this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2026
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Hey everyone — I'm Kiefer, and I run the Lemmy instance this is posted from (fangnet.me). When I'm not doing that, I've been building my own Linux distro, and it's finally at the point where it boots and installs on real hardware, so here it is: FangOS.

  • Base: Arch Linux (rolling release)
  • Desktop: KDE Plasma
  • Installer: Calamares, fully graphical
  • Target: x86_64, UEFI and legacy BIOS
  • ISO: ~2.8 GB, with published SHA-256

Links:

This started as a bucket-list project — "can I actually build an OS?" — and somewhere along the way it turned into a real, installable system. I submitted it to DistroWatch this week, so it's officially in their queue.

If you give it a spin, I'd love the feedback, especially the critical kind. Bug reports and "this confused me" are the most useful thing a tiny distro can get.

P.S. Yes, this post is brought to you by the same box FangOS was built on — fangnet.me also runs my Nextcloud (FangNet Cloud) and chat (FangNet Chat). One machine, whole ecosystem.

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[–] Sina@beehaw.org 1 points 1 day ago

Ok so the only unique feature this "distro" has is the following:

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.

This is f. insane. Even for a fully agenetic production.

[–] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 40 points 6 days ago (2 children)

No pictures of it anywhere, the github is a ghost-town (and their profile was created 3 days ago), and absolutely zero information at all for what this does that a default Arch install doesn't.

Honestly, even this post reads like it is AI generated. Images on the website look straight out of Midjourney. Lemmy instance popped up looks like 1 day ago and is filled with likely AI posts... I would not be surprised if 100% of this is all just outputs from some LLM, the OP's name included. Like someone's "agent" is just running amok.

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 12 points 5 days ago

Like someone's "agent" is just running amok.

See also how some AI group is trying to set up astroturf accounts on the Fediverse (and has successfully done so on Bluesky and Xitter):

https://lemmy.world/post/51947593

[–] urushitan@kakera.kintsugi.moe 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Perfectly on track to become the next Omarchy if a big tech name and some casual racism is thrown in

[–] vikingtons@lemmy.world 27 points 5 days ago

basically, don't use this.

[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 30 points 6 days ago (1 children)

What is your policy on AI?

[–] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 26 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Considering the only image on the website is AI generated... I'm gonna guess they are Pro-AI use.

[–] Sina@beehaw.org 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Any Linux distro that wants to function at all has to allow for ai written code, otherwise they wouldn't be able to ship the Linux kernel or a browser and a great many other things.

[–] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

There is a pretty big gap between "AI use is allowed but you better know what your code does before you submit a PR" and "I typed some stuff into a prompt about an edgy line art wolf and an arch based distro, now I have a some .iso files to share".

[–] bigmclargehuge@lemmy.zip 20 points 6 days ago

How would you compare fang to other arch and KDE based distros? Namely but not limited to EndeavourOS, CachyOS and Garuda.

[–] Dirk@lemmy.ml 11 points 5 days ago

Just another random person's dotfiles?

[–] CallMeAl@piefed.zip 11 points 5 days ago

What is the goal of your distro? I looked through the link and it says a lot of marketing fluff but nearly no details on why someone would want to use this vs Arch or Cachy or whatever other distro they already use..

[–] slacktoid@lemmy.ml 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Not to be antagonistic, but something that would help someone want to try your distro over the many other arch based distros, would be to highlight what problem you intended to solve with your distro? Like why would I use this over cachyos that has a massive community, too many customizations, or just arch-installer, barebones.

Like for example Was it a better out of the box (OOTB) experience? If so how is it better, what in your vision is makes this a better OOTB, how are you attempting to solve a problem that you observed.

Its completely fine if it was a learning experience, then your history would be interesting to see how you went about creating it. Etc.

Also cool project! And congrats on completing a thing on your bucket list!!

[–] zewm@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You’re talking to an AI. Look at post history and creation date of all of it. The Lemmy instance, the OS, etc.

[–] slacktoid@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 days ago

Well someone else may read it and get an idea of what they did wrong with their comms

[–] istdaslol@feddit.org 9 points 6 days ago

The question shouldn’t be “can I build an os” but “can I maintain it”

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I run the Lemmy instance this is posted from (fangnet.me). When I'm not doing that

Well it's been running for one day and you're the only user...

What a smeghead