The Way Forward...

ZEPHIX is coming home.

The focus is shifting decisively toward a live-first distribution: fast to boot, rich in software, and ready to use the moment it starts. A system that works out of the box, without forcing users to make decisions before they can get anything done.

There will be one desktop environment, not many. ZEPHIX believes deeply in the Unix philosophy: do one thing, and do it well. Instead of endless options, there will be cohesion. Instead of fragmentation, a single, well-thought-out experience.

ZEPHIX will aim to feel complete - with a global theme, consistent styling, carefully chosen fonts, and subtle visual effects that make the system enjoyable to use, not just fast to run.

Installation to disk will remain possible, but it won’t be the soul of the project. ZEPHIX is meant to be carried, booted anywhere, trusted, and reused - a live operating system for people on the go.

This journey hasn’t been a straight line. It’s been a cycle of ideas, experiments, feedback, and hard lessons. But every shift had a purpose, and every misstep clarified what truly matters.

ZEPHIX is not chasing trends anymore but it's embracing its roots - and refining them - A Live System; Packed with tools; Fast, coherent, and reliable; A system you don't just try once - but keep coming back to.

Stay tuned - the next chapter of ZEPHIX is just beginning.

Release Announcements

16/08/2025 - Zephix v8 (Zephix_8-x86_64) was released: Updated distribution principles, embracing simplicity and speed as core principles, moving away from a modular approach to deliver unparalleled performance; Streamlined the user experience by adopting i3 as the sole interface, eliminating the complexity of multiple desktops; Included firmware drivers to ensure seamless compatibility with a wide range of laptops; Packaged essential software like GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, LibreOffice, and other utilities making the distribution ideal for daily use; Revamped the official website to reflect all these changes.

About Zephix

Zephix is a lightweight, fast, and efficient Linux distribution, based on Debian stable and built for simplicity and speed. It runs totally from removable media without touching any files stored on the user's system disk.

The main user interface for Zephix is i3, a lightweight tiling window manager designed for speed and simplicity. The i3 window manager adheres to these principles by being keyboard-driven, which minimises mouse usage and streamlines workflows. Its minimal resource usage ensures fast performance, even on older hardware, while its straightforward configuration allows users to customise their environment with ease. This makes i3 an ideal choice for a system focused on efficiency, speed and minimalism.

In Zephix, the i3 modifier key is the alt key. You can use it in combination with other keys, as shown below, to operate Zephix. The modifier key can also be used to move floating containers by pressing and holding it while dragging the container using the mouse.

• enteropen terminal
• shift + qkill active container
• dopen launcher
• j or 🠈change focus to left container
• k or 🠋change focus to lower container
• l or 🠉change focus to upper container
• ; or 🠊change focus to right container
• shift + j or 🠈move active container left
• shift + k or 🠋move active container down
• shift + l or 🠉move active container up
• shift + ; or 🠊move active container right
• hsplit in horizontal orientation
• vsplit in vertical orientation
• ftoggle fullscreen mode for active container
• schange container layout to stacked
• wchange container layout to tabbed
• echange container layout to toggle split
• shift + spacetoggle between tiling and floating modes
• spacetoggle focus between tiling and floating containers
• 0 - 9switch to workspace (0 refers to workspace 10)
• shift + 0 - 9move active container to workspace
• shift + creload the configuration file
• shift + rrestart i3 inplace (layout and session are kept)
• rresize active container (using j, k, l, ;, arrow keys, enter/esc)
• ptoggle passthrough mode (alt key can be used to open menus)

By default Zephix has persistent mode enabled. This means that all your changes will automatically be saved on the device running Zephix. To enable persistence for Zephix, create an additional ext4 partition labeled persistence on your storage medium. Mount the partition and create a persistence.conf file in its root directory with the content /, union. This configuration enables full system persistence.

Alternatively, a persistence file can be used instead of a partition. Create a large empty file (e.g., persistence.img) on your storage medium using a tool like dd (e.g., dd if=/dev/zero of=persistence.img bs=1M count=1024 for a 1GB file). Format the file with an ext4 filesystem using mkfs.ext4 persistence.img, then mount it and create a persistence.conf file in its root directory with the content /, union. Unmount the file and place it in the root of the storage medium.