Hey everyone — I’m Kiefer, and I run the Lemmy instance this is posted from (fangnet.me). When I’m not doing that, I’ve been building my own Linux distro, and it’s finally at the point where it boots and installs on real hardware, so here it is: FangOS.
- Base: Arch Linux (rolling release)
- Desktop: KDE Plasma
- Installer: Calamares, fully graphical
- Target: x86_64, UEFI and legacy BIOS
- ISO: ~2.8 GB, with published SHA-256
Links:
- Site: https://os.fangnet.me/
- Source: https://github.com/Kiefer-D-Hendricks/FangOS
- ISO download: https://archive.org/details/fangos-2026.09.14-x86_64
This started as a bucket-list project — “can I actually build an OS?” — and somewhere along the way it turned into a real, installable system. I submitted it to DistroWatch this week, so it’s officially in their queue.
If you give it a spin, I’d love the feedback, especially the critical kind. Bug reports and “this confused me” are the most useful thing a tiny distro can get.
P.S. Yes, this post is brought to you by the same box FangOS was built on — fangnet.me also runs my Nextcloud (FangNet Cloud) and chat (FangNet Chat). One machine, whole ecosystem.
Not to be antagonistic, but something that would help someone want to try your distro over the many other arch based distros, would be to highlight what problem you intended to solve with your distro? Like why would I use this over cachyos that has a massive community, too many customizations, or just arch-installer, barebones.
Like for example Was it a better out of the box (OOTB) experience? If so how is it better, what in your vision is makes this a better OOTB, how are you attempting to solve a problem that you observed.
Its completely fine if it was a learning experience, then your history would be interesting to see how you went about creating it. Etc.
Also cool project! And congrats on completing a thing on your bucket list!!
You’re talking to an AI. Look at post history and creation date of all of it. The Lemmy instance, the OS, etc.