The idea
You shouldn't have to choose.So we built both.
Wild OS started with a simple frustration: the safest, most private computers are the hardest to use, and the easiest ones treat you as the product.
Why
Windows asks for an account, shows you adverts, watches what you do and restarts when it likes. Linux respects you, but asks you to start again from scratch. We think you shouldn't have to choose. Wild OS keeps the computer you know and takes away everything you never asked for.
The ambition
Not a theme. A rebuilt desktop.
It would have been easy to recolour an existing Linux desktop and call it new. Instead we designed every screen people touch, from the first boot to the last shutdown, as one product.
screens designed from scratch, in light and dark
design language, from the installer to the shutdown dialog
adverts, accounts or trackers
Principles
How we decide.
Six rules every screen, setting and line of copy has to pass.
Familiar first
If Windows taught you where something lives, that is where it lives. People should be productive on day one.
Private by default
Anything that shares data starts switched off, and is explained in one plain sentence.
Honest about limits
When something won't work, we say so up front: on the website, in the installer and on screen.
Nothing you didn't ask for
No adverts, no upsells, no "recommended" apps, no surprise restarts.
One product, not a kit
Every screen shares one design, so it feels made rather than assembled.
Built in the open
Free and open source, so anyone can check our work and make it better.
Where we're going
The road ahead.
Wild OS is in active development. Here's the order we're building it in.
The desktop and installer
The core desktop, Settings, the installer, first start and signed updates, built on hardened Debian.
Windows mode, first release
Real Windows apps as normal windows, for PCs with Windows 11 Pro.
Windows 11 Home and more
Our own way of showing Windows apps that works on Home, plus device passthrough and more.