--- title: COSMIC is doing what GNOME still can't, and it's only... description: COSMIC, the Rust-built desktop environment from System76, has made impressive progress in under a year since its first stable release in December 2025.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/cosmic-is-doing-what-gnome-still-can-t-and-it-s-only-been-out-for-a-year-hwwqp4tij twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: COSMIC is doing what GNOME still can't, and it's only been out for a year | daily.dev og:description: COSMIC, the Rust-built desktop environment from System76, has made impressive progress in under a year since its first stable release in December 2025.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/cosmic-is-doing-what-gnome-still-can-t-and-it-s-only-been-out-for-a-year-hwwqp4tij og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/HWwQP4tij.png og:image:alt: COSMIC is doing what GNOME still can't, and it's only been out for a year og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # COSMIC is doing what GNOME still can't, and it's only been out for a year **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 3 min read · 43 upvotes · 8 comments ## Summary COSMIC, the Rust-built desktop environment from System76, has made impressive progress in under a year since its first stable release in December 2025. Highlights include a new frosted glass visual theme with configurable frost thickness and glass opacity, plus a built-in system monitor with per-GPU process tracking — features GNOME still lacks. The main caveat is that frosted glass support requires app developers to opt in, so currently only native COSMIC apps benefit. Despite being very new, COSMIC is already outpacing GNOME in customization and system monitoring capabilities. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What new features has the COSMIC desktop environment added since its first stable release? COSMIC added a frosted glass theme with adjustable frost thickness and glass opacity settings, plus a custom system monitor that replaces reliance on GNOME System Monitor. The system monitor supports per-GPU tracking, showing which GPU handles which process and how much VRAM each process consumes. The frosted glass effect currently only renders on native COSMIC apps since other app developers must manually add support. _Developers evaluating Linux desktop environments can follow COSMIC's feature rollout on daily.dev._ ### Is COSMIC desktop environment built on GNOME or is it independent? COSMIC started with GNOME roots but System76 has been actively separating it, building it in Rust as their own desktop environment rather than continuing to base it on GNOME. It reached its first stable release in December, making it under a year old, yet it already includes features like per-GPU system monitoring that GNOME still lacks. _Anyone comparing Linux desktop environments can track COSMIC's progress against GNOME on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@akkitto** · 3 upvotes > It's not difficult to surpass GNOME. Though yes, Rust is great. **@renehoehle** · 1 upvotes > I've tested POP and COMIS once and it was so buggy it was unusable. **@tsumanu** · 0 upvotes > I'm swaywm user and didn't use any DE for years so maybe my knowledge is outdated but GNOME always has been the worst after KDE and other DE came into play. Developers are doing what they prefer ignoring users, is ugly (again this is coming from the guy using the ugliest window manager I know) and feels clunky > > If not the timeline I would call it AI slop ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [COSMIC just hit version 1.2, and it's quietly doing things GNOME and KDE still make you fight for](https://daily.dev/posts/cosmic-just-hit-version-1-2-and-it-s-quietly-doing-things-gnome-and-kde-still-make-you-fight-for-uxppja8cj) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [COSMIC is doing things KDE and GNOME still can't, and it's only going to get better](https://daily.dev/posts/cosmic-is-doing-things-kde-and-gnome-still-can-t-and-it-s-only-going-to-get-better-suu0fyt9z) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [System76’s COSMIC desktop: A hands-on tour of Pop\!\_OS 24.04 LTS](https://daily.dev/posts/system76-s-cosmic-desktop-a-hands-on-tour-of-pop-os-24-04-lts-yyeanjtwp) · All Things Open · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#rust](https://daily.dev/tags/rust) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/cosmic-is-doing-what-gnome-still-can-t-and-it-s-only-been-out-for-a-year-hwwqp4tij) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"COSMIC is doing what GNOME still can't, and it's only been out for a year","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/cosmic-is-doing-what-gnome-still-can-t-and-it-s-only-been-out-for-a-year-hwwqp4tij","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/cosmic-is-doing-what-gnome-still-can-t-and-it-s-only-been-out-for-a-year-hwwqp4tij"},"datePublished":"2026-08-01T16:30:20.382Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T19:05:50.997Z","description":"COSMIC, the Rust-built desktop environment from System76, has made impressive progress in under a year since its first stable release in December 2025....","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/9b4e49c3bf9c772e696cbe8262b69b94?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/9b4e49c3bf9c772e696cbe8262b69b94?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"XDA Developers","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"XDA Developers","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--kCg6yyAP--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774964407/logos/xda-developers?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},"commentCount":8,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/cosmic-is-doing-what-gnome-still-can-t-and-it-s-only-been-out-for-a-year-hwwqp4tij","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":43},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":8}],"keywords":"linux,rust","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"XDA Developers","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"COSMIC is doing what GNOME still can't, and it's only been out for a year"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/cosmic-is-doing-what-gnome-still-can-t-and-it-s-only-been-out-for-a-year-hwwqp4tij","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"It’s not difficult to surpass GNOME. Though yes, Rust is great.","datePublished":"2026-08-02T09:47:43.683Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/HWwQP4tij#c-GXAFTjjc8","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel","url":"https://daily.dev/akkitto","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--FtwJqX4c--/f_auto/v1754900041/avatars/avatar_29TCpY2hJR72V3BlxPXzX?_a=BAMClqZW0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I’ve tested POP and COMIS once and it was so buggy it was unusable.","datePublished":"2026-08-01T16:59:33.325Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/HWwQP4tij#c-hFoD4ucym","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"René H.","url":"https://daily.dev/renehoehle","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocJ8hDDIeMWSluQCPM4cpeozwunDxUYydfDudbgcatmFJLbBF8IH=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I’m swaywm user and didn’t use any DE for years so maybe my knowledge is outdated but GNOME always has been the worst after KDE and other DE came into play. Developers are doing what they prefer ignoring users, is ugly (again this is coming from the guy using the ugliest window manager I know) and feels clunky\nIf not the timeline I would call it AI slop","datePublished":"2026-08-02T10:22:57.832Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/HWwQP4tij#c-9JVVzexGO","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Adrian","url":"https://daily.dev/tsumanu","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--bbTggVj0--/f_auto/v1729056978/avatars/avatar_o83yJZhDlLH2O7iL41pEg"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/cosmic-is-doing-what-gnome-still-can-t-and-it-s-only-been-out-for-a-year-hwwqp4tij#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What new features has the COSMIC desktop environment added since its first stable release?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"COSMIC added a frosted glass theme with adjustable frost thickness and glass opacity settings, plus a custom system monitor that replaces reliance on GNOME System Monitor. The system monitor supports per-GPU tracking, showing which GPU handles which process and how much VRAM each process consumes. The frosted glass effect currently only renders on native COSMIC apps since other app developers must manually add support. Developers evaluating Linux desktop environments can follow COSMIC's feature rollout on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Is COSMIC desktop environment built on GNOME or is it independent?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"COSMIC started with GNOME roots but System76 has been actively separating it, building it in Rust as their own desktop environment rather than continuing to base it on GNOME. It reached its first stable release in December, making it under a year old, yet it already includes features like per-GPU system monitoring that GNOME still lacks. Anyone comparing Linux desktop environments can track COSMIC's progress against GNOME on daily.dev."}}]} ```