System76 releases COSMIC desktop epoch-1.10.0 update

System76 has released epoch-1.10.0 of its COSMIC desktop environment. This update introduces several functional improvements, most notably enabling wGPU rendering by default in the launcher. The cosmic-store component received significant updates, including a new screenshot gallery, a preview-image cache, and threaded decoding for large images to prevent UI stalling. Additionally, the terminal now supports keyboard-driven tab movement, and the compositor features an overhauled cursor auto-hide mechanism.

While the desktop environment is gaining technical polish, developers have noted challenges regarding its ecosystem. Because COSMIC utilizes a custom Rust-based toolkit rather than established frameworks like GTK or Qt, users currently face a lack of native applications. This results in a visual inconsistency when running third-party software that does not inherit COSMIC’s specific graphical features and design touches.