats to the System76 team!

Just set it up in a VM, I haven’t done a deep dive yet obviously but it definitely looks very slick so far!

I’ve tried it and share my few thoughts:

First of all, the first time I’ve tried Smithay-based compositor and it is usable and even supports nvidia. It is a good thing just by itself.

The whole DE is better than I assumed. It in not much polished, but it is good as an experimental thing. I’ve noticed few developer’s creative attempts as “compacted” menubars and dialog pop-ups. I doubt they are good but reveal author’s intent to try create something new.

What I like: The application menu is nice, it also is quite modern: uses Wayland, CSD, Rust and implements modern UX.

What I not so like: UX has some weak parts: unnecessarily duplicated elements between the dock and the top panel. Icon style and preferences is not that good also. I really would like to see icon consistency across the DE which would not harm third-party apps. I also think the project need a designer in the team.

For now there are only few “native” apps. And I would prefer COSMIC will embrace existing GNU/Linux ecosystem and apps without trying to rewrite everything and creating yet another segregated platform as GNOME and KDE do.