Starling 0.5 is a new release of the Linux desktop built around its own Wayland compositor and written in Swift; the project says much of its development was assisted by Claude Code. Its main addition is an optional 3D Desktop mode that preserves the familiar 2D desktop while placing the user in a walkable waterfront city. The scene includes moving boats, traffic, clouds, a clock tower, sunset lighting, and cream, bronze, and sage window styling. Existing applications such as the browser, video player, Files, and Terminal remain real windows, with Alt+Tab, rail previews, and title-bar actions used to navigate them. Popups follow their parent windows, while each display keeps an independent scene and camera even though rendering shares a backend. Claude Fable 5.1 contributed to this release. Starling 0.5 also supports Windows through WSL2 with Ubuntu 26.04 and the RDP display mode; the project points users to GitHub for further release details.
