A retro-futuristic desktop experience. Scrolling tiling windows, neon aesthetics, and AI coding tools — all running on a blazing-fast Wayland compositor.
Every pixel, every keybind, every config — carefully tuned for developers who live in the terminal.
Windows scroll infinitely left and right. Auto-tiling daemon enforces max 2 windows per workspace with intelligent 50/50 splits.
Custom-styled top bar with AI rate limit monitor, disk indicator, system metrics, and synthwave color coding. GTK CSS theming throughout.
Kitty as primary terminal with synthwave color scheme, JetBrains Mono font, and Starship prompt. Foot as lightweight alternative.
Claude Code, Gemini CLI, and OpenAI Codex CLI pre-configured. Multi-model AI coding from your terminal. Run synthwave-setup after install to configure API keys.
Alt+Space pops a centered search overlay. All CLI tools (Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Codex) are searchable via .desktop entries.
Syntax highlighting, auto-suggestions, history search, auto-pair, modern CLI aliases (eza, bat, fd, ripgrep, zoxide), and fzf integration.
Press Mod+T to toggle voice-to-text powered by Whisper. Speak your code, commit messages, or documentation.
Graphical installer with Synthwave branding. Partition drives, create users, set timezone — all from a polished UI.
See Synthwave Linux in action. Click any image to enlarge.
| Base | Fedora 43 Server |
| Architecture | x86_64 |
| Display Server | Wayland |
| Window Manager | Niri (scrolling tiler) |
| Status Bar | Waybar |
| Login Manager | greetd + gtkgreet |
| Installer | Calamares |
| Terminal | Kitty / Foot |
| Shell | Zsh + Zinit + Starship |
| Launcher | Fuzzel (Alt+Space) |
| Browser | Google Chrome |
| File Manager | Thunar |
| Notifications | Mako |
| Lock Screen | Swaylock |
| Claude Code | Anthropic CLI coding assistant |
| Gemini CLI | Google AI CLI assistant |
| Codex CLI | OpenAI coding agent |
Keyboard-driven workflow. Mod = Super key.
Live ISO with Calamares graphical installer. Boot from USB, try it live, or install to disk.
Live Session Login: Use username liveuser to get past the sign-in screen. Then launch the Calamares installer to install to disk.
sudo dd if=SynthwaveLinux-43-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress
Or use Ventoy, balenaEtcher, or Fedora Media Writer.
Boot from USB into the live desktop. Try everything out before committing.
Launch the Calamares installer from the desktop. Choose your disk, create your user, and ride the neon grid.
Synthwave Linux is free and open source. If you enjoy it, consider buying the developer a coffee.
Every contribution helps keep the neon lights on and the code flowing.
@Matthew-Lopez-793You can also scan the QR code in the Venmo app