Vanilla OS rethinks the desktop as an appliance. The system is immutable: its core is read-only, and changes land through ABRoot, a transactional mechanism that stages updates in an alternate root and switches over atomically, so a failed update cannot leave the machine half-broken and the previous state remains bootable. Applications live apart from the base, primarily as Flatpaks, while the apx tool creates containerized subsystems on demand, letting users pull packages from several different distribution ecosystems inside sandboxes without touching the host. The project began on an Ubuntu base and later moved to building its own images directly from Debian. The desktop is intentionally stock GNOME, free of heavy branding. Vanilla OS suits people curious about where atomic desktops are heading and anyone tired of systems that degrade over time. An OpenFactory browser VM is a fitting sandbox in which to study a system built around sandboxes.
Select a version of VanillaOS to try online:
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Need VanillaOS for more than a quick browser preview?
The buttons above launch an ephemeral browser VM, perfect for kicking the tires. Paid plans unlock the things you'd actually use it for:
- ✓Persistent VMs you can SSH into and customize
- ✓Snapshots, your own packages, a downloadable ISO
- ✓Fleet deployment to your own machines (on-prem or cloud)