--- title: I tried customizing an "Easy" Linux Desktop | daily.dev description: A hands-on walkthrough of customizing the Cosmic desktop environment on Pop OS, covering applets, tiling, themes, fonts, icon packs, custom cursors built with... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-tried-customizing-an-easy-linux-desktop-llr1xecxd twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I tried customizing an "Easy" Linux Desktop | daily.dev og:description: A hands-on walkthrough of customizing the Cosmic desktop environment on Pop OS, covering applets, tiling, themes, fonts, icon packs, custom cursors built with... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-tried-customizing-an-easy-linux-desktop-llr1xecxd og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Llr1xeCXd.png og:image:alt: I tried customizing an "Easy" Linux Desktop 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. # I tried customizing an "Easy" Linux Desktop **[Juxtopposed](https://daily.dev/sources/juxtopposed)** · 11 min read · 28 upvotes · 3 comments ## Summary A hands-on walkthrough of customizing the Cosmic desktop environment on Pop OS, covering applets, tiling, themes, fonts, icon packs, custom cursors built with xcursor-gen, frosted glass windows, and a dynamic wallpaper switcher written in Rust. The author forks a monochrome icon pack to create pixelated variants, designs pixel-art cursors from scratch, and builds a small Rust app called Twilight to swap wallpapers between light and dark mode. The post also touches on gaming on Pop OS with Nvidia drivers and shares a list of Cosmic's current strengths and missing features. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What desktop environment does Pop OS use now that it's separate from GNOME? Pop OS moved away from GNOME to a new desktop environment called Cosmic, built from scratch by System76. Cosmic looks similar to GNOME but offers far more built-in customization options, including native tiling window management, applets similar to GNOME extensions or KDE widgets, frosted glass window effects, and theme import/export using the RON (Rusty Object Notation) format. _Developers evaluating Linux desktops can follow daily.dev for hands-on takes on Cosmic versus GNOME._ ### How do you create custom cursors for the Cosmic desktop environment on Linux? Custom cursors for Cosmic are built using the Xcursor Gen tool, which works across most Linux desktop environments. You design 16-pixel icons for each cursor state (pointer, resize, crosshair, etc.), determine the hotspot x/y coordinates, format them per Xcursor Gen's requirements, and generate the cursor files. Cosmic uses different internal names for some cursors than other desktops, such as resize, so extra nickname aliases must be added to each cursor definition file for them to apply correctly. _Anyone deep in Linux desktop tinkering can track niche how-tos like this via daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@ambi\_dex** · 0 upvotes > I'm a noob in general to CS but, I have a lot of determination to become an adept Software Engineer and I started school last year. I built my first desktop right before RAM went through the roof last year, thank god!! I snagged a free image of Win11 Pro edition and thought I was set... > > After about 4-6mths of some basic networking fundamentals, Cyber security intro, and then my first programming courses of many to follow... Wow, lol. This is when I started to understand why people prefer using Bash instead of PowerShell but, as soon as I downloaded WSL2 and kept playing around in VScode-... **@andradei** · 0 upvotes > pixels, pixels everywhere. > > That felt like more work than ricing a window manager environment. > > But that was awesome. I'm surprised COSMIC has a polished customization ability. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Pop\!\_OS 24.04 review: Was the two-year wait for COSMIC Desktop worth it?](https://daily.dev/posts/pop-os-24-04-review-was-the-two-year-wait-for-cosmic-desktop-worth-it--do1zdkrnd) · All Things Open · 102 upvotes · 15 comments - [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 --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#rust](https://daily.dev/tags/rust) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-tried-customizing-an-easy-linux-desktop-llr1xecxd) ```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":"I tried customizing an \"Easy\" Linux Desktop","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-tried-customizing-an-easy-linux-desktop-llr1xecxd","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-tried-customizing-an-easy-linux-desktop-llr1xecxd"},"datePublished":"2026-07-26T16:20:32.920Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T06:51:03.453Z","description":"A hands-on walkthrough of customizing the Cosmic desktop environment on Pop OS, covering applets, tiling, themes, fonts, icon packs, custom cursors built with...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/57j7W7coQMg/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/57j7W7coQMg/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Juxtopposed","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":"Juxtopposed","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--MdalXrrw--/f_auto/v1712315280/logos/juxtopposed","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/juxtopposed"},"commentCount":3,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-tried-customizing-an-easy-linux-desktop-llr1xecxd","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":28},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}],"keywords":"linux,rust","timeRequired":"PT11M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"I tried customizing an \"Easy\" Linux Desktop","description":"A hands-on walkthrough of customizing the Cosmic desktop environment on Pop OS, covering applets, tiling, themes, fonts, icon packs, custom cursors built with...