COSMIC Epoch 1.6 Released With Per-App Volume Control, Remote Desktop Preparations

Written by Michael Larabel in Desktop on 18 August 2026 at 08:20 PM EDT. 9 Comments
DESKTOP
COSMIC Epoch 1.6 was released this evening as the latest milestone for this open-source, Rust-based desktop environment led by System76 as part of the work on their Pop!_OS Linux distribution.

The COSMIC Epoch 1.6 compositor added support for the Wayland wl-dmabuf-v6 protocol, now takes presentation feedback from fullscreen surfaces, and also added EI protocol support. The emulated input (EI) support is part of the COSMIC effort for remote desktop support. COSMIC Epoch 1.6 isn't supporting remote desktop capabilities but it's in the works for a future release.

COSMIC Edit has seen some optimizations, COSMIC Greeter now enables JPEG-XL and AVIF image format support, and COSMIC Greeter can also detected logind presence at runtime.

The new COSMIC Epoch 1.6 release also includes per-app volume and output controls, borders around split terminals in COSMIC Terminal, and other enhancements.

Downloads and more details on COSMIC Epoch 1.6 via GitHub.

COSMIC 1.6


System76 CEO Carl Richell also shared a screenshot of v1.6 in action for how far this Rust desktop has evolved.
Related News
About The Author

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

Popular News This Week