Bare-metal boot verified

Arch power.
Personal vision.

FangOS is an independent Linux system built on Arch, shaped around KDE Plasma, and packaged with a guided Calamares installer. Fast, direct, and unmistakably its own.

Download FangOS ISO Browse the source ↗

FangOS 2026.09.14 · ≈ 2.8 GiB ISO · release page

FangOS — Built Different.

Arch LinuxA lean, rolling-release foundation.

KDE PlasmaA polished and flexible desktop.

CalamaresA clear graphical installation path.

x86_64UEFI and legacy BIOS boot paths.

01 / THE SYSTEM

Built to be used,
not merely booted.

FangOS started as a bucket-list operating system project and made the jump to real hardware. The result is a focused desktop Linux experience with Arch underneath and a proper installer on top.

Rolling foundation

Arch Linux brings current packages, a huge software ecosystem, and the flexibility to shape the system without fighting hidden layers.

Desktop-first

KDE Plasma provides a familiar, capable environment from the first login, with room to make the desktop entirely yours.

Guided installation

Calamares handles disk setup, users, locale, and installation through a graphical flow instead of a wall of terminal commands.

Open development

The profile, packages, branding, and build configuration live in public. Inspect the work, report an issue, or make it better.

02 / THE TOOL

Arch Linux, with teeth.

FangOS ships with fang, a friendly frontend for pacman. Same Arch power underneath, more personality on top — including progress bars with actual teeth. It handles privilege escalation itself, so fang install just works. Add --aur and it reaches into the Arch User Repository through yay or paru, the same friendly way.

$ fang install firefox
$ fang install --aur visual-studio-code-bin
$ fang search video editor
$ fang update
$ fang clean
$ fang why plasma-desktop
$ fang orphans

Nine commands cover the daily driver workflow: install, remove, update, search, info, list, clean, orphans, and why — plus tab-completion for bash, zsh, and fish.

03 / INSTALL

From ISO to desktop.

Three stages, one USB drive. Back up anything important before changing disk partitions.

Download and verify

Download the FangOS ISO from the official release on the Internet Archive, then compare its SHA-256 checksum before writing the image.

On Linux:

sha256sum fangos-2026.09.14-x86_64.iso

On Windows (PowerShell):

Get-FileHash .\fangos-2026.09.14-x86_64.iso -Algorithm SHA256

The output must match this checksum exactly:

04cf0a7e4c2a3540086966b3078813c30568c42e6ef01fb6384f314a046ab137

Write it as a raw image

On Linux — identify the USB device, unmount its partitions, and write the ISO directly. Replace /dev/sdX with the whole USB device—not a numbered partition.

sudo dd if=fangos-2026.09.14-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync

On Windows — use Rufus (free, no install needed):

Open Rufus and select your USB drive under Device.
Click SELECT and choose the FangOS ISO.
Click START — if Rufus asks, choose DD Image mode.

Check the target twice. Writing to the wrong device will destroy its data.

Boot, explore, install

Boot the target computer from the FangOS USB.
Choose the standard FangOS live entry—no extra kernel options needed.
Open the installer and follow the disk, user, and locale steps.
When installation finishes, shut down, remove the USB, and boot from the internal drive.
On first login, the FangOS welcome app walks you through the system and introduces fang.

04 / BEFORE YOU BOOT

The short checklist.

FangOS targets standard 64-bit PCs. A wired or wireless internet connection is recommended during installation and for updates afterward.

Architecture64-bit x86

Boot modeUEFI or legacy BIOS

Install media4 GB USB or larger

DesktopKDE Plasma

InstallerCalamares