Make a USB drive
One small program does it all: it downloads the latest MeccanicOS and checks it, tells you to insert a USB drive (16 GB or larger), makes it bootable with Ventoy and copies MeccanicOS onto it, then explains how to start a computer from it. Before erasing a drive it shows a big red warning naming it, and goes on only if you type YES. A drive that already has Ventoy keeps its other files. (On macOS, where Ventoy does not run, it writes MeccanicOS directly to the drive.)
Windows
Double-click it and allow it to make changes. If Windows warns about an unknown publisher: More info → Run anyway.
macOS
In Terminal (Apple silicon; on an Intel Mac use mos-usb-macos-x86_64):
curl -fLO https://github.com/unofficialtools/meccanicos/releases/download/latest/mos-usb-macos-arm64
chmod +x mos-usb-macos-arm64
./mos-usb-macos-arm64Linux
In a terminal (on ARM use mos-usb-linux-arm64):
curl -fLO https://github.com/unofficialtools/meccanicos/releases/download/latest/mos-usb-linux-x86_64
chmod +x mos-usb-linux-x86_64
./mos-usb-linux-x86_64Prefer to do it by hand? Download the ISO and follow Write it to a USB stick.
Principles
Built on NixOS, but designed as one coherent system instead of a collection of unrelated Linux tools.
Keyboard first
No start menu. Super+Space opens one command bar for apps, commands, websites, folders and questions.
Works offline
The desktop, the included apps and the drivers are on the stick, and installing needs no network. More apps and local AI models are downloaded once, when you ask for them.
Secure, with stated trade-offs
Installed: the whole disk encrypted (LUKS2). Live: the session stays in memory, and your vaults and persistent home are encrypted. A hardened kernel, a firewall, login alerts. For convenience sudo asks no password, and an installed system runs SSH with keys only; both can be changed.
Coherent
One way to open any file, one look for every tool, apps named by what they do: "Web Browser (Brave)".
Reproducible
The whole system is one Nix flake. Upgrades are atomic: a failed one changes nothing, and you can roll back.
Hardware first
MeccanicOS comes with a large collection of drivers and firmware (all of it freely redistributable): Mesa and Vulkan, video acceleration, PipeWire, Bluetooth, printers and scanners, NVIDIA's driver picked by itself. Hardening never gets in a driver's way.
Free to share
Only freely redistributable software, so you may share any ISO you build.
Features
What you get on the stick.
Command bar
Type part of an app name, a website, a command, a path (~/Documents opens it in yazi) or !command to run it in a new shell. ?question asks the AI.
Live, persistent or installed
Run from USB with nothing kept, keep your home encrypted on the stick, or install to the disk from one page. What survives a restart.
Encrypted vaults
LUKS2 vaults in the stick's free space, and on Ventoy sticks as files next to the ISO.
Open anything
open FILE works like on a Mac, and the same rules apply in the shell, yazi, mc, fzf and on a double-click.
Apps on demand
With a network: search nixpkgs' 120,000 packages, try an app without installing it, or give one folder its own tools with direnv.
AI chat, your choice
Local AI after a one-time model download (Qwen3 through Ollama, ~2.5 GB; then offline, and nothing leaves the computer), or Claude, ChatGPT or Grok with your API key (your questions go to that company).
Read aloud
Copy any text and an offline voice (Piper) reads it, sentence by sentence.
Login alerts
An alert on an SSH login from somewhere new or an SSH attack, never more than a few an hour. One key disconnects everything.
Backups like Time Machine
Encrypted, every night or when you plug in the disk, or to the cloud. Get back any earlier version of a file from a right-click.
Settings and a doctor
Common settings in one place, exported to another computer in one file; a doctor that finds problems and offers a fix.
Scales to the screen
Text grows with large and sharp screens by itself; icons keep their size.
A terminal that helps
VictorMono Nerd Font, Atuin history, fzf, zoxide, yazi with image previews and drag and drop.
A guided tour, and Help
A tutorial video with subtitles on every desktop, filmed in a VM from the same system; the manual is on the stick too (Help in the command bar).
MeccanicOS tools
You meet them by name in the command bar (Super+Space); in a terminal, every mos-* command answers --help and mos lists them all. The full-screen ones look and work the same way: a teal title bar, the keys at the bottom, and whatever Enter acts on in orange. Click a screenshot to enlarge it.
Pre-installed packages
All on the stick, all working offline. More with apps install NAME.