Under active development

GLDoze — A GPU-Accelerated Linux Desktop Environment

GLDoze is an experimental Linux desktop environment and application platform built around OpenGL, SDL3 and Wayland. Designed for performance, extensibility and native integration, it brings together desktop composition, graphics applications, web technologies and local AI capabilities.

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Core Features

The major building blocks of the GLDoze platform — developed in the open and evolving.

GPU-Accelerated Desktop

A native Wayland desktop environment developed around SDL3 and an OpenGL rendering pipeline.

Multi-GPU Support

Architecture supporting NVIDIA, Intel and AMD graphics hardware, with ongoing integration and compatibility work.

Native Applications

Integrated desktop applications and utilities built around shared rendering and window-management infrastructure.

Integrated Browser

CEF-based browser technology with native desktop integration.

GLML — 3D Web Technology

An experimental 3D markup and scripting system supporting interactive scenes, rendering and Lua-driven functionality.

Local AI Integration

An evolving local AI framework supporting chat, vision and agent-assisted desktop interaction.

GLDoze Applications

A growing ecosystem of native applications sharing the GLDoze rendering and window-management stack.

GLCommander File manager

A native file manager built directly on the GLDoze desktop stack.

GLDeck Audio player

A desktop audio player designed for the GLDoze environment.

GLTop Monitoring

System and GPU monitoring with a native desktop interface.

GLDoze Browser Web

An embedded web environment integrating CEF-based browsing into the desktop.

TechLobby Gaming

A lobby application oriented around the Spring RTS engine.

GLDoze Terminal Shell

A native terminal environment for the GLDoze desktop.

Shortcut Keys

Every chord below is handled by the desktop itself, so it works over terminals, browsers and native applications alike — whichever window has focus. The Interface, Desktop and Debug actions can be rebound from the panel menu's Keybinds editor, and a new binding applies immediately.

Everyday essentials

SuperF10: Exit GLDoze Desktop — ends the session and hands the machine back to your display manager (or the text console on a direct TTY login).
Ctrl`: Toggle the drop-down terminal — the grave/tilde key left of 1. It stays reachable even while the terminal itself has focus.
PrintScreen: Save a screenshot of the desktop. AltF12 is the alternate binding.
SuperSpace: Open the start menu (application launcher), with search and categories.
AltTab: Window switcher — hold Alt to cycle, release it to switch. ShiftAltTab cycles backwards.
CtrlAltTab: Window overview — every window on a grid plus the workspace strip; just type to filter.
SuperL: Lock the screen (GLDream screensaver with password entry).
SuperE: Open GLCommander, the native file manager.
SuperG: Open the GLAI agent bar.
Esc: Close the open menu or popup, or cancel an in-progress window move/resize grab.

Workspaces and windows

CtrlAltLeft / CtrlAltRight: Previous / next workspace.
CtrlAlt1–8: Jump straight to workspace 1–8.
CtrlAltShift1–8: Move the focused window to workspace 1–8.
CtrlAltUp: Maximize the focused window.
CtrlAltDown: Restore a maximized window.
CtrlTab / CtrlShiftTab: Cycle window focus forward / backward without a switcher overlay.
AltF2 / AltF3: Save / restore the current window layout.
Overview keys: Inside the overview: arrow keys move the selection, Enter opens, Delete or Backspace closes, CtrlLeft/Right sends the selected window to another workspace, PageUp/PageDown change workspace, Esc leaves.

Screen, camera and GLAI

AltPrintScreen: Inspect the focused window with GLAI — the capture is handed straight to the visual agent.
CtrlAltPrintScreen: Inspect the entire desktop with GLAI.
CtrlAltEsc: Cancel a running visual agent.
AltF9: Toggle screen recording.
ShiftAltF9: Cycle the screen recorder's audio source.
CtrlF9: Toggle recording on the focused camera view or video.
CtrlF12: Save a still frame from the focused camera view or video.

View, status and diagnostics

Ctrl0: Reset the global pan and zoom.
CtrlMiddle-drag: Pan the whole desktop UI.
CtrlF: Toggle the mini FPS viewport.
CtrlAlt`: Toggle the desktop status bar.
CtrlAltT: Toggle child-widget move/resize edit mode (shown as TRANS in the status bar).
ShiftF4: Toggle the debug overlay on the focused target — plain F4 belongs to the focused application.
AltV / AltP: Toggle vsync / print the available display modes.
Alt0: Toggle the DebugDraw panel; Alt1–9 toggle its categories — General, Gameplay, Rendering, AI, Pathfinding, Selection, Terrain, Networking and Aircraft.
AltR / AltB / AltD: Toggle the renderer, blending and the depth test.
AltK / AltM / AltJ: Toggle the keyboard, mouse and joystick info overlays.

