epoch /ĕp′ək, ē′pŏk″/
noun
the beginning of a distinctive period in the history of someone or something.

Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS with COSMIC Desktop Environment Epoch 1

If you’re ambitious enough, or maybe just crazy enough, there eventually comes a time when you realize you’ve reached the limits of current potential, and must create something completely new if you’re to go further.

This year, System76 turned twenty. For twenty years we have shipped Linux computers. For seven years we’ve built the Pop!_OS Linux distribution. Three years ago it became clear we had reached the limit of our current potential and had to create something new. Today, we break through that limit with the release of Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS with the COSMIC Desktop Environment.

Today is special not only in that it’s the culmination of over three years of work, but even more so in that System76 has built a complete desktop environment for the open source community. We’re proud of this contribution to the open source ecosystem. COSMIC is built on the ethos that the best open source projects enable people to not only use them, but to build with them. COSMIC is modular and composable. It’s the flagship experience for Pop!_OS in its own way, and can be adapted by anyone that wants to build their own unique user experience for Linux.

Thank you for your patience while we built COSMIC. We know it’s been a long ride, and appreciate you taking it with us. Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS doesn’t feel like moving forward three years. It feels like leaping forward a decade. This day marks the foundation for our next twenty years and the first of what will be many rapid innovations.

And thank you to System76 customers. COSMIC is entirely funded by System76 hardware sales. Not only are you getting the best Linux hardware on the planet, you're investing in the future of the Linux desktop that we all love.

I hope you love what we’ve built for you. Now go out there and create. Push the limits, make incredible things, and have fun doing it!

Carl Richell
Founder and CEO
System76

Download Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS

Download Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS at https://system76.com/pop/

Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS Highlights

• New COSMIC Desktop Environment Experience
• New Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS for ARM computers
  ◦ Officially supported on the System76 Thelio Astra desktop
  ◦ Community support for non-System76 hardware enabled by Tow-Boot
• New hybrid graphics support for longer battery life
  ◦ No need to change modes
  ◦ Apps that request the discrete GPU will automatically run on the correct GPU
  ◦ Manually run an app on your preferred GPU by right-clicking on the app icon
• Easy installation with full disk encryption
• Refresh install feature by holding Space at boot or from the ISO
  ◦ Reinstall the OS anytime while keeping files, settings, and Flatpak user applications
  ◦ The Refresh feature will also arrive in COSMIC Settings after release
• Broad hardware support

COSMIC Desktop Environment Highlights

• Intuitive window tiling that can be used with the mouse or keyboard
  ◦ Activate tiling with a simple toggle in the panel
  ◦ Tiling per workspace and per display
  ◦ Easy to learn keyboard shortcuts
  ◦ Rearrange windows by dragging them with the mouse. Visual hints show where the window will land.
  
• Featureful Workspaces
  ◦ Horizontal or vertical workspaces
  ◦ Workspace per display or spanned across displays
  ◦ Drag workspaces to re-arrange them or move an entire workspace to a different display
  ◦ Pin workspaces so they’re never removed
  ◦ Workspace settings are persistent. A tiled and pinned workspace will be tiled and pinned after reboot.
  ◦ Add the “Numbered Workspaces” applet to your Panel or Dock to always see the workspace number you’re on
  
• Smooth multi-display experience
  ◦ Effortlessly mix and match hi-dpi and standard resolution displays
  ◦ Displays are automatically scaled based on pixel density and display scaling can be fine-tuned in Settings
  ◦ Display settings are persistent. Plug in the same display and its settings will return.
  ◦ Unplug a display and the windows on that display will move to a new workspace on a remaining display
  
• Customization galore
  ◦ Theme your desktop from Settings with easy color pickers
  ◦ Setup your personalized layout
  ••• Panel + Dock or single Panel
  ••• Put the Panel and Dock on any screen edge
  ◦ Add and arrange features (Applets) on the Panel or Dock from Settings
• Fast desktop navigation and easy keyboard shortcuts
  ◦ Press the Super (or the Windows key) to activate the Launcher
  ••• Type the app you want and press enter
  ••• Type the name of an open app then enter to switch to it
  ••• Type ? to learn more features like web and GitHub search, calculator, and running commands directly from the launcher
  ◦ Use the same keyboard shortcuts to focus or arrange windows across workspaces and displays
  • Super+Arrows to change the focused window. Super+Shift+Arrows to move windows.
  
• Stacks, snapping, and sticky windows
  ◦ Stack windows to combine them into tab groups like a browser
  ••• Right click on the header and choose Create Window Stack. Then drag another window to the stack.
  ••• When tiling windows, simply drag the window on top of another to create a stack.
  ◦ When using floating (non-tiled) windows, drag them to the display edges to snap them into a quarter or half tile
  ◦ Make a window stay on top of other windows and follow you around to other workspaces or displays by right-clicking the header and choosing  “Sticky window”

• Faster, more responsive applications
  ◦ COSMIC Files
  ◦ COSMIC Store
  ◦ COSMIC Terminal
  ◦ COSMIC Text Editor
  ◦ COSMIC Media Player
  ◦ COSMIC Screenshot
  ◦ Install more apps Made for COSMIC from COSMIC Store
• Written in the Rust programming language
  ◦ For memory safety and high performance

Download Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS

Download Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS at https://system76.com/pop/

Upgrading from Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS to Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS

Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS users will receive an upgrade notification in the OS starting January 2026. If you wish to upgrade to Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS before then, after backing up your files, open Terminal and run

pop-upgrade release upgrade -f