MassOS is a system designed to be lightweight without compromising on features and it’s not based on any existing Linux distribution.

Table of Contents

Download

You can download its ‘Live CD’ from GitHub. There is two versions: standard (with proprietary firmware) and an alternative ‘nofirmware’ version with 100% open source software.

Design

MassOS comes with the XFCE desktop. It looks like a default XFCE enviroment (no extra icons or different layout) but modern stock XFCE looks great by itself.

MassOS Desktop

Apps

It includes a basic set of apps but there is a Software Center (from GNOME) where you can install Flatpak applications. ONLY Flatpak applications. That’s right. MassOS is an independent GNU/Linux distribution (it’s not based on Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, etc.) so only ways to install apps are using Flatpak, AppImages or compiling the software yourself. This can be a problem if you usually use software that’s not on Flatpak, like command-line tools.

MassOS Software Center

However, the team behind MassOS are working on a package manager, so installing CLI software could be much easier in the near future.

MassOS apps

In summary, it’s an interesting project ‘in progress’ that could become a great independent system for laptops and low-end computers.

If you have any suggestion, feel free to contact me via social media or email.