Cosmic DE grew on me A LOT (user review)

[rnkjg]

From my experience with Pop!_OS's Cosmic desktop environment so far, to me its pretty clear that the core desktop environment itself, like the workspaces, windows management, tiling, even lately panels and dashes, app menu, their shortcuts, all of this feels stable and predictable enough.

Most the of the issues and bugs now seem to lie in the Cosmic apps suite. including Cosmic Settings even. It's UI is weird when I'm trying to change keyboard settings, for example *(1). Cosmic Files lack features like mtp[*](3), and is a bit buggy and unpredictable, such as when generating video thumbnails, often just returns solid green[*](2). Cosmic Store, when first time loading after a new install, i imagine builds some database of packages, but it doesn't tell you that, so unless you know, for like a solid couple minutes at least its just black screen except if you go to updates page. At least on my current slow wifi.

There's also certain inconsistencies where while i understand its about options, both the top panel and bottom dash have buttons to see app menu, workspaces and bottom dash also has button for launcher.

But by default the top panel will just use text label for these buttons, whereas bottom dash will use icon with no labels. And that makes it a bit more confusing or extra work for muscle memory where you don't want to have to think about it. Coming from Gnome which Cosmic is reminiscent of UI-wise, I'm used to top left workspaces button. And in Cosmic, by default, launcher button is only on the bottom dash. So do you just stick to bottom dash? But then again, that goes against Gnome muscle memory since Cosmic overall aesthetic is reminiscent of that, even though I much prefer Cosmic by a lot since its intentionally customizable without needing unreliable , unpredictable third party extensions like in Gnome which is otherwise very rigid and inflexible compared to Pop!_OS's Cosmic DE.

But thanks to the built-in customizability of Pop!_OS's Cosmic desktop environment, as i was writing this, I was able to remove the icon applets for workspaces and launcher entirely from the bottom dock, preserving it only for pinned and opened/minimized windows, and the applications menu/app library applet button on its left side.

And add text label button for launcher after workspaces text label button, in the left area of top panel, and remove the applications menu /app library applet/button and preserve it for the bottom dock , getting an experience more akin to Gnome or even Andriod OS . Much cleaner, less duplicates, easier muscle memory.

Lastly, thank you to the dev team and contributors on Pop!_OS and Cosmic DE and related projects!

Edit:

*1: ok, recent updates seemed to have fixed to UI issues in Cosmic Settings. It had trouble if window was scaled before, i got like a weird transparent effect if i tried to change compose key or alternate key. Not anymore after recent updates.

2 * installing ffmpegthumbnailer solved the issue, it wasn't a bug.

*3 this user corrected me. But I have issues with it, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. When it does work, transfer speed is much slower when using Cosmic Files vs when using Nautilus. I don't know the technical details of why, just what my experience is.




(originally posted on r/pop_os)

 

[NicWelds]

I used Pop!_OS for a month or so and I thought that Cosmic was a pretty good DE. It ran well considering the junky old laptop I was using and I only experienced buggy behaviour on one program. A game that wouldn't start in full screen but I just needed to alt+enter a couple time to make it full screen.

 

[marcelstevano]

From my experience with Pop!_OS's Cosmic desktop environment so far, to me its pretty clear that the core desktop environment itself, like the workspaces, windows management, tiling, even lately panels and dashes, app menu, their shortcuts, all of this feels stable and predictable enough.

Most the of the issues and bugs now seem lie in the Cosmic apps suite. including Cosmic Settings even. It's UI is weird when I'm trying to change keyboard settings, for example. Cosmic Files lack features like mtp, and is a bit buggy and unpredictable, such as when generating video thumbnails, often just returns solid green. Cosmic Store, when first time loading after a new install, i imagine builds some database of packages, but it doesn't tell you that, so unless you know, for like a solid couple minutes at least its just black screen except if you go to updates page. At least on my current slow wifi.

There's also certain inconsistencies where i understand while its about options, both the top panel and bottom dash have buttons to see app menu, workspaces and botton dash also has button for launcher.

But by default the top panel will just use text label for these buttons, whereas bottom dash will use icon with no labels. And that makes it a bit more confusing or extra work for muscle memory where you don't want to have to think about it. Coming from Gnome which Cosmic is reminiscent of UI-wise, I'm used to top left workspaces button. And in Cosmic, by default, launcher button is only on the bottom dash. So do you just stick to bottom dash? But then again, that goes against Gnome muscle memory since Cosmic overall aesthetic is reminiscent of that, even though I much prefer Cosmic by a lot since its intentionally customizable without needing unreliable , unpredictable third party extensions like in Gnome which is otherwise very rigid and inflexible compared to Pop!_OS's Cosmic DE.

But thanks to the built-in customizability of Pop!_OS's Cosmic desktop environment, as i was writing this, I was able to remove the icon applets for workspaces and launcher entirely from the bottom dock, preserving it only for pinned and opened/minimized windows, and the applications menu/app library applet button on its left side.

And add text label button for launcher after workspaces text label button, in the left area of top panel, and remove the applications menu /app library applet/button and preserve it for a bottom dock , getting an experience more akin to Gnome or even Andriod OS . Much cleaner, less duplicates, easier muscle memory.

Lastly, thank you to the dev team and contributors on Pop!_OS and Cosmic DE and related projects!


(originally posted on r/pop_os)

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I agree that the core DE feels surprisingly stable for how new it is, but the apps (Cosmic Files/Store) definitely need more time in the oven. The black screen on the Store is a classic—I think you're right about it building the package database in the background without a progress bar.
Your UI fix for the panel/dash is actually a great tip for anyone moving from a traditional GNOME layout. Keeping the launcher on the top panel just makes more sense if you're used to that workflow. Thanks for sharing the screenshots of your final setup