Rime 2026.09.28.4APEX-OS is now Rime

A Linux desktopthat moves as one.

Fluid by design. Image-based underneath. Coloured by your world.

Download RimeExplore the Shell
The real Rime Shell, recorded at 3840 × 2400 and played back as you use it. ClickTap the centre notch, the Wi-Fi icon or the bell. rime-shell@9161e30c

Everything grows from where it belongs.

The Dashboard is the centre notch, grown. Wi-Fi and notifications pour out of the right notch and share one surface, so switching between them reshapes it instead of closing and reopening it. Close either and it folds back into the notch it came from.

Every surface, on the Shell page

Your wallpaper becomes the palette.

Rime reads your wallpaper with matugen and derives every surface, text and accent role from it. Change the wallpaper and the desktop retunes: bar, panels, lock screen, window borders, terminal prompt.

Wallpaper

Roles from Rime default, dark

  • surfaceBase#121315
  • surfaceRaised#1c1d1f
  • surfaceSelected#2c3037
  • accentContainer#3c424d
  • accent#b2c8ec
  • textPrimary#e3e2e5
Pick a wallpaper: the stage switches to the real shell recorded in its palette, and this page follows. rime-shell@9161e30c

Motion has an origin.

Nothing fades up out of the middle of the screen. A surface starts as the notch or edge it grows from, and its outline is rebuilt every frame from a few named measurements — width, depth, shoulder, corner — each carried by its own spring.

WD
Replay
width
900
depth
560
shoulder
28
corner
24
edge bow
0
lead → widthbody → depthtrail → shoulders, corners

Computing the same open at 60 Hz and 144 Hz…

A new system is staged beside the one you are using.

Rime is one signed image. An update puts the next image next to the running one, and you move to it when you reboot. If it's wrong, the previous one is still there.

  1. 1

    Running

    Rime 2026.09.28.3running
    empty slot

    One signed image: the system and Rime Shell together.

  2. 2

    Staged

    Rime 2026.09.28.3running
    Rime 2026.09.28.4staged for next boot

    The new image is verified, then written beside the running one. Nothing you are using changes.

    sudo rime update
  3. 3

    Rebooted

    Rime 2026.09.28.3kept to go back to
    Rime 2026.09.28.4running

    The next boot starts the new image. The one before stays on disk and in the boot menu.

    sudo systemctl reboot
  4. 4

    Rolled back

    Rime 2026.09.28.3running
    Rime 2026.09.28.4kept to go back to

    The previous image becomes the default again. Your home folder and /etc stay as the newer system left them.

    sudo rime rollback
How the system works

For work, and for play.

Three ways to arrange windows

Rime Tiling (Hyprland) is the default. Rime Scrolling (niri) and Rime Floating (labwc) are one choice away at the login screen, with the same Shell on top.

Packages that don't block updates

Extra packages go into a system extension beside the image, not into it, so updates and rollback keep working. Flathub apps install by their ID.

sudo rime install htop

Development capsules

Rootless containers for other distributions and toolchains, with GPU access when you ask for it.

rime env create fedora

Gaming Mode

Steam's big-screen interface in gamescope, on Rime's own build of the CachyOS kernel with sched-ext schedulers. Steam and gamescope install on demand; Gaming Mode appears at the login screen once they're there.

sudo rime install steam gamescope mangohud gamemode

Close the lid, keep working

While an agent session is running, closing a laptop's lid keeps it awake — and the VPN up — with battery and temperature guards that suspend it anyway if they need to. With nothing running, it sleeps as usual.

The system in detail

Latest update · 28 September 2026

Rime 2026.09.28.4APEX-OS is now Rime

The first release under the Rime name: APEX-OS becomes Rime OS and APEX Shell becomes Rime Shell. The first boot and first login move your system and desktop settings to the new names, the old names keep working as aliases, and a rollback to APEX keeps working.

See what changed
  • SystemAPEX-OS is now Rime OS, and APEX Shell is now Rime Shell
  • SystemThe first boot moves system state to the new names
  • ShellYour first login moves your desktop settings to the new names
  • SecurityImages are signed by the renamed repository

Get Rime.

A network installer for 64-bit PCs. It downloads the signed system image while it installs.

The current installer predates the rename, so its first update needs one manual step.

Download · 1.9 GBInstall guide
Computer
64-bit PC with UEFI (legacy BIOS can boot the stick)
Disk
16 GB, or about 53 GB when the target is the only drive
Network
Needed during the install
Encryption
Whole-disk encryption is on by default, with a recovery key