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/57j7W7coQMg/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-07-26T16:20:32.920Z","duration":"PT11M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/Llr1xeCXd","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/57j7W7coQMg"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Juxtopposed","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/juxtopposed"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"I tried customizing an \"Easy\" Linux Desktop"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-tried-customizing-an-easy-linux-desktop-llr1xecxd","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"I’m a noob in general to CS but, I have a lot of determination to become an adept Software Engineer and I started school last year. I built my first desktop right before RAM went through the roof last year, thank god!! I snagged a free image of Win11 Pro edition and thought I was set…\nAfter about 4-6mths of some basic networking fundamentals, Cyber security intro, and then my first programming courses of many to follow… Wow, lol. This is when I started to understand why people prefer using Bash instead of PowerShell but, as soon as I downloaded WSL2 and kept playing around in VScode- again, huge noob then and tbh, I am most def still a noob but, I am a noob who at least understands all the fundamentals in Python now as well as C++/C, as well as getting much better with DSA. All of my friends who working in IT of some sort have always been telling me to ditch Windows now and just learn Bash and Linux fundamentals because not only will I enjoy the OS more but, I will have the experience that will be needed in Bash.\n‘The world runs on Linux’ is what I would hear from my friends as well as being echoed from content creators I enjoy watching as it pertains to my future career goals. I figured F it, I am going to create a small partition on my SSD and give a easy Linux Distro a try… I ended up going with Ubuntu and yea… I have never looked back. I never realized how annoying all those damn random pop ups are on Windows until I used Ubuntu as a daily driver for just one month. I then had to hop back into my Windows partition and copy some files - I didn’t know that I could just mount the damn partition and would have saved me a huge headache. When I logged back into Windows I ended up not being able to past the startup prompt, lol -I STG, it was driving me insane!! I was able to enter my pin, hopped in and was waiting to see my desktop bg in windows along with the 20-30 secs of processing… stuff in the background(something I never noticed until this moment) Then the MS 360 ad pops up… Simple, ‘No Thanks!’ , and I am at the desktop,right? WRONG, lmao… This damn thing had only two options and they were ‘Yes’ to the subscription fee, or ‘Continue’… I tried continue and it literally routed me to the same screen that ‘Yes’ was trying to take me to… 👺👺… I messed around with the window and was trying to just close it with the X up on the title bar, nope - No ‘X’ for YOUUUU. I went back and forth on all the pages carefully so that I wouldn’t accidentally hit yes and instantly have a bill from MS for a service I felt like I was getting forced into… Somehow , I really don’t know what I did different, it let me onto my actual desktop- literally 5 mins of me freaking out at the monitor and contemplating throwing my computer… After that experience I completely nuked my NTFS partition on the disk and never looked back… Oh don’t even get me started with the MS Cloud app, good loooord!!!\nSorry, I tend to rant and go on crazy long ones - my bad. I figured I would leave my two cents as a noob aspiring Software Engineer and as someone who is comfortable with the fact that I am ignorant to a lot stuff CS related but, by golly I have learned Sooo much more useful concepts just using Bash and actual Linux desktop as a daily driver now. Sure, I have LLM’s and Content creators along with Wiki to thank as well because, I couldn’t have gotten this far without any of them. I stopped using Ubuntu once I realized that theres WAAY better distros/flavors for linux. I personally would recommend any new user to go with Debian and if you enjoy Debian and want to get something that is more for power user/ without sacrificing much of the stability that you get from Debian, use Fedora… Then whenever you are wanting to dig even deeper into Linux and want 90-95% control over every service running in your OS on your device then I would say Arch… btw. 😎…","datePublished":"2026-07-26T23:04:48.162Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/Llr1xeCXd#c-xJWslPIjT","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Kyle Bennett","url":"https://daily.dev/ambi_dex","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--sP1o1RE5--/f_auto/v1768771972/avatars/avatar_s964t6Sv9gCgRujNRxmzq?_a=BAMAMiiu0"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"pixels, pixels everywhere.\nThat felt like more work than ricing a window manager environment.\nBut that was awesome. I’m surprised COSMIC has a polished customization ability.","datePublished":"2026-07-28T19:39:25.914Z","dateModified":"2026-07-28T19:40:24.150Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/Llr1xeCXd#c-oWXd5qccV","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Isaac de Andrade","url":"https://daily.dev/andradei","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/2653546?v=4"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-tried-customizing-an-easy-linux-desktop-llr1xecxd#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What desktop environment does Pop OS use now that it's separate from GNOME?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Pop OS moved away from GNOME to a new desktop environment called Cosmic, built from scratch by System76. Cosmic looks similar to GNOME but offers far more built-in customization options, including native tiling window management, applets similar to GNOME extensions or KDE widgets, frosted glass window effects, and theme import/export using the RON (Rusty Object Notation) format. Developers evaluating Linux desktops can follow daily.dev for hands-on takes on Cosmic versus GNOME."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do you create custom cursors for the Cosmic desktop environment on Linux?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Custom cursors for Cosmic are built using the Xcursor Gen tool, which works across most Linux desktop environments. You design 16-pixel icons for each cursor state (pointer, resize, crosshair, etc.), determine the hotspot x/y coordinates, format them per Xcursor Gen's requirements, and generate the cursor files. Cosmic uses different internal names for some cursors than other desktops, such as resize, so extra nickname aliases must be added to each cursor definition file for them to apply correctly. Anyone deep in Linux desktop tinkering can track niche how-tos like this via daily.dev."}}]} ```