Floating top bar
No bar, just pills. Each item floats on its own, and the clock opens into an island with your calendar and notifications.
Desktop operating system · FortiFind Systems
NiX Linux
A dark, polished desktop that looks finished the moment it boots. Built on Arch Linux and GNOME, with a floating top bar, a weekday clock on your wallpaper, 50 wallpapers that recolor the system, and your tools already in the dock.
Status: Production- Release
- 2026.10.21
- Base
- Arch Linux
- Desktop
- GNOME
- Price
- Free
What you get
Everything customized.
Nothing to set up.
The look is part of the OS itself, so it is there on first boot and it comes back after every update.
Weekday clock
A large, spaced-out day name sits on the wallpaper, with the date and time underneath.
50 wallpapers, 50 accents
Featured photos from Wikimedia Commons. Choose one and the accent color across the system changes to match.
Wallpaper picker
Press Super + W for a band of slanted cards with color filters, search and live video wallpapers.
A terminal worth opening
kitty, zsh and starship, with a fastfetch card when it starts. Super + Enter opens it.
Ready for work
VS Code, Obsidian, OBS and AI coding agents in the dock. Spotify and Discord install on first boot when you are online.
Smooth by default
A glass dock, blur, macOS-style window buttons and a 3D glide when windows open and close.
Arch underneath
Rolling releases with pacman and Flatpak. NiX restores its look and name after updates.
Genuine screenshots
See it running.
Get NiX Linux
Download.
Operating system image
NiX Linux 2026.10.21
· · 64-bit · UEFI
Download ISOThe image is being published. Check back soon.
SHA-256
Windows tool
NiX USB Maker
Writes the ISO to a USB stick and checks the copy afterwards. It only lists USB drives, never the disk Windows runs from.
Download USB Maker · 390 KBSHA-256
AF00590F8B2BCFA9BC1EE476C0CE01AAAEA04CB734FB8AFE7554685885DF8184- Processor
- 64-bit x86_64
- Memory
- 4 GB · 8 GB recommended
- Disk
- 30 GB to install
- USB stick
- 8 GB or larger
Five steps
Install it on your PC.
Make the USB stick
Put the ISO in your Downloads folder and run NiX USB Maker. It finds the image by itself. Choose your stick and press Write. This erases the stick. Rufus in DD image mode or balenaEtcher also work.
Start from the stick
Restart and open the boot menu (usually F12, F11, F8 or Esc), then choose the USB stick. If it is not listed, turn off Secure Boot in your firmware settings.
Try it live
The desktop starts by itself (user
nix, passwordnix). Nothing is written to your PC yet.Install
Click Install NiX Linux in the dock. Choose a disk, a username and a password, then type
ERASEto confirm. The chosen disk is wiped completely, so do not pick the one with Windows unless you mean to replace it.Restart
Remove the stick and restart into NiX Linux.
Questions
FAQ.
Is it free?
Yes. NiX Linux is built from Arch Linux and open-source software. Spotify and Discord come from Flathub under their own licenses.
Can I try it without installing?
Yes. The USB stick starts a full live desktop, and nothing changes on your PC until you run the installer. You can also start the ISO in a virtual machine.
Does it work with Secure Boot?
Not yet. Turn Secure Boot off in your firmware settings to start from the stick.
How do updates work?
Like Arch: sudo pacman -Syu for the system and flatpak update for Flatpak apps. NiX restores its look and name automatically after updates.
Windows says the USB Maker is from an unknown publisher.
It is not code-signed yet. Compare its SHA-256 with the one on this page, then choose More info → Run anyway. It asks for administrator rights because writing to a USB drive requires them.
Make it yours.
Free to download, free to try live before you install.