Pop! OS 24.04 Beta with COSMIC DE: A first analysis for audiovisual producers

The Linux community waited with great expectation, and he finally arrived: the beta of Pop! OS 24.04 LTS, bringing the premiere of the long awaited COSMIC Desktop Environment, the new System76 interface built from scratch in Rust.

For us producers of audiovisual content who depend on a stable and efficient system, the question is one: is it time to update already?

Here at Cine Linux and Movy Audiovisual (a producer associated with Cine Linux), where Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS is one of the pillars of our infrastructure alongside Zorin OS and Ubuntu Studio, we dive head-on into the tests.

The conclusion for now is clear: COSMIC DE is a glimpse of a fantastic future for Linux desktop, but it is not yet an environment for production machines.

The initial verdict: Not recommended for production (still)

Let's get to the point: if you depend on your computer to deliver projects, stay on stable Pop!_OS 22.04 or on another LTS distribution of your trust. Version 24.04, in its current state, presents bugs and inconsistencies that, although they should be corrected until the final release, can significantly disrupt the workflow of a video editor, colorist or motion designer.

The strengths: Performance that impresses

The first aspect that leaps to the eye when using COSMIC is its performance. System76 promised and delivered a work environment that feels remarkably lighter and responsive than GNOME. In heavy tasks such as handling complex timelines or running software that consume a lot of RAM and CPU, the COSMIC interface remains fluid.

This optimization is an extremely positive sign. The feeling is that the graphical interface is no longer "stealing" precious resources that should be allocated to a surrender in DaVinci Resolve or a simulation in Blender. For those working with 4K, 6K and real-time effects, every drop of performance counts, and COSMIC seems to have been engineered with that philosophy in mind. When stable, this characteristic alone can be a decisive factor for mass adoption by professionals in our area.

The critical problems: Where the workflow breaks

Despite performance, the integration of software essential to our work is still a minefield. Day-to-day apps such as OnlyOffice, LibreOffice, Thunderbird and browsers run perfectly well, showing that the system base is solid for general tasks.

However, the story is another when we open our main toolbox. Tests with DaVinci Solve, Shutter Encoder and even Kdenlive have revealed worrying integration problems:

• Defective drag-and-drop: This is perhaps the most preventative bug for an editor. The fundamental action of dragging a video clip, an image or a soundtrack from the file manager to the software timeline simply does not work reliably. This is due to a known and unresolved limitation in communication between Wayland native applications (such as the new COSMIC File Explorer) and applications running via XWayland (the compatibility layer for older software, such as many in our niche). Having to resort to "import" menus for each added file completely breaks the agility of the editing process.
• Window and Tiling Management: COSMIC's automatic tinting system is powerful, but its integration with software that does not strictly follow modern window conventions is flawed. At various times, dialogue windows from DaVinci Resolve or Kdenlive appeared cut or positioned outside the visible area of the screen, requiring juggling to be accessed. In a setup with multiple monitors, the situation can get worse.
• Hardware bugs and integration: We also notice small failures in integration with some audio devices and general polishing that still lacks in monitor management, with unexpected behaviors when switching between screens or when connecting and disconnecting devices.

A Promising and Disruptive Future

It is crucial to understand that this analysis is not a condemnation, but a finding of the current stage of beta software. The problems listed are mostly "growth pains" of a completely new technology.

System76's decision to build its own environment in Rust, focused on performance and a modern workflow with typing and keyboard commands, is courageous and can be disruptive. By freeing themselves from GNOME's ties and development cycle, they have a chance to create a truly optimized operating system for professional users and power users.

The already superior performance in heavy workloads indicates that once integration bugs are fixed, Pop!_OS 24.04 with COSMIC has the potential to become the definitive platform for audiovisual production on Linux.

For now, the recommendation of Cine Linux is: try beta on a secondary machine, on a separate partition or on a virtual machine. Help report bugs. But for the work that pays the bills, the stability and predictability of version 22.04 LTS are still the safest way. We're watching and we'll get a new analysis as soon as the final version is released.