FAQ

Will it run on my machine?

Most 64-bit desktops and laptops from roughly the last ten years. The way to find out is to boot it from a USB stick — that changes nothing on the machine.

What about documents and spreadsheets?

Through the browser: Google Docs, Microsoft 365 for the web, or any other web office. Desktop Office does not run. If you depend on a specific installed program, this is not the machine for it.

Can I still use Gmail, YouTube, Drive?

Yes. They are websites and they work normally. What is absent is the requirement to sign in to the operating system with a Google account.

Why not just install Linux?

You should, if you want a Linux desktop. colorburst is aimed at the machine you set up for somebody else and would rather not maintain: less to configure, less to break, and it resets to a clean state in minutes.

If you want Linux as well, it is built in — a Debian container you turn on in Settings. See the screenshots.

Can I go back to Windows?

Yes, by reinstalling Windows from a Windows USB stick. Installing colorburst erases the disk, so back up first, and keep your Windows licence key.

Is this just ChromeOS renamed?

No. It is built from ChromiumOS, the open-source code Google publishes. ChromeOS adds Google's closed parts on top of that; colorburst does not, and adds local accounts and its own update server instead. It is not affiliated with Google.

How much of this was written by AI?

A lot of the code. One person cannot build an operating system otherwise. Every design decision is made and reviewed by an experienced engineer, and AI also makes it cheap to build the tooling that tests the result. Once things have settled, the intention is to review the whole thing by hand.

How does the project make money?

It does not. Current funding: my own salary. If it becomes useful to enough people, there may be a way to make it sustainable; there is no plan that depends on it.

How long will it last?

Unknown, which is the honest answer for any project this young. It is open source under a BSD licence, so if it stops, the code and the build tooling stay available for anyone to continue.

Who made this?

One engineer, working under a pseudonym for professional reasons. The guiding principle is that you should not trust anyone for who they say they are. The source is small and public: read it, build it, and check the claims on this site for yourself.

Origin and licence

colorburst is a fork of ChromiumOS. The original code belongs to the ChromiumOS authors under the BSD 3-clause licence; other components keep their own. "Chrome", "ChromeOS" and "Chromebook" are Google trademarks.

Source: github.com/colorburst-os

About the name

On analogue colour television, every scan line opens with a short burst of signal — a few cycles of the colour subcarrier. It carries no picture. Its only job is to give the receiver a phase reference. Without it the picture still appears, but the colours are wrong.

A small repeated reference, so that everything else comes out right.

Where the project is

Early. It installs, updates and runs, and it is used daily on real hardware. Parts of the interface still say "Chromium", DRM video does not play, and there is no password recovery.