stillCenter is the curated app store, pulling from Flatpak and other sources with its own stillRating system grading how well an app runs with stillOS.If you’ve installed Fedora, RHEL, or any of their downstream distros before, you already know the steps involved here.The file manager looks different too, even though it’s the same GNOME Files under the hood. When you launch it, the app opens a “Computer” page that lays out your folders, disks, and removable media in one clean view.His earlier project, risiOS, a Fedora-based distro aimed at smoothing out the rough edges for new users, picked up a solid following before it was absorbed into Nobara Linux, freeing him up to start stillHQ and, down the line, stillOS.stillControl handles GNOME layout customization, letting you switch between 12+ preset layouts and manage extensions without digging through GNOME Tweaks. Then there’s stillOS Forums, which isn’t a native app at all. It’s the community forum wrapped as a SWAI web app, so it behaves like part of the desktop instead of a browser tab.The trade-off is flexibility. You lose the ability to tinker with individual system packages the way you can on a traditional distro, and anything outside the base image needs a workaround instead of a quick apt install or dnf install.
It has potential
And before you assume that this is some obscure Linux distro that will fade into irrelevance very soon, know that development is still quite active. The recent stillOS 10.2 release introduced most of what’s covered above.Running other software worked without any surprises. I selected Zen Browser during onboarding specifically to see how it handled a non-default browser, and it ran cleanly, without any visual bugs, lags, or crashes to speak of.
Installing LibreOffice and removing ONLYOFFICE didn’t fix it either. The shortcut still generates files in those same formats; it just opens them in LibreOffice instead.Right-clicking gives you quick access to creating new folders and documents, undoing an action, selecting everything, arranging icons, opening the terminal, and some important settings.
The pill-shaped workspace switcher held up well through all of this too, letting me flip between workspaces and open apps without any lag or fumbling. Though this was a given seeing that it is a well-tested component from GNOME.Cameron says that:As a result, you get a system that’s hard to break, where updates apply cleanly or not at all, rolling back a bad patch is easy, and there’s no dependency hell to wade through since every install starts from the same known-good state.
Once you boot into stillOS, you will see that while the desktop is GNOME underneath, the distro ditches the usual top-panel layout for a taskbar-first interface, closer to Windows 11 than anything GNOME ships by default.You can grab the latest stillOS ISO from SourceForge, which lists all the images released by the project so far. The file manager keeps most of that same right-click menu, folders, documents, select all, opening a terminal, alongside the usual “Properties” entry found on Nautilus (Files).
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If you can’t wait, then you can run the following command in the terminal to force an update check:Atomic distros work differently from the Fedora or Ubuntu install you’re probably used to. Instead of layering individual packages on top of each other, the entire base system ships as one image, and updates land as a whole swap rather than a slow stream of package changes.
Pay once, Enjoy foreverInstead, you can rely on the distro to handle it for you, as it checks for updates automatically 15 minutes after boot, then every 24 hours after that for as long as your machine stays on.
stillOS also ships its own lineup of “still” branded tools. stillTerminal is the default terminal app, built around a customized ZSH setup with container and SSH support.Onboarding is quick and doesn’t waste your time. A short welcome screen kicks off Quick Setup, which walks you through installing apps, picking a browser, and grabbing essentials before dropping you onto the desktop.The default app selection is generous. You get ONLYOFFICE, Gear Lever, Warp, Mousam, and a good spread of the usual GNOME-focused apps alongside them.
stillOS has now reached the point where it fits that initial vision. There is obviously more work to do, and there always will be, but the foundation is here. Now I want to focus on building the community around it.
The goal is to keep stillOS innovative while also building a Linux system that literally anyone can use. Those ideas do not have to conflict. Linux can try new things without becoming confusing, and it can be approachable without becoming boring.
Download it now
Behind it is Cameron Knauff, who goes by the name “PizzaLovingNerd” in the Linux community, and this isn’t his first distro.Once you’re up and running, know that updates aren’t handled through AlmaLinux’s usual dnf-based flow.Unlike vanilla GNOME, stillOS’ version lets you drop icons straight onto the desktop.
sudo bootc upgrade
The document creation option is the one that I find very useful, as that’s something I miss on the vanilla GNOME experience. The catch is that it only hands you three formats through ONLYOFFICE: docx, pptx, and xlsx. Considering what The Document Foundation has been pushing for lately, a locked-down proprietary-only shortcut feels like an odd choice.
