Press
Everything for an article about amadeOS: short texts in English and German, the facts, pictures in full resolution and the logo. All pictures may be used freely in reports about amadeOS.
amadeOS in brief
amadeOS is a free, European desktop operating system. It is based on Debian 13 “trixie” and brings a desktop of its own that is written entirely in Java (Swing on Xorg): login screen, window manager, the Horizon desktop with top bar, dock, search and widgets, Settings and a software centre. On top come 30 own programs, among them Files, WritePad, Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Books, Calls, TV and Backup & Sync, and 20 games on an own game engine (Mines and Solitaire come with the system, the others install from the software centre). Everything is free software under the European Union Public Licence (EUPL-1.2). There is no account, no telemetry and no advertising, and updates come from a signed apt repository.
Kurzbeschreibung auf Deutsch
amadeOS ist ein freies, europäisches Desktop-Betriebssystem auf Basis von Debian 13 „trixie“. Der gesamte Desktop ist in Java geschrieben (Swing auf Xorg): Anmeldebildschirm, Fenstermanager, die Oberfläche Horizon mit oberer Leiste, Dock, Suche und Widgets, Einstellungen und Software-Center. Dazu kommen 30 eigene Programme, darunter Dateien, Textverarbeitung, Mail, Kalender, Kontakte, E-Book-Reader, Videoanrufe, TV und Datensicherung, sowie 20 Spiele auf einer eigenen Spiele-Engine (Minen und Solitär sind dabei, die anderen lassen sich im Software-Center nachinstallieren). Alles steht unter der European Union Public Licence (EUPL-1.2). amadeOS braucht kein Konto, sendet keine Nutzungsdaten und zeigt keine Werbung; Updates kommen aus einem signierten apt-Repository.
Facts
- Current version: 1.3.0, released on 13 November 2026 (release notes). First release: 1.0.0 on 25 October 2026.
- New in 1.3.0: Family Tree (genealogy with GEDCOM import and export), Label Printer (labels and business cards), the Horizon palettes, a smaller image with two games on board and eighteen more to install, among them the new Cruise and Pinball, and programs that use less memory.
- New in 1.2.0: Calls (end-to-end encrypted video calls in the local network, with chat, files and screen sharing), the Font Viewer, the new logo, login and lock screens in the Horizon look, the Lava Lamp screen saver, and new programs that arrive with the normal updates.
- Base: Debian 13 “trixie”, unchanged; Linux, Xorg/X11, systemd, apt, Firefox and LibreOffice come from Debian.
- Desktop: written in Java 25 and Swing; Horizon look (dark or light, six accent colours), Classic look in the style of CDE as a bonus.
- Programs and games: 30 own programs and 20 games, from Mines and Solitaire to a city builder, an adventure, a 3D shooter and pinball. The image brings Mines and Solitaire; the other games are optional packages.
- Download: one ISO image for 64-bit PCs (1.9 GB), BIOS and UEFI, live system with installer. The desktop can also be installed as packages on Debian 13 or Ubuntu 26.04 from apt.amadeos.eu. Download page.
- Licence: EUPL-1.2.
- Documentation: three handbooks for users, application developers and game developers at docs.amadeos.eu, also installed on every amadeOS computer.
- Source code: github.com/amadeos-eu.
- Who: designed and maintained by Ralf Eichinger (datazuul, Munich, Germany). Much of the code was written together with Claude, an AI coding assistant by Anthropic; every change is reviewed, tested and merged by the maintainer.
Pictures
Click a picture for the full-size PNG, or download all pictures and the logo as one ZIP file (8.6 MB). The pictures show the demo user Anna Berger; all names and data in them are invented.
Logo
Four rounded tiles, the top left one in teal (#2FB8B0). SVG · PNG, 1024×1024, transparent. Please write the name as “amadeOS”.
Contact
Ralf Eichinger · info@datazuul.com · +49 152 5368 5735
Questions, interviews, review help or a guide for testing in VirtualBox or QEMU: just write.