Pop!_OS 24.04 Released with COSMIC Desktop & ARM Computers Support

After more than two months of Beta testing, System76 finally announced the release of Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS.

As the version number indicates, Pop!_OS 24.04 is based on Ubuntu 24.04, but features Linux Kernel 6.17 and its new COSMIC desktop environment.

Pop!_OS 24.04

Pop!_OS is developed by System76, a American Linux computer manufacturer. It features COSMIC desktop, which was previously a customized GNOME desktop, but now a standalone desktop environment built from scratch.

The new desktop environment is written in the Rust programming language for high performance and memory safety. It replaced Nautilus, Gnome Terminal, Gnome Text Editor, Totem with its own COSMIC specific files, terminal, text editor, and video player apps.

Pop!_Shop is replaced by COSMIC Store, which supports both Flatpak and Deb out-of-the-box. And, the GDM display manager is replaced by new COSMIC Greeter with a redesigned login appearance.

COSMIC Store

The new desktop improved window tiling support. It added a toggle in system tray indicator, allowing to tile all current workspace windows by single-click. The icon changes automatically according to the window tiling status. And, it supports drag’n’drop exchange window position in tiling mode.

Besides using indicator menu, it also support tiling windows via keyboard shortcuts, and tiling in per display basis.

The workspaces can now displayed in either vertical or horizontal orientation. Multiple displays can have separated or spanned workspaces. And, it supports pinning workspace and drag’n’drop re-arranging workspace or even moving to another display.

Pop!_OS 24.04 also improved multiple monitors support. Besides per display window tiling and multi-display workspaces mentioned above, it also improved the experience for displays with mixed HiDPI and standard resolutions.

Displays are automatically scaled based on pixel density and display scaling can be fine-tuned in Settings. And, it will remember your display settings and restore automatically next time you plug it in.

Moreover, it added hybrid graphics support. Apps request the discrete GPU will automatically run on the correct GPU, while user may right-click on app icon to choose which GPU to use at launch.

Other changes in Pop!_OS 24.04 include:

• New stack windows feature to combine multiple app windows into single in tabs, just like web browser.
• NVIDIA 580 driver out-of-the-box.
• ARM computers support.
• Support reinstalling the OS anytime while keeping files, settings, and Flatpak user applications

For more, see the official release note.

Download or Upgrade to Pop!_OS 24.04

Pop!_OS 24.04 is available to download in its website via the link below:

Download Pop!_OS

It recommends 4 GB RAM, 16 GB disk space, and 64-bit ARM or X86_64 processors. While, NVIDIA edition asks for GeForce 16 series graphics or newer.

And for Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS, user may run the single command below in terminal to upgrade to Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS:

pop-upgrade release upgrade -f

Though it’s always recommended to back up your files first.

source https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2025/12/pop_os-24-04-released-cosmic-desktop-arm/