COSMIC Frosted Glass Arrives on Pop!_OS: How It Compares to Apple Liquid Glass
System76's COSMIC desktop now ships Frosted Glass on Pop!_OS 24.04. Here's what it looks like, how to enable it, and how it stacks up to Apple's Liquid Glass.
System76 has shipped a Frosted Glass visual effect for its COSMIC Linux desktop environment, available now to anyone running Pop!_OS 24.04 via a standard system update. The effect adds soft, blurred transparency to windows, the terminal, file manager, app launcher, settings panel, and other core UI components. ZDNET contributor Jack Wallen, who tested it on July 13, 2026, argues it delivers the layered translucency effect that Apple aimed for with Liquid Glass but did not fully achieve.
What happened
| Detail | Fact |
|---|---|
| Feature | Frosted Glass visual effect for COSMIC desktop |
| Developer | System76 |
| Platform | Pop!_OS 24.04 |
| First announced | 2024 |
| Desktop language | Built from scratch in Rust |
| Setup time (reviewer) | Approximately 2 minutes to enable and configure |
System76 has released Frosted Glass as part of the latest COSMIC desktop update. COSMIC is the company’s own Linux desktop environment, written from scratch in Rust and shipped primarily through Pop!_OS. The Frosted Glass feature was first announced in 2024 and is now available to any Pop!_OS 24.04 user through the standard COSMIC Store update flow.
The effect applies a softly blurred, translucent background to a wide range of UI components: the terminal, system monitor, file manager, text editor, app launcher, settings panel, and the COSMIC Store itself. Users can control frost thickness and glass opacity per element inside Settings > Desktop > Style > Frosted Glass.
How does Frosted Glass compare to Apple Liquid Glass?
ZDNET’s Jack Wallen, who also uses Liquid Glass on a MacBook Pro and an Apple Studio, described Apple’s implementation as “drab and boring” once he saw the COSMIC version side by side. His view is that Apple aimed for a layered transparency effect with Liquid Glass but landed somewhere short, while COSMIC delivered what that effect was supposed to feel like.
Frosted Glass is not a new concept as a visual style. Blurred background effects appear in login screens, the Android App Drawer, and various macOS menus. What Wallen found notable is the consistency: every core COSMIC app receives the same treatment, so the effect feels like a design system rather than a one-off flourish applied to a single panel.
How to enable Frosted Glass on Pop!_OS 24.04
- Open the COSMIC Store and click Updates, then apply all pending upgrades.
- Reboot the machine and log back in.
- Open Settings and navigate to Desktop > Style > Frosted Glass.
- Toggle the effect on for each UI element you want to frost.
- Adjust frost thickness and glass opacity to taste.
Why it matters
For most business operators this is a cosmetic story, but there are a few angles worth tracking. First, COSMIC is a serious, actively developed desktop environment, not a hobbyist project. System76 builds and sells Linux hardware and has a commercial interest in making Pop!_OS a credible macOS alternative for developers and design teams.
Second, the Rust foundation matters. COSMIC being written in Rust from scratch means it avoids a lot of the legacy baggage in older Linux desktops. That has performance and security implications beyond just UI polish. If your team is evaluating Linux workstations as a lower-cost alternative to Apple hardware, the UI gap that used to be a dealbreaker is narrowing fast.
Third, the timing relative to Apple is interesting. Apple shipped Liquid Glass with significant fanfare. A Linux desktop environment shipping something that a seasoned macOS user finds more compelling is a genuine signal, even if one reviewer’s take is not a controlled study.
For teams thinking about UI and UX design direction, the broader trend here is that blurred translucency is now a mainstream interface pattern across macOS, Android, and Linux. If your product or web app still uses flat, opaque panels everywhere, it is starting to look dated.
Our take
We find the “Linux beat Apple” framing a bit breathless. One contributor’s aesthetic preference is not a verdict. That said, the underlying story is real: COSMIC is shipping polished, cohesive visual design that would have been unthinkable for a Linux desktop three years ago. System76 moving fast in Rust, with a commercial hardware business funding development, is a different situation from most open-source desktop projects.
The Liquid Glass comparison is fair to raise. Apple’s implementation was widely criticised at launch for inconsistency and legibility issues. COSMIC’s version, applied uniformly across every core app with per-element tuning controls, sounds more considered. Whether it holds up at scale across third-party apps is the real test.
If you are running a development team on macOS partly because Linux desktops looked unfinished, it is worth spinning up a Pop!_OS 24.04 VM and checking COSMIC’s current state. The gap has closed more than most people realise. For design-minded developers, this is worth an hour of evaluation time. For everyone else, keep an eye on how Apple responds in the next macOS release.
We have covered similar cases where interface investment pays off in user retention and perceived quality. See how Studio Kiln approached BAFTA’s 2026 visual identity for a professional take on motion-first design thinking.
Frequently asked questions
How do I enable Frosted Glass on Pop!_OS?
Update COSMIC desktop through the COSMIC Store, reboot, then go to Settings > Desktop > Style > Frosted Glass. You can toggle the effect per UI element and adjust frost thickness and glass opacity separately.
What is COSMIC desktop and who makes it?
COSMIC is a Linux desktop environment developed by System76, the company behind Pop!_OS. It was built from scratch using the Rust programming language and ships as the default desktop on Pop!_OS 24.04.
Is COSMIC Frosted Glass better than Apple Liquid Glass?
According to ZDNET contributor Jack Wallen, who tested both on July 13 2026, COSMIC's Frosted Glass applies blurred transparency consistently across all core apps with per-element tuning controls, which he found more polished than Apple's Liquid Glass implementation.
Which apps get the Frosted Glass effect in COSMIC?
The effect is applied to the COSMIC terminal, system monitor, file manager, text editor, app launcher, settings panel, and the COSMIC Store, among other core UI components.