The release of the first stable version of the COSMIC desktop was one of the highlights of the past year. That said, it’s only fair to note that several areas still need polishing or expansion before it can be considered a fully mature desktop environment.
The good news is that System76 has chosen not to follow a traditional major-version release cycle with long gaps in between. Instead, the project is moving forward with a model similar to a rolling release, delivering small, frequent updates. And this is great because the latest release brings some much-anticipated improvements.
And more specifically, COSMIC has gained system-wide rounded corners and window shadows, extending the visual styling consistently across all applications, giving the desktop a more cohesive and modern look.
The option is exposed in COSMIC’s settings interface, under Desktop > Appearance > Window shadow and corners, where users can configure rounded corners and shadows for floating and tiled windows. The options allow matching system corner radii, selectively applying shadows, or disabling effects entirely.
According to System76, the feature is already present upstream and requires only a COSMIC update, with no additional configuration or extensions needed. On Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS, installing the latest updates is sufficient, while other distributions packaging COSMIC are expected to ship the changes soon.
But that’s not all the good news. A brief comment from one of the COSMIC devs on Reddit, posted in response to the rounded corners and window shadows update, suggests that blur functionality is being actively worked on and will be the next thing we see soon in the desktop environment.
One thing is clear: the desktop environment is steadily maturing, and this year it will likely reach the level of stability and polish people expect.
Personally, I would still like to see a few things added soon, such as simple animations for actions that are currently missing. Icon theme handling could also be improved, as applying icon themes does not work as expected at the moment.
I know, these are minor details, but together they make a real difference. Even so, I’m confident that many of the remaining gaps will be addressed this year, allowing the COSMIC desktop to fully realize its potential as a complete, polished environment.