Performance, media and demos

Alt= / Alt-: Increase / decrease the engine rate.
AltPageUp / AltPageDown: Increase / decrease the capture frame rate (Alt. and Alt, are equivalent).
AltHome / AltEnd: Decrease / increase the performance-update modulo.
Volume / Media: Volume up, down and mute, plus play/pause, stop, next and previous track, rewind and fast-forward — routed to the desktop media service.
CtrlShiftA / CtrlShiftS / CtrlShiftR: Launch the built-in Talon Fighters, Thunderstorm and Battle Tanks demo modes.

F1 belongs to the focused application — the old global help chord was retired. CtrlAltLeft/Right switches workspace, so tiling left and right has no live chord; maximize and restore remain.

Technical Overview

GLDoze targets Wayland for its native desktop; X11 applications are supported through XWayland.

C++ application developmentNative core and application tooling

SDL3Window, input and platform layer

OpenGL 4.6Primary rendering pipeline

WaylandDesktop and compositor integration

XWaylandCompatibility for supported X11 applications

Dynamic pluginsExtensible component architecture

GLML & Lua3D markup, scenes and scripting

Local AIOn-device chat, vision and agents

Open Source. Built for Experimentation.

GLDoze is being developed openly. Source hosting, issues, future releases and developer collaboration all live on the project's self-hosted Forgejo service.

The main source repository is gldoze/desktop, with organization-wide browsing at git.gldoze.de/gldoze.

Live commit statistics, recent activity and the maintained public roadmap are on the Development Progress page.

Go to the Git Host Development Progress

Get GLDoze

The installer needs curl (to download the release) and gpg (to verify its signature). On Debian or Ubuntu both are one command away: apt install curl gnupg.

Run the commands below from a terminal (console) on the target Linux machine. Both forms use su -c for root privileges and ask for your password.

Interactive Installation

The guided path: the bootstrap downloads the signed release, verifies it, installs everything, and gldoze-setup then opens the setup menu — dependencies, NVIDIA driver, display manager and session — with every step shown and confirmed before anything changes.

Step 1 — download, verify and install

su -c 'curl -fsSL https://www.gldoze.de/downloads/gldoze-desktop/get-gldoze.sh | bash'

Step 2 — open the setup menu

su -c gldoze-setup

Unattended Installation

One command for unattended machines: it installs the desktop exactly like the interactive path, then runs the default setup — missing dependencies, the newest compatible NVIDIA driver, the display manager and the session — with no further prompts. Nothing reboots; the final report tells you when a reboot is needed.

su -c 'bash -c "curl -fsSL https://www.gldoze.de/downloads/gldoze-desktop/get-gldoze.sh | bash && gldoze-setup --preset default --yes"'

Prefer to inspect first? Fetch get-gldoze.sh and run it yourself; full payloads and signatures live under /downloads/gldoze-desktop/.

Project Status

GLDoze is under active development. Components are moving quickly and not everything is production-ready.

Desktop environment and compositor integration in active development
Native applications evolving with the platform
Source publication and release packaging in preparation
Installation tooling and documentation being built out

Your System. Your Privacy. Your Rules.

GLDoze is built around performance, transparency, and user control. We believe your computer should serve you without unnecessary background activity, concealed surveillance, or hidden access mechanisms.

NO BLOAT

Designed to avoid unnecessary components, background services, and resource consumption.

NO SPYWARE

No intentional secret monitoring of users or concealed collection of their personal activity.

NO TELEMETRY

No hidden usage analytics or undisclosed reporting of personal system information to GLDoze developers.

NO BACKDOORS

No intentionally concealed mechanisms designed to bypass security protections or grant unauthorized access.

NO UNIVERSAL MASTER PASSWORDS

No secret universal developer credential for unlocking users' protected vaults or encrypted data.

These are engineering commitments, not a certification

Each principle is backed by published audit notes, regression checks and an honest list of what is verified, what was remediated and what remains open. The full Privacy & Security page explains how updates and network connections work, how local and remote AI differ, how credentials are protected, how to report a vulnerability, and the current verification status — including known limitations.

Read the Privacy & Security policy