Why Veshell
The desktop metaphor dates back to 1970: the screen as a desk, windows piled up like papers. It made sense to bring office workers to computers. Today we do everything on them, work, friends, films, games, and finding a window has become like searching for a document in a pile of papers.
We already know how to find our way: we remember where things are in a space, and we build a mental map of it. Veshell is made for that sense of direction. Everything is predictable, spatial and navigable.
Hence the name: Veshell is the contraction of vessel and shell. The shell you use your computer through, and the vessel that carries you across your digital world.
A map, not a desk
Everything lives on a 2D grid: rows are workspaces, columns are windows. A new app goes at the end of its row, a new workspace at the bottom. There's always an empty workspace waiting below, and empty ones clean themselves up. Group your apps by project, by theme, by whatever makes sense to you.
Move by direction
In Veshell you don't search for a window, you go to it. Everything stays exactly where you placed it: your browser left of your editor, your chat one workspace down. So getting somewhere is just a direction, left, right, up or down, and every move slides so you feel the way. After a few days you stop thinking about it, the way you reach for the light switch in the dark. It works the same from the keyboard, with the mouse or on a touchscreen, and controller support is on its way.
It remembers everything
Every layout decision is kept, even across reboots. A closed app leaves a placeholder in its place; click it and Veshell resumes your work: the same documents, and for a terminal the same folder and the same program running.
Quick errands in the Overview
For a quick calculation, a setting or a file, open the Overview: search apps, files or settings, and what you open there stays there, as an ephemeral tab that never disturbs your layout. Browse and preview files in place. Its dashboard, the Helm, gathers your media, audio and Bluetooth devices, network, notifications and live system monitoring.
A whole environment
- Multiple monitorsEach screen has its own workspaces; ultra-wide screens split into several.
- Floating modeFor the apps that need free placement, kept inside their tile.
- Lock screenPassword or fingerprint, locked before sleep.
- NotificationsRouted to where the app lives in your map.
- SettingsKeyboard, mouse, displays, theme colour and icons, searchable from the Overview.
- Screenshots and sharingScreenshot, screencast and file chooser portals.
- 20+ languagesFrom Arabic to Vietnamese.
- PrivateNo analytics, no phone-home.
Install it
- Arch / Manjaro (AUR)
yay -S veshell-bin· packages: veshell, veshell-bin or veshell-git- NixOS (flake)
nix run github:free-explorers/veshell- Fedora (COPR)
- Installation instructions
- openSUSE Tumbleweed, Slowroll, Leap 16 (OBS)
- Installation instructions
- Debian 13 · Ubuntu 26.04 (OBS)
- Installation instructions
Built in the open
Veshell is written in Rust and Flutter, released under the GPL-3.0, and funded by the Free Explorers. It's the successor to Material Shell. Source, issues and documentation are on GitHub; support its development on Open Collective.