System76 has published a new development snapshot of its upcoming Pop!_OS 24.04 release. The new alpha 5 snapshot features two new applications: COSMIC Media Player and User Settings, along with several changes. "System76 kicks off 2025 with a new COSMIC alpha release. Our team is rested and racing towards an approaching Beta of our new Rust-based desktop environment for Pop!_OS and other distributions. COSMIC alpha 5 brings an early version of the COSMIC Media Player, Users Settings and essential updates to Alt+Tab, variable refresh rates. COSMIC Media Player is now the default media player. We're also developing a COSMIC-native codec installation application to replace sessioninstaller. While still a work in progress, COSMIC Media Player uses Vulkan for rendering and vaapi for decoding (where available) for efficient video playback. Audio playback support will be added in the near future as well. Cycling through your open apps using Alt+Tab or Super+Tab will now cycle the apps in the order they were last active."
