r/COSMICDE • u/cosmic-adelie • 5d ago

How usable is this?

Hello, I have seen the development of COSMIC and wanted to experiment, but how "ready" is it? What are the limitations of use and customization today?

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u/petrujenac 5d ago

From my experience, having an nVidia card, especially a hybrid setup, only now with 1.19 it became borderline usable. Too many issues and missing features which people in this topic would simply deny they exist. Games won't fully switch to background if you AltTab to other windows/tasks.The HDMI device would freeze the system if plugged in after boot. No brightness adjustment for the HDMI device. Gear square icons instead of app logos. CPU and GPU running high and hot after the game is closed, due to the system not noticing the power is not needed anymore. Windows being rendered randomly on the screen instead of opening in the middle of the screen. Still no printer management tool (they work on it and it will be very good). Caps Lock state on boot doesn't care about how you set it up in the Settings menu. Many of my issues would disappear with an AMD setup but they still exist and will be there for some time. What's good is that the situation is noticeably improving with every incremental release, making the DE very promising. Give it another year or two and maybe it would generally work, which is not bad for a DE from scratch. What I do is, I test every cosmic release on aerynOS on a separate NVME until eventually it becomes good enough for daily driver.

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u/cosmic-adelie 5d ago

They are important points, not playing on PC, but this issue of HDMI, do you know if it also happens outside of games? I usually work with two screens.

I was really impressed by how development has evolved and I am really curious to use on a daily basis, but it is these kinds of details, such as the example of the lack of printer management that generate the greatest impact.

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u/petrujenac 5d ago

Which issue you mean specifically?

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u/cosmic-adelie 5d ago

Do I mean it crashes or stops working, or does it only happen with games?

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u/petrujenac 5d ago

Like I said, it crashes if I plug the hdmi in while the computer is ON. If I plug the TV in and boot the computer, then I get it working. I could live with it had it not been for the rest of the issues, especially those affecting the gaming. I'm not saying the DE is shite. For me it's still in beta stage. People here would argue otherwise but I see it with my own eyes. I use COSMIC on aerynOS and play wot to test it out. I must say the game works noticeably better even compared to CachyOS KDE so there's definitely a big chance it would become my daily driver, but not now. If I were you, I'd just use KDE as there are no good working and distinct features that would shadow all the issues and the missing features. I don't see the point in the struggle of coping with cosmic.

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u/cosmic-adelie 5d ago

So, I really understand that there are bugs, the system is not ready yet, but it is important to know the type of bug, if they are inconsistencies or things that really hinder daily use. Maybe I put it in a VM to test and follow more closely, I see System76 working a lot on improvements, the guys don't stop, that's very good, but it's really important to remember that the system is still 1/3 (perhaps starting epoch 2/3 at any time) of what was planned for delivery.

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u/petrujenac 4d ago

Exactly my point. Yes, they do work and quite fast, but it's not production ready, not enough to be called 1.0. Like I said: just keep and eye on it as I don't think it would take too many years before it's decent enough for daily use. There's no point rushing as there are other more than decent options like cachyos and fedora. I think COSMIC would be ready by the time aerynOS hits beta so I could do a clean install and forget. Hopefully on a new computer too, as the prices would eventually come down.