https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/09/chimeraos-dev-announced-kazeta-a-new-linux-os-aimed-at-recreating-a-classic-console-experience/

https://kazeta.org/

A new passion project Linux distribution focused on a more console experience and DRM free gaming.

The distribution is designed to load games directly from an SD card or similar media, essentially treating the card as a game cartridge allowing you to just boot up and play. Also has tips on making labels for SD cards.

Right now there are some hurdles such as the steps needed to create your own game cards (they are working on a way to simplify this) and questions on if multiple games can be placed on an SD card to treat it like a multi cart.

GOG and Itch are mentioned directly though they are not involved, merely as options for DRM free games.

Overall an interesting idea that I'm sure people can have fun with from a hobbyist and nostalgic side or wanting games on some form of physical media but clearly not for everyone.

Unless your goal is to make some kind of Raspberry Pi ‘console’ or something similar, I honestly struggle to see the point of this. Why would anyone use it instead of a standard Linux distro or Windows, which can do the same thing but with more functionality and flexibility? Neat, I guess, but also a bit pointless.

It seems very interesting. I will give it a ride just for the sake of science. Bonus points for actually mention GOG and DRM-free videogames!

I guess there's plenty of people who would be interested, from a kid's "console" to game colectors. With the popularity of handheld computers on the rise might actually dethrone Batocera Linux as the best "gaming" OS. Heck, recently on the forum there was one user asking just that. Let me dig that thread.

It may be quite difficult to setup though, unless the devs create some sort of framework like steam-input, even then it might take too much effort to setup games that are not controller ready.

Thanