GNOME OS

The GNOME project's own reference operating system image, built nightly from the very latest upstream GNOME code, primarily meant for testing and development rather than daily use.

Immutable & AtomicimmutableGNOME-upstreamnightly-buildstestingDownload ↗Official site ↗Docs / Wiki ↗

Based on

Independent (built directly by the GNOME project)

First released

2018

Package manager

rpm-ostree (base) + Flatpak (apps)

Desktop environments

GNOME (upstream, nightly)

GNOME OS exists specifically so GNOME's own developers and QA testers have a clean, distribution-agnostic way to test the desktop's latest code -- rather than testing through the lens of Fedora's, Ubuntu's, or any other distribution's own patches and packaging choices layered on top. It uses the same immutable rpm-ostree-based, Flatpak-app model that Fedora Silverblue popularized, since several of GNOME OS's own contributors also work on that Fedora project. It's explicitly not intended as a daily-driver distribution for end users -- it tracks GNOME's development branch, meaning it can be unstable by design -- but it's a genuinely useful preview of where the GNOME desktop is headed before any downstream distribution ships it.

MirrorNest doesn't mirror distro ISOs — installation media should always come straight from the project's own official download page (linked above), so you get the correct checksum/signature to verify against.