Chazon OS arrives Friday.

Chazon OS is Ubuntu 26.04 LTS with its own working environment and its own programs: a studio for images, film and editing, office tools, an assistant, games and a sound studio. Underneath, Ubuntu runs unchanged; its programs and package sources stay available.

• Nothing is set up in advance. The ISO contains no accounts, no credentials and no keys of ours. You add what you want to use yourself – or you do not.
• Usable offline. Installation and the basics need no connection. Anything that needs an outside service or a large local model says so where it matters.
• With AI or without. During setup you choose: subscription, your own key, a local model – or no AI at all.
• Free to build on. The source is open and the build instructions are included. If you pass on a modified version, give it a name of its own.

Every path goes through a USB stick: the ISO is written to it and the computer starts from it. Pick the system you are sitting at right now.

Chazon stick writer: Downloads the ISO, verifies checksum and signature and writes the stick – one program, one path.

The checksum shows the file arrived complete. The signature shows that checksum and file come from us. Both together take two minutes.

1. Checksum

Put ISO, checksum and signature into one folder, then there:

sha256sum -c CHAZON-open-beta-1.0.iso.sha256

It must end with OK. Windows (PowerShell): Get-FileHash. macOS: shasum -a 256.

2. Signature

gpg --import chazon-release-key.asc
gpg --verify CHAZON-open-beta-1.0.iso.sha256.asc \
             CHAZON-open-beta-1.0.iso.sha256

gpg must report “Good signature” and name this fingerprint:

9451 69F4 2E17 289D E49E 15D5 B3CF 3724 DB29 57B5

The warning that the key is not certified is normal: gpg does not know us. What counts is that the fingerprint matches character by character.

After installation, updates of the Chazon programs come from our own package source, over HTTPS and signed with the same key as the ISO. Ubuntu's updates keep coming from Ubuntu; both run side by side through the usual updater.

https://pakete.chazon.eu/

The Chazon source can be switched off: in the welcome window, in Settings under “Programs”, or in a terminal with sudo chazon-quelle aus. chazon-quelle status shows the state.

Chazon OS consists of 43 packages of its own on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. They live in the package source (suite open-beta).

This list is generated from the manifest of the release and rewritten with every update of the source.

1. 16/10/2026
   Open Beta 1.0planned
   First public version: ISO, package source and source code.

From the release on, every update of the package source is listed here: date, changed packages, what changes for you.

• Tested in virtual machines (UEFI and BIOS, German and English, online and offline). Not yet widely tested on real hardware: graphics cards, audio and microphone, Wi-Fi, installing beside another system, disk encryption.
• Macs with Apple silicon and other ARM computers: this version is built for x86-64 only.
• The installer is Ubuntu's installer: its body texts say “Ubuntu”. This is compiled into it.
• Blender, a local AI model and the web Studio are not included; Blender and Ollama can be installed afterwards.
• Chazon services (Together, online games) are off after setup until you switch them on; Together by invitation only.
• Games and the sound studio are German only; interface, Settings, Assistant, Ori and setup are German and English.

• Our own code: MIT.
• Designed content (characters, images, films, sounds, texts): Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
• The name and mark “Chazon” are not licensed along. Unmodified ISOs and packages may be passed on under their name; modified versions need a name of their own.
• Third-party parts keep their licence: Ubuntu and its packages, the bundled runtimes and models, the fonts (SIL OFL 1.1).

Source code and build instructions: are published with the release.

“Ubuntu” is a trademark of Canonical Ltd.; Chazon OS is not a Canonical product and is not supported by Canonical. Whether distributing a modified Ubuntu ISO meets Canonical's trademark rules in every point has not been legally reviewed. This is not legal advice.