Download
One image that boots on any UEFI machine. You can try the whole system without installing anything.
| File | Size | Kernel |
|---|---|---|
| mikeos.iso | 570M | 7.2.9-mikeos |
SHA256:84e2f751912f064898b0518ba2e33005723e0ec7317ceaff0f9a27131285891c
GitHub serves the download and it starts on click, with no interstitial page. It works that way because this site lives on a mini PC at home: its uplink gives about 780 KB/s, which is nearly four minutes per download and one at a time. Packages, which are small, do come from here.
Writing it to a USB stick
# first check that what you downloaded is what was published sha256sum mikeos.iso # /dev/sdX is your stick. It will be erased completely. sudo dd if=mikeos.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync
Secure Boot. You have to turn it off in the UEFI before booting the stick. This kernel does not carry Microsoft's signature, so with Secure Boot on the firmware refuses to run it. On a Surface you turn it off by entering the UEFI (hold volume up while powering on).
Trying it without installing
The image boots into memory: you can look around, touch everything and shut down without your disk noticing. When you want to install it, the button is in the welcome window.