Evaluate COSMIC as a Plasma alternative #90

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opened 2026-07-23 10:54:58 +01:00 by nimmo · 1 comment

nimmo commented

2026-07-23 10:54:58 +01:00

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Context

Explore COSMIC as a potential alternative to KDE Plasma on the desktop NixOS hosts. This is research and proof-of-concept work only; do not replace the current desktop environment until a separate implementation decision is made.

References

Scope

Compare the upstream NixOS COSMIC support with the external nixos-cosmic flake.
Identify installation, session-management, display-manager, home-manager, and hardware-integration implications for Electra and Lena.
Evaluate day-to-day desktop readiness: multi-monitor behaviour, fractional scaling, input/gestures, portals/screen sharing, notifications, lock screen, power management, and application compatibility.
Document packaging or maintenance risks, upgrade posture, and a safe rollback path.
Decide whether a reversible host-local trial is worthwhile, and propose its acceptance criteria.

Completion criteria

Findings and a recommendation are recorded in the issue.
Any proposed trial is explicitly scoped to one host and includes validation and rollback steps.
No default desktop configuration changes are made as part of this issue.

## Context Explore COSMIC as a potential alternative to KDE Plasma on the desktop NixOS hosts. This is research and proof-of-concept work only; do not replace the current desktop environment until a separate implementation decision is made. ## References - [System76 COSMIC](https://system76.com/cosmic) - [NixOS Wiki: COSMIC](https://wiki.nixos.org/wiki/COSMIC) - [lilyinstarlight/nixos-cosmic](https://github.com/lilyinstarlight/nixos-cosmic) ## Scope - Compare the upstream NixOS COSMIC support with the external `nixos-cosmic` flake. - Identify installation, session-management, display-manager, home-manager, and hardware-integration implications for Electra and Lena. - Evaluate day-to-day desktop readiness: multi-monitor behaviour, fractional scaling, input/gestures, portals/screen sharing, notifications, lock screen, power management, and application compatibility. - Document packaging or maintenance risks, upgrade posture, and a safe rollback path. - Decide whether a reversible host-local trial is worthwhile, and propose its acceptance criteria. ## Completion criteria - Findings and a recommendation are recorded in the issue. - Any proposed trial is explicitly scoped to one host and includes validation and rollback steps. - No default desktop configuration changes are made as part of this issue.

nimmo added this to the Plasma Alternatives milestone

2026-07-23 10:54:58 +01:00

nimmo added the

project:external-review

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2026-07-23 10:54:58 +01:00

nimmo commented

2026-07-25 19:35:33 +01:00

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Implemented with #95 but promptly reverted as I didn't like how it looked and felt.

nimmo closed this issue