AI
An assistant inside the system
A login lands on it, and Super+D
reaches it from anywhere. It holds 25 tools: logs, updates,
software, settings, Windows programs. The desktop stays one
Super+M away.
Free forever · No ads · No account
An AI-first Linux desktop that runs your Windows apps.
The assistant is part of the system, not an app on top of it: it reads the machine, operates it, and shows you the exact command before it changes anything. Your Windows programs open by double-clicking them, and the whole thing is free.
x86-64 · UEFIUbuntu 24.04 LTS baseCinnamon desktopUpdated 4 Oct 2026
My wi-fi keeps dropping. Can you look?
read checked network_status, read_logs
The adapter is resetting when power-save kicks in. I can turn power-save off for this connection, which usually settles it.
Approve this change?
$ nmcli connection modify "Home" wifi.powersave 2
ApproveDecline
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- 2.46 GB
What VolnOS is
Three promises, and the machinery behind them
Not a skin on Ubuntu with a chatbot in the corner.
.EXE
Windows apps, by double-click
.exe and .msi are associated
in the image itself; first boot installs the Wine engine with the
standard software set. Nothing to configure.
∅
Private, and free forever
No telemetry, no account, no ads, no Pro tier. Ubuntu's reporting packages are removed from the image rather than switched off, and your API key lives in your login keyring.
The assistant
It can actually do things. That is why it asks.
An assistant that can only talk is a search box with extra steps. This one operates the machine, so the question is what it does without asking you first. A short, fixed list.
Reads no approval
system_info, read_logs,
search_files, check_updates,
network_status and three more. Nothing changes, so
nothing interrupts you.
Opens off by default
launch_app, open_path,
open_settings. Opening a window is not changing a
system, but it is your call: turn it on in Control Panel → Assistant.
Changes always asks
install_packages, system_update,
set_setting, run_command and
two more. You see the exact command first. No setting turns this off.
The approval card is built from the command that runs, so the two
cannot drift, and an unknown tool name falls into the strictest tier. The assistant
is never root: privileged work goes through
pkexec with a fixed argument list, so your own password
prompt is what authorises it.
Windows applications
Double-click the .exe. That is the procedure.
On most Linux desktops, running a Windows program is a project: install Wine, pick a prefix, work out the association. Here the association ships in the image and the engine installs itself on first boot.
What is already set up
Six Windows MIME types point at volnos-wine-launcher,
which routes the file to the engine: the
org.winehq.Wine Flatpak, installed during first-boot
Setup and granted access to your files. Being a Flatpak rather than part of the
image, a system update cannot break it.
# /etc/xdg/mimeapps.list, installed by the build and not by you [Default Applications] application/x-ms-dos-executable=volnos-wine-launcher.desktop application/x-msi=volnos-wine-launcher.desktop application/vnd.microsoft.portable-executable=volnos-wine-launcher.desktop
6 MIME types · volnos-run-exe
Wine is a compatibility layer, not Windows. Many programs run, some need a tweak, some do not run at all, which is a property of the application rather than of this distribution. Check yours in the WineHQ Application Database before you move a workflow you depend on. The engine is fetched during first boot, so the machine needs a network connection that once.
What's inside
A distribution builds its own software. So does this one.
Written for VolnOS, in GTK4 and libadwaita, so the system reads as one product. Underneath sits a complete Cinnamon desktop laid out the way Windows is: taskbar and Start menu bottom-left, edge snapping, and the shortcuts you already know.
Assistant
The AI home a login lands on, and the Super+D overlay.
Setup & Installer
First run and the disk install as conversations, each showing the exact command before it runs.
Control Panel
Updates, power, privacy, printing, the assistant's settings, Windows-app management.
Software
A store over the live Flathub catalogue. Apps install into your home, so a system update leaves them alone.
Terminal
Every shell session a tab in one window.
Quick Settings
One taskbar button for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, airplane mode, do not disturb and location.
