Coming from Windows? Startux is one small app that handles the scary parts of your new Linux system — installing software, plugging in a second drive, setting up gaming, and fixing things when they go wrong. No terminal knowledge needed.
curl -fsSL https://startux.app/go | bash
After the first signed release is published, that line downloads Startux, verifies its project signature and digest, and puts it in your app menu. The public release and site are not live yet. What does it actually do?
Startux works with your distribution's own tools instead of around them. It detects which family you are on and uses the right package manager automatically:
Running an image-based system like Bazzite, Silverblue or Kinoite? Startux feels right at home: apps install as Flatpaks, AppImages or Homebrew packages, none of which touch the system image. When a real system package is the only way, Startux layers it with rpm-ostree and it simply appears after a restart.
The Fixes page speaks your distro's dialect too: it can enable RPM Fusion on Fedora (the home of media codecs and extra drivers), repair a broken package keyring on Arch, or rank mirrors on CachyOS so downloads come from the fastest server.
The things every newcomer struggles with, turned into buttons and wizards — with plain-English explanations at every step.
Browse a hand-picked catalog from yearofthelinuxdesktop.net with Recommended and Mike's Picks badges, so you know what actually works. One click installs apps via Flatpak, your distro's own packages, or AppImage — Startux picks the best source for your system.
You plugged in a second drive and expected a D: drive. Startux's mounting wizard makes it work exactly like that: pick the drive, give it a name, and it comes back after every reboot. You can remove that automatic mount in Startux without deleting the drive's files. Each fstab change also creates a timestamped protected backup that can be restored from Startux.
Install Steam, Lutris, Heroic, MangoHud and GameMode in one guided run. Startux reports each graphics card, active driver, VRAM and Vulkan result. Separate detected NVIDIA guides cover Ubuntu/Mint, Fedora, Arch-family and openSUSE, with proprietary recommended for gaming/AI or, on supported distro releases, a clearly limited open NVK option. NVK can trail proprietary performance, DLSS is experimental, OpenGL goes through Zink, and it has no CUDA for local AI. Atomic-system drivers are reported but never changed.
No sound? Broken updates? A package manager stuck halfway? The Fixes section has plain-English runbooks for package repairs, updates, Flatpak, sound services, log cleanup, and selected distro setup. Each card explains its purpose and current detection result; the task transcript records commands and results as they run.
Describe your problem in plain English — or attach a screenshot of it — and Ask Tux can read Startux's system summary, drive list, app catalog, and task status. It can install or remove a catalog app only after showing an approval request. Choose a local Ollama model so chat stays on this PC, or use OpenRouter's free models with your own OpenRouter API key.
The app window and local server run as your desktop user. Drive changes require one explicit setup that installs a fixed, root-owned Startux helper. Later operations execute only that protected helper, use your desktop's authorization prompt each time, and record what happened in task history. The first setup is a disclosed trust-on-first-use exception and refuses to overwrite an existing helper. Startux backs up fstab before its drive-mount changes; that is not a universal system backup. There is no telemetry or Startux account.
Fresh install, blank stare? The Get Started checklist walks you through the first things worth doing — updates, the app store, your everyday apps, that second drive, gaming — one button at a time, and it remembers what you have already done.
Startux opens in your browser but feels like a real app — dark, calm, and written for humans.
The first public release and site deployment are still pending. Once both are announced, open a terminal, paste this, and press Enter:
curl -fsSL https://startux.app/go | bash
That is all. Here is exactly what the installer does — no surprises:
~/.local/bin — inside your home folder,
no administrator password needed. On updates, it keeps one
executable previous version for rollback.
If ~/.local/bin is not on your PATH yet,
the installer tells you the one line to add. Prefer not to pipe a
script? You can read it first at
startux.app/go — it is short
and commented — or grab the binary directly from the
releases page.
Running the installer again updates the app; see the
update, rollback and uninstall guide
for every installed path.
The short, honest answers — no marketing fine print.
The four big families — Debian/Ubuntu (apt), Fedora/RHEL (dnf), Arch (pacman) and openSUSE (zypper) — which covers most popular distributions and their offshoots like Mint, Pop!_OS, Manjaro and CachyOS. Atomic, image-based distros such as Bazzite and Silverblue work too: apps install as Flatpaks, AppImages or Homebrew packages, and when a system package is layered onto the image it simply applies after a restart. Details in Supported distros.
A healthy question — you should never pipe a script you have
not read, and ours is short and commented, so
read it first if you like.
It does four things: detects your processor (64-bit Intel/AMD
or ARM64), downloads the matching release, verifies its manifest
and binary against the embedded project signing key, checks the
signed size and SHA-256, and
places the binary in ~/.local/bin
inside your home folder plus an entry in your app menu. It
never asks for your password and needs no administrator rights.
The full list is in the Install section,
which also links a direct binary download if you prefer.
Startux has no telemetry and no Startux account. It fetches its public catalog and AI defaults, and installation actions contact the selected package repository or vendor. Ordinary connection metadata such as your IP address is visible to each service.
| When | Recipient | Data |
|---|---|---|
| Launch / Apps | startux.app | Public AI defaults and catalog requests; no chat, keys, task history, or hardware upload |
| Install or setup | Selected repository or vendor | Package/artifact request and ordinary client metadata |
| OpenRouter Ask Tux | openrouter.ai | Own API key, bounded chat context, current-turn screenshots, tool schemas and bounded tool results |
| Custom proxy Ask Tux | Configured endpoint | The same chat/tool data and optional proxy key |
| Local Ask Tux | Ollama on this PC | Chat and current-turn screenshots over loopback; setup still downloads Ollama/model files |
Screenshots can expose names, messages, filenames, account details, and secrets: crop or redact them first. OpenRouter requires your own OpenRouter account and API key. Keys prefer your desktop keyring; if it is unavailable, Startux discloses and uses a user-only 0600 settings-file fallback with a separate delete action for each key. There is no in-app global offline switch; failed remote data requests fall back to cached or embedded data. Read the full network, local-data, retention, and key-storage table. An optional supporter tier with a hosted model may come later — optional being the operative word.
Nothing. Startux is free and open source under the MIT license — the app, the installer and this website included. An optional supporter subscription for people who want to fund development is planned, but the app will stay free; there is nothing to sign up for yet.
Startux creates a timestamped fstab backup before changing a persistent drive mount and automatically attempts rollback when that workflow fails. The app can list and restore those protected backups after administrator authorization, preserving the current fstab before a restore. Other package/configuration work is not universally backed up. Cards explain an operation before it starts, while exact commands and results appear in the durable task transcript as execution proceeds. When a step needs elevated rights, your desktop shows an authorization prompt. The Fixes page offers a defined set of runbooks, but it cannot repair every failure.
Startux is released under the MIT license: use it, share it, study it, change it. The whole project — app, installer, and this website — lives at gitgud.io/mike/startux. The app catalog is maintained together with yearofthelinuxdesktop.net. Bug reports, ideas and contributions are welcome.