The Linux for Human and AI Partnership
MaluOS is a Linux distribution derived from Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, built for AI agents and the humans who work with them, and centred on the MaluDB memory database. On first boot the machine provisions itself: the database, its API, the credential vault, the model gateway and the agent runtime. The free edition is the full system. No account, no licence key.
A MaluOS host boots into a working memory system. PostgreSQL 18 with the MaluDB engine,
a tenant, principals and scopes are created on the first boot from one file,
/etc/maluos/firstboot.yaml, that cloud-init can write. Every person and every agent
on the machine is a principal with its own secrets, model policy and audit trail.
Everything an agent learns lives in MaluDB on your hardware. Model calls go through one local gateway that holds the keys, schedules the GPU and records every call. Nothing leaves the machine unless policy says so.
An Ubuntu 26.04 base, re-centred around shared memory, OS-held credentials and local intelligence. Every piece below ships in the current release.
PostgreSQL 18 with the MaluDB engine and the MC2DB listener, which exposes memory to agents over MCP. Principals, scopes, claims with confidence, graph relations and event history, provisioned on first boot.
A socket-activated vault with peer-credential identity: per-principal compartments, grants, delegation with budget and expiry, and an append-only ledger. The master key is sealed with systemd-creds and the TPM when present; a reveal asks you to re-authenticate.
One door for every model call: OpenAI-, Ollama- and Anthropic-compatible APIs, a GPU scheduler, tiers instead of model names (fast, standard, strong, embed), local-to-cloud routing under policy, per-caller budgets and a ledger of every call. Keys never reach the caller.
An agent is not a process with a borrowed key. maluctl agent create makes a Linux user, a MaluDB principal, a vault compartment, a gateway policy and a hardened systemd unit in one step, with an owner, an optional strict sandbox and a task interface you can talk to.
The MaluDB Python API, REST/JSON and MCP, as a hardened system service on localhost with its own user, a sealed auth store, a tenant token minted at first boot, and embedding and reindex sweeps on timers.
The Business OS kernel installed natively, no container: the organisation, people, the agent workforce, SSO and the directory API, with its PHP API, Next.js front end, MCP servers and agent runner provisioned end to end on first boot. Its applications reach desks through MaluApps.
One file, /etc/maluos/firstboot.yaml, drives provisioning: database, tenant, administrator, components. Modules are idempotent and resumable. maluctl is the operator's tool for status, tokens, secrets, the gateway, agents, updates and the estate.
The API server, the Business OS, NVIDIA drivers and Apple T2 support are metapackages with first-boot modules. Choose them at install time, request them through cloud-init, or add them later with apt; every path ends in the same provisioned state.
Dated releases (26.04.YYYYMMDD) with signed checksums, a signed apt repository at apt.maluos.com, unattended security updates, and a build pipeline that boot-tests every image on BIOS and UEFI. The distribution layer is open source on GitHub.
The desktop is the server with a workstation on top: the same database, vault, gateway and agent runtime run on the machine, so agents on your desk have local memory and credentials while it is on. No snaps. Firefox comes from Mozilla's own apt repository, GNOME Software installs debs only, and the machine never blanks or suspends on its own while agents are working.
The MaluOS session adds an indicator to the top panel: the agents on the host and their state, the gateway and its backends, your model budget, your secrets and delegations, and the latest alerts, with changes arriving as desktop notifications. A grant request from an agent is answered right from the notification.
A company runs MaluOS servers in its data centre and MaluOS desktops at its desks. Together they form one estate in which agents, knowledge, model inference and work are shared, with ownership, policy and audit kept where they are. Connectivity is never permission: every cross-node request is authorised by the receiving node against its own vault and policy.
A desktop joins a Business OS office with a one-time code. The desk token lives in the vault, the office's model endpoint becomes a rung of the local gateway, and the office's applications and agents appear on the desk.
maluctl estate join makes any MaluOS host a node of its estate: a per-node token and key in the vault, presence and facts on a heartbeat, a report of units, agents, gateway, alerts, updates, disk, memory and load.
A gateway on a GPU box exposes the MaluOS inference node API: status, health, a queue with cancel and priority, async jobs, inference keys. A desk pairs with it as a remote backend. The NVIDIA component installs Canonical-signed driver modules, so Secure Boot needs no MOK enrolment.
A WireGuard tunnel made by join and enrol, with an address and a name per node from the kernel. No static addresses, no VPN set-up by the person.
Agents find and delegate work to specialists anywhere in the estate through a signed authorisation envelope, verified on the agent's own host. The coordinator needs no credentials to the systems the specialist acts in.
Inference placed on authorised hardware with capacity across the estate (servers always, desktops opt-in, laptops when idle), and personal, departmental and enterprise memory queried over the existing scopes.
Boot the ISO and choose Install MaluOS Server or Desktop; the unattended entry installs hands-off. On the first boot the host provisions itself in a few minutes, and maluctl status shows the result.
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | x86-64 (amd64) | |
| CPU | 2 cores | 4 cores or more |
| Memory | 2 GB server · 4 GB desktop | 8 GB, plus the memory of any local model |
| Disk | 25 GB server · 40 GB desktop | 60 GB or more, SSD |
| Firmware | BIOS or UEFI, Secure Boot on or off | |
| GPU | optional | NVIDIA RTX for local models; without one, requests route to the cloud backends you configure |
curl -fsSL https://apt.maluos.com/bootstrap/install-maluos.sh | sudo bashThe shipped ISOs use the Ubuntu live installer, so its screens show Ubuntu naming during the install; the installed system is MaluOS. A MaluOS installer with its own live environment and text screens is built and in testing in the repository.
Released 2026-10-28. Releases are dated: 26.04 is the package base, 20261028 the build date. The current release number is always at download.maluos.com/LATEST.
Every release is signed with the MaluOS Archive Signing Key (2026) <[email protected]>, fingerprint 6387 5A4A 5397 B902 E9C5 CFF8 731A DA39 4135 B9FF.
V=26.04.20261028
curl -fsSLO https://download.maluos.com/$V/SHA256SUMS
curl -fsSLO https://download.maluos.com/$V/SHA256SUMS.gpg
curl -fsSL https://apt.maluos.com/bootstrap/maluos-archive-keyring.gpg -o maluos-archive-keyring.gpg
gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring ./maluos-archive-keyring.gpg --verify SHA256SUMS.gpg
sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missingFull install guide, cloud-image example and apt source: download.maluos.com. Every release is also on GitHub with the cloud images and checksums attached.
MaluOS follows the Ubuntu model: one image, one code base. The free edition is the full system. Paid editions attach services to a machine or a fleet, and never make an individual developer's agent less capable.
Don't want to run the hardware? Let us host MaluOS for you. Managed cloud instances with the MaluDB memory core, local models, and Business OS — provisioned, updated, and backed up for you.
MaluOS™ hosting & cloud computing services · managed instances provided and maintained for you.
Download MaluOS and run it yourself, or let us host it. Your memory, your keys and your models stay on your hardware.