--- title: Every major Linux distro wants COSMIC, and it hasn't... description: COSMIC, the Rust-based desktop environment built by System76 for Pop!_OS, has seen rapid adoption across major Linux distributions less than a year after its... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/every-major-linux-distro-wants-cosmic-and-it-hasn-t-even-finished-its-first-year-hd27rcwzp twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Every major Linux distro wants COSMIC, and it hasn't even finished its first year | daily.dev og:description: COSMIC, the Rust-based desktop environment built by System76 for Pop!_OS, has seen rapid adoption across major Linux distributions less than a year after its... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/every-major-linux-distro-wants-cosmic-and-it-hasn-t-even-finished-its-first-year-hd27rcwzp og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/hd27RcWZp.png og:image:alt: Every major Linux distro wants COSMIC, and it hasn't even finished its first 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. # Every major Linux distro wants COSMIC, and it hasn't even finished its first year **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 4 min read · 3 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary COSMIC, the Rust-based desktop environment built by System76 for Pop!_OS, has seen rapid adoption across major Linux distributions less than a year after its 1.0 release. Originally created because GNOME's extension model was fragile and limiting, COSMIC offers native Wayland support, seamless switching between traditional and tiling window manager layouts, and deep customization without risking desktop crashes. It has been picked up by Arch Linux, NixOS, Fedora (as an official spin), and openSUSE, and even inspired new distros like Origami Linux and AstrOS built specifically around it. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is the COSMIC desktop environment and why did System76 build it instead of using GNOME? COSMIC is a desktop environment built in Rust by System76, the makers of Pop!_OS, to replace GNOME. System76 originally used GNOME extensions for customization, but found that extensions ran inside the main shell process, meaning a crashing extension could take down the entire desktop. Development started in late 2021 and reached version 1.0 in late 2025. _Developers curious about building Rust-based desktop environments can follow COSMIC's design choices on daily.dev._ ### Which Linux distributions support the COSMIC desktop environment? COSMIC is available on Arch Linux, NixOS, Fedora (via an official Fedora COSMIC Spin), and openSUSE Leap and Tumbleweed through a terminal command. Additionally, new distros such as Origami Linux (based on a Fedora Atomic base) and AstrOS (based on Arch) were created specifically to showcase COSMIC as their desktop environment. _Anyone choosing a Linux distro for a new desktop environment can track COSMIC's spreading support on daily.dev._ ### How does COSMIC differ from traditional desktop environments like GNOME and KDE in terms of window management? COSMIC lets users switch between a traditional desktop layout and a tiling window manager style, similar to Hyprland, with a single button, and even swap between them on the fly. Unlike GNOME and KDE, which rely on older codebases, COSMIC was built from scratch in Rust with native Wayland support, giving snappier performance without extra tweaking. _Developers evaluating desktop environments for Wayland performance can compare options like COSMIC on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [COSMIC desktop surprised me, because it's the Linux DE I've been waiting for](https://daily.dev/posts/cosmic-desktop-surprised-me-because-it-s-the-linux-de-i-ve-been-waiting-for-bn6ykltcp) · XDA Developers · 3 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 - [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 --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#rust](https://daily.dev/tags/rust) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/every-major-linux-distro-wants-cosmic-and-it-hasn-t-even-finished-its-first-year-hd27rcwzp) ```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":"Every major Linux distro wants COSMIC, and it hasn't even finished its first year","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/every-major-linux-distro-wants-cosmic-and-it-hasn-t-even-finished-its-first-year-hd27rcwzp","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/every-major-linux-distro-wants-cosmic-and-it-hasn-t-even-finished-its-first-year-hd27rcwzp"},"datePublished":"2026-07-14T19:00:48.007Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T21:29:47.233Z","description":"COSMIC, the Rust-based desktop environment built by System76 for Pop!_OS, has seen rapid adoption across major Linux distributions less than a year after its...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/5ce1410cbc723f90e47e0008fc11ea21?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/5ce1410cbc723f90e47e0008fc11ea21?_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":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/every-major-linux-distro-wants-cosmic-and-it-hasn-t-even-finished-its-first-year-hd27rcwzp","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"linux,rust","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@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":"Every major Linux distro wants COSMIC, and it hasn't even finished its first year"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/every-major-linux-distro-wants-cosmic-and-it-hasn-t-even-finished-its-first-year-hd27rcwzp#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is the COSMIC desktop environment and why did System76 build it instead of using GNOME?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"COSMIC is a desktop environment built in Rust by System76, the makers of Pop!_OS, to replace GNOME. 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