Endless OS aimed at educational and offline environments

Endless OS is a Linux distribution with a focus on improving access to educational tools by providing a simple-to-manage, full-featured desktop for educators and students — one that works offline, with minimal maintenance. The distribution also aims to be suitable for older devices, in order to promote access to computers by ensuring those systems remain usable. In pursuit of those goals, it makes some unusual technical choices. But what makes the distribution really shine is its curated collection of software and educational resources.

Endless OS is developed by the Endless OS Foundation, a non-profit organization that also provides laptops to people who would otherwise be unable to afford them, in support of its mission to ensure widespread access to educational tools. Unlike Linux distributions that grew up around a group of volunteers, Endless OS actually started as the product of a VC-funded startup. The foundation only became a non-profit in 2020. This gives the project a noticeably different culture and approach. People are welcome to participate in the Endless OS community, but most of the operating system's development is driven by employees of the foundation. While Endless OS is free for personal and non-commercial use — and the core operating system is Debian-based, made available under its normal licenses — the foundation makes some of its money by selling licenses and support (including management software for large fleets of devices) to companies that want to use the OS.

Unfortunately, many of the applications that are built on top of the base OS have proprietary licenses. Installing the OS involves agreeing to an end-user license agreement (EULA) covering the proprietary software distributed with the OS (among other terms). The project also doesn't permit modifications to the install media. Its redistribution policy specifically allows making unmodified copies, or building completely free images with the project's image builder, but not modifying the official distribution.

Endless OS 6 was released in May 2024. Unlike many other Linux distributions, which usually recommend the use of generic installation-media creation programs, Endless OS provides a customized Windows installer. Although I lack a Windows computer on which to verify this, the installer purports to be able to create bootable USB drives, replace Windows as the computer's operating system, or install Endless OS alongside Windows. This attention to ensuring that it is possible for non-technical users to try out the operating system with a minimum of friction is a good example of the project's dedication to making Endless OS easily available.

For those who are already familiar with installing other Linux distributions, the project also provides plain ISOs, virtual-machine images, and some alternative images tuned for single-board computers such as the Raspberry Pi. There are also multiple versions available that are tuned for different installation environments and languages. The "basic" variant, intended for installation on computers with consistent internet access, comes without too many additional applications installed. The "full" variant, which comes in four flavors for English, French, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish, comes pre-loaded with applications and educational materials so it is suitable for use in areas where internet connections may be sporadic or nonexistent.

If those images are not sufficient for a particular application, the project also provides the Endless OS image builder, which lets users create their own installation media with whatever customizations they need. All of Endless OS's images are built using libostree to provide an immutable root filesystem. The image builder builds the root filesystem in a container out of custom Debian packages and Flatpak applications. Once the filesystem is finalized, the builder converts it to a bootable ISO.

The choice to use an immutable root filesystem also makes automatic updates smooth. Updates, including security updates, are downloaded automatically by default, and applied atomically to the root filesystem when the computer is rebooted. Flatpak applications running on top of the core OS are updated separately, but also automatically.

Installation

Most people, however, will find that the default images built by the project meet their needs. Because the ISOs come with a large number of applications pre-installed, the "full" variants are quite large. The English flavor comes to 24GB. The setup process is fairly simple, with a custom graphical installer. Upon first booting the installer — after displaying an animated logo as a boot screen — it asks the user whether they would like to try Endless OS live, or install it. Choosing the latter option has the installer scan the computer for any other operating systems to set up dual booting, before offering the choice of which disk to install to. Once a disk is chosen, the installer copies the full OS image to the disk. Configuration of language, timezone, etc. are done once the user has booted the installed system as part of a first-time setup wizard.

During installation, the EULA also warns that Endless OS periodically reports the computer's location, how Endless OS was installed, and how long it has been installed — and that this data collection is "required". The OS may also collect and report other information. The EULA may be out of date, however; the metrics daemon itself — and the less elaborate script that sends daily pings to measure retention — are open source (GPLv2 or later) and do not appear to upload anything if the user opts out. [Update: The daily ping script doesn't respect the opt-out setting.] Will Thompson, an employee of the Endless OS Foundation, wrote a blog post explaining their metrics system in more detail.

Generally, the installation process is smooth, with fewer options for advanced users than it is usual to see in a typical Linux distribution. Part of this is made possible by the fact that Endless OS's immutable root filesystem greatly simplifies deployment — the installer has no need to copy or set up packages individually, instead it simply copies the image wholesale and sets up some configuration files.

The software

Endless OS distinguishes itself by offering a variety of pre-installed software. The basic desktop environment is GNOME 43.9. Upon first logging in, the user is presented with a phone-like full-screen menu of applications. The project supplies Chromium 125 as the default browser, alongside typical software such as LibreOffice 24, Shotwell 0.32, GNOME Terminal 3.46, but also less typical software, such as "Encyclopedia", a dedicated application for accessing Wikipedia.

The OS also comes with a number of educational applications that package content from places like Wikipedia, wikiHow, and TED-ed into easily searchable themed bundles on different topics. Examples include "How To", "Cooking", "Sanitation", "Health", "Myths & Legends", "Travel", "Math", and more. These themed bundles (and the unthemed Encyclopedia application) are the primary proprietary components of the operating system. There is also more interactive educational software in the form of coding environments for Scratch, Arduino, and basic web programming.

Programming is not the only skill that Endless OS supports acquiring; it also bundles drawing programs (including Inkscape, GIMP, and Tux Paint), 3D-modeling software (Blender), and audio recording and editing software (Decibels, Audacity). The flagship application in this category, however, is certainly Endless Key, which provides articles, videos, and tutorials about different skills and hobbies curated for the user's interests.

Finally, the OS also comes with a selection of games. In case the included software does not prove sufficient, the OS has GNOME Software, which allows installing additional applications using Flatpak. While Flatpak applications are often larger than native packages, separating out the applications and keeping the core OS immutable lets Endless OS installations be made much more robust, simple to maintain, and to deploy at scale. Layering Flatpak applications on top lets users enjoy the freedom to install the software they need without compromising the stability of the base OS.

Despite the obvious educational bent, however, Endless OS does have some features catering to advanced users. The OS includes Toolbx, a tool that makes setting up interactive containers that can run software from other distributions trivial. Toolbx containers use the same Linux kernel, but allow the user to run Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, or other user spaces on top of it — including graphical applications. While this is not perfectly seamless, it does make it possible to comfortably use Endless OS for software development, which would otherwise be difficult, since the base OS does not include normal development tools or compilers.

Overall, Endless OS occupies an interesting niche compared to traditional Linux systems. Its simple installation and immutable base make it a good choice for computers that receive minimal maintenance. Its large amount of bundled educational content, including tools for artistic expression, make it well-suited to letting children explore. Since it exposes containerized environments, it should be capable of running almost any necessary Linux software. Whether these features balance out the presence of proprietary software and its other non-free components and policies will depend on individual people's priorities. While I doubt that many LWN readers will be interested in switching to Endless OS as their main operating system, it presents an attractive option for less-technical people who want a capable and well-curated Linux desktop.