Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS Beta Offers Major Desktop Overhaul with Some Rough Edges

The Linux distribution Pop!_OS 24.04 Long-Term Support Beta from System76 introduces a ground-up rewrite of its desktop environment and enhanced hardware support, while still leaving some features unfinished and cautioning users about its beta status.

Built on the foundation of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Pop!_OS 24.04 adopts the new Rust-based COSMIC desktop environment, moving away from the GNOME-derived shell used in previous releases. System76 describes the transition as a bid to provide a modern, memory-safe, and highly customizable desktop experience. Key elements of the redesign include native Wayland support, per-application GPU assignment, and an integrated auto-tiling window manager.

One of the strongest enhancements in this release is the overhaul of hybrid-graphics management. For laptops equipped with both integrated and discrete GPUs, Pop!_OS 24.04 now allows users to switch between iGPU, dGPU or hybrid modes through a graphical interface, and assign discrete GPU usage to specific applications. These capabilities have been framed as a long-standing pain-point for Linux desktops.

The OS includes updated components aimed at improved compatibility and performance. For example, in the beta build the kernel is reported to be version 6.16, Mesa graphics stack version 25.1.5 and the NVIDIA driver version 580 for systems with NVIDIA GPUs.

On the desktop environment front, COSMIC brings its own native apps—such as COSMIC Files, COSMIC Terminal, COSMIC Edit and COSMIC Player—alongside a redesigned app-store experience via COSMIC Store. Customisation features include theme import-export, configurable panel and dock layouts, workspace orientation options and advanced window tiling and stacking.

Despite the ambition, reviewers underscore that this build remains a beta and some stability issues persist. A review of the alpha stage observed disk usage near 7GB and 1.4GB RAM at idle, as well as incomplete settings pages and some early UI alignment glitches. In the wider community, beta users report mixed results: one noted that “the whole system is just swamped with CPU 100% and is jittery on the graphical side” when used on a laptop with an NVIDIA 1060 GPU.

For existing Pop!_OS 22.04 users the upgrade path is supported but comes with caveats. Community feedback indicates dock favourites may not migrate, third-party PPAs may get disabled during upgrade and some users opted for clean installs to avoid configuration conflicts.

In terms of positioning in the Linux ecosystem, this iteration of Pop!_OS is pitched squarely at power users, creative professionals and gamers who demand GPU flexibility, workspace efficiency and hardware optimisation out-of-the-box. Its hybrid-graphics enhancements and native tiling support mark meaningful differentiation from many peer distributions. On the other hand, users seeking a completely polished, stable daily driver may find certain rough edges—particularly relating to early CUDA/Wayland support or migration hassles.