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.

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