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# COSMIC Alpha 5: The Evolution of System76's Desktop Continues!
- URL: https://itsfoss.com/news/cosmic-alpha-5/
- Published: 2025-01-10T10:42:48.000Z
- Updated: 2025-01-10T10:42:48.000Z
- Description: System76's COSMIC desktop is making good progress!
- Author: Sourav Rudra
- Tags: Development Updates, News, #Import 2025-11-08 21:15

The COSMIC desktop environment is taking its sweet time to be ready for a stable release, but hey, it now feels like we're waiting for Half-Life 3 at this point. I understand that great things take time, and I’m more than happy to wait.

Still, every so often, the enthusiastic nerd in me just can’t help but get a little impatient!

Not long ago, [the first Alpha release](https://itsfoss.com/pop-os-24-04-cosmic-alpha/) of COSMIC arrived, offering a sneak peek into the development, followed by several more Alpha releases. This time, we will explore the COSMIC Alpha 5 release. Let's see what's new. 😃

## COSMIC Alpha 5: What's Cooking?

![a screenshot of cosmic alpha 5 running on pop!_os 24.04 alpha with the fastfetch output being shown towards the right](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2025/01/COSMIC_Alpha_5_Fastfetch_Output.jpg)

Bringing COSMIC closer to a stable version, the Alpha 5 release brings forward some fresh changes that will make it into the final release. We start off with the [COSMIC Media Player](https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-player?ref=itsfoss.com), which has now become **the default app for playing media on COSMIC**.

It uses [Vulkan](https://www.vulkan.org/?ref=itsfoss.com) for rendering and [VA-API](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video%5FAcceleration%5FAPI?ref=itsfoss.com) for decoding (*depending on availability*) for facilitating video playback. The developers also intend to add audio file playback and a tree view for handling audio/video files in the future.

The Variable Refresh Rate (*VRR*) implementation also sees upgrades. It now takes into account a display's minimum refresh rate to ensure that there is no jitteriness when the cursor is moved in an application that is running below the minimum refresh rate.

![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2025/01/COSMIC_Media_Player.png)

![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2025/01/COSMIC_Alpha_5_Users_Page.png)

COSMIC Media Player and Users settings page. (**Source: System76*)

The *Systems & Accounts* settings menu now has **a new Users page**, which can be used to manage all the user accounts on a system. This allows for changing the username, password, and admin permissions.

For the user interface, now *Alt+Tab* and *Super+Tab* will switch between apps in order of activity, going through the last used apps. Similarly, COSMIC Terminal can now open links; simply left-clicking on the URL should open it up with the default web browser.

There are several other notable changes as well. Some highlights include:

- Fixed compatibility with [Linux kernel 6.12](https://itsfoss.com/linux-kernel-6-12/).
- It is now possible to save new files in a new folder.
- Right-clicking or middle-clicking now closes context menus.
- An issue with screenshot capture on vertical monitors was addressed.

For more details, you can go through System76's [announcement blog](https://blog.system76.com/post/cosmic-alpha-5-released?ref=itsfoss.com).

## Want To Test It Out?

The [official website](https://system76.com/cosmic/?ref=itsfoss.com) hosts two ISO images for Intel/AMD and NVIDIA systems, both of which are running Pop!\_OS 24.04 LTS alpha. 

🚧

As this is ****an under-development desktop environment**, I suggest you use it for testing and not for production/general use.

I tested it out on a [virtual machine](https://itsfoss.com/virtual-machine/), and it ran fine for the most part, but I was unable to play videos on the COSMIC Media Player.

[COSMIC Alpha 5](https://system76.com/cosmic/?ref=itsfoss.com)

**Suggested Read** 📖

[The Future Is Here! Pop!\_OS’s Much Awaited COSMIC Desktop is Now Available for Alpha TestingCOSMIC Desktop debuts with insane customization options with Pop!\_OS 24.04 LTS!![](https://news.itsfoss.com/content/images/size/w256h256/2022/08/android-chrome-192x192.png)It's FOSS NewsSourav Rudra![](https://news.itsfoss.com/content/images/2024/08/Cosmic-de-alpha.png)](https://itsfoss.com/pop-os-24-04-cosmic-alpha/)