System76 has released Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS, and it ranks among the most significant versions in the distribution’s history. The official announcement landed on December 11, 2025, and it brings the debut of COSMIC, the brand-new desktop environment that the System76 team wrote from scratch in the Rust programming language.
Pop!_OS is the Linux distribution built by System76, the US manufacturer that ships its computers with Linux preinstalled. It builds on Ubuntu and targets developers, creators and anyone who wants a productive system with strong hardware support (NVIDIA graphics in particular) and a workflow built around window management. With this release it drops its GNOME extensions and becomes a fully independent desktop of its own.
Key new features
- COSMIC Desktop (Epoch 1): a modular and composable environment, written entirely in Rust for memory safety and performance.
- Advanced window tiling: mouse- or keyboard-driven tiling with per-workspace and per-display configurations. It brings stacks, snapping and sticky windows.
- Linux kernel 6.17 alongside Mesa 25.1 graphics drivers and support for the NVIDIA 580 series.
- Native COSMIC applications: file manager, COSMIC Store, a tabbed terminal with split panes, text editor, media player with subtitle support and a screenshot tool.
- Hybrid graphics with automatic GPU switching for longer battery life without any manual fiddling, plus multi-display scaling with mixed resolutions.
- “Refresh Install” feature: reinstall the OS while keeping your files, settings and applications, plus full disk encryption during installation.
System76 has also confirmed a scheduling change. From Pop!_OS 26.04 LTS onward, releases will line up with the Ubuntu LTS cycle, roughly two weeks behind. This version also adds ARM architecture support.
To see the full distribution profile, its history and where to download it, head to Pop!_OS on LinuxGratis.