Greeter & Lock Screen
Sign-in and lock, designed as the one moment they are.
Package Installer
Double-click a .deb and get an installer, resolved with apt.
Every one is a package on the signed update channel, not a file copied into the image, which is how an installed machine ends up looking like one installed from today's ISO without reinstalling. The desktop layout itself is one settings file, not a shell extension.
Your model
VolnOS ships no model. That is the point.
Nothing is bundled, so nothing is chosen for you and nothing is quietly costing you. Three ways to have an assistant; Control Panel → Assistant moves between them.
Ten questions a day
Nothing at all
The picker's first row is VolnOS, which is our own account, with ten questions a day. No key, no sign-up, no card, so the headline feature is not behind a form on the first evening.
Your key, your account
A cloud gateway
OpenAI, OpenRouter, Groq, Together, Mistral, DeepSeek, Google AI Studio, xAI, a Cloudflare AI Gateway, or any other URL that speaks the OpenAI protocol.
Nothing leaves it
Your own machine
Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp or vLLM: anything serving the OpenAI protocol on localhost or your LAN. Usually no key at all.
Running it locally
VolnOS ships no model because a good one is several gigabytes and the wrong one for most people, but it will talk to whichever you already run.
# whatever you already run, on this machine or your LAN $ ollama serve # :11434 # then, in the assistant: Gateway → A server on this machine or network $ http://localhost:11434/v1/chat/completions
Privacy
Private by construction, not by preference
A privacy setting is a promise you can forget to keep. Most of this is not a setting at all: it is a package that is not in the image, or a server that does not exist.
Removed from the image
ubuntu-report, popularity-contest, whoopsie, apport and the MOTD news fetcher are purged during the build, not merely disabled.
No account, ever
Nothing to sign into, and no VolnOS server keeping an identity.
Your key stays yours
In your login keyring, never a settings file, and only ever sent to the endpoint you chose.
Idle means idle
The assistant sends nothing when you are not talking to it. No background sync, no usage beacon.
Updates are signed, not surveilled
apt over a GPG-signed channel. Fetching one says only that someone asked for a file.
This website too
No cookies, no analytics, no fonts from someone else's CDN. Zero external requests.
What does leave, when you use a cloud model: your prompt and the
output of any tool the assistant ran, to the endpoint you configured and onward to
whoever serves that model. Tools like read_logs and
search_files can carry personal data in their output.
Run the model locally and it stops being a trade at all.
The full privacy statement has the rest.
The deal
Free. All of it. Forever.
Every feature is in the download. No paid edition held back, no feature that becomes a subscription once enough people depend on it, no advertising anywhere in the system.
- No Pro tier
- No ads
- No account
- No telemetry
- No upsell later
Questions
The things worth asking first
Do I need an API key to use the assistant?
No. Ten questions a day run on VolnOS's own account with no key and no sign-up. After that, bring a key for any gateway you like, or point it at a model on your own machine, which needs no key either.
Will my Windows application run?
Often, but Wine is a compatibility layer rather than Windows. The setup is done for you; whether a specific application works is a question for the WineHQ AppDB.
Which desktop is it, and can I just use that?
Cinnamon, laid out the way Windows is. Super+M reaches it from anywhere, and Control Panel → Assistant will
land you there at login instead.
Does any of this work offline?
The desktop, entirely. The assistant needs whatever endpoint you pointed it at, so a local model keeps working unplugged and a cloud one does not. First boot and the installer both need a connection.
Is it really free, or free for now?
Free, and there is no second edition. No Pro tier, no ads, no account. The whole system is in the one download.
What hardware does it need?
A 64-bit (x86-64) PC that boots UEFI with Secure Boot off, a USB stick of 4 GB or more, and a target disk of at least 16 GB. Virtual machines are fine; there is no ARM build.
Ready to put it on a machine? The install guide has the four steps. Something not working? Support covers what usually goes wrong. More about the project: About VolnOS.