zurbax 2.2 lts · built on linux

Zurbax

A desktop operating system of liquid glass and moving pixels. Tiled, themed, and fast, with Steam and the drivers for nearly every PC already on it.

Get Zurbax See it in action

One image for nearly every PC from the last twelve years · Free · No account, no telemetry

Hive: Files, Music and a terminal side by side under a floating bar of glass

An operating system, made whole.

Zurbax runs on Linux. Its kernel, Ember, is Linux with a few patches of ours, and that's where the support for so much hardware comes from. Everything you see on top is Zurbax's own: the graphics, the window system and desktop, the toolkit, the apps, the network and sound, the installer and the updates. So the whole thing looks like one thing and starts in seconds. For the rest of the Linux world, Steam, Proton, Flathub's apps and GNOME run in the Linux layer, side by side with it.

Then it opens the door to everything else: Steam and Proton for your games, all of Flathub for apps, Bridge for Windows programs, and GNOME if you want it.

One image. Drivers for nearly every graphics card and Wi-Fi chip, about five thousand of them, loaded only for what's there.
Yours. No account to make, no telemetry, nothing listening on the network.
Kept safe. Signed security updates every two weeks, until October 2028.
Quick. From the firmware's logo to your desktop with not a line of text in between.

See it in action

Real screens, straight from Zurbax.

**Tiles, not clutter**Each window splits the one in focus. Gaps, glass, a ring of light around the one you're in.

**Super + Space**A pane of glass: type, press Enter, it's open.

**Every key at a glance**Super + K shows them all, as keycaps.

**Glass all the way in**Apps' headers and sidebars are frosted glass the wallpaper shows through.

the desktop

Hive. Everything a keystroke away.

Windows share the screen side by side and nine workspaces slide across. The bar floats as three islands of glass, and a bead of your accent flows from workspace to workspace. The window in focus wears a ring of the theme's two colours and a soft glow that follows you.

Its window buttons are drawn in pixels: a tile of colour builds up behind each one block by block as you point at it. Put a window away and it waits in a tray in the bar.

SuperReturn: Terminal
SuperSpace: Launcher
SuperW: Close the window
SuperZ: Zoom it over the rest
SuperV: Float it, or tile it
Super1-9: Go to a workspace
SuperShift1-9: Move the window there
SuperCtrlSpace: Next theme
SuperK: Every key

Two themes. This page wears them too.

Carbon, black and orange, and Midnight, deep blue and violet. Each colours the rings, the glass and every app, and brings its own pixel-art wallpaper, painted by the system itself. Pick one and watch.

the pixel style

It moves.

The wallpapers are alive, on their own grid of big pixels: stars twinkle and now and then one shoots across, lines run down Carbon's grid towards you, and light glitters on the river under Midnight's city.

Windows build up block by block as they open and fall apart the same way as they close. Maximize one, or send it to the tray, and it passes through a mosaic on the way. The pointer, the clock and the workspace numbers are drawn in pixels too.

All of it costs about a quarter of one percent of a processor, and one switch in Settings turns it off.

Welcome, the setup: the name in big pixels over a pane of glass, the steps down the side as keycaps

the first start

Even the setup is a show.

The name builds itself in big pixels, block by block, over the theme's own picture while stars twinkle behind it. The steps are keycaps, the buttons are blocks you press down, and the tick at the end draws itself and throws sparks.

Pick Carbon or Midnight on the way and the whole setup changes colour on the spot. The installer is the same: it shows what's coming in pixels that dissolve, and a live log of every step.

Built to play.

Plug in a controller and it works, rumble included.

Steam and Proton

Your Windows library through Proton, from Steam's own client, ready on the install image.

Bridge

Any other Windows game or program, with its cover, on the same shelf as your Steam games.

AMD, Intel and NVIDIA

Vulkan on all three, on one image: amdgpu and RADV, i915 and Xe, and nouveau with NVK for GeForce RTX 30 and 40.

For people who make things.

Forge

A terminal with tabs, Super + Return away, in every theme.

All of Flathub

Firefox, Discord, Spotify, GIMP, OBS and thousands more from Harbor, the app store, one click each.

A Linux layer

GNOME and its apps, your Linux programs and their portals, side by side with Zurbax's own.

install

Get Zurbax

One image for nearly every computer: the system, Steam and Proton, Bridge, eight ready apps and drivers for nearly every PC. Flash it to a USB stick, start from it, and install in a few minutes.

Download Zurbax 2.2 LTS About 7 GB · ISO for USB sticks · SHA-256 sums

Only have a 4 GB stick? zurbax-standard.iso is 3.5 GB, with everything but some of the ready apps (they're a click away in Harbor). Just trying it in a virtual machine? zurbax-mini.iso is 140 MB. Prefer windows you move about? The Classic desktop is one click away in Settings.

Try it first

Start it from the stick and use it without installing anything, or run it in a virtual machine on a Mac or an iPad with UTM.

The UTM guide The full guide

Runs on what you have.

New laptops and desktops

Core Ultra, Ryzen, Arc, Radeon RX 9000 and GeForce RTX 30 and 40 included: the newest Ember kernel and firmware for all of it.

Twelve-year-old PCs

Any 64-bit PC with UEFI and 4 GB of memory, 8 GB for games, and 40 GB of disk.

Macs with Intel chips

Hold Option as it starts and pick the stick. How to start from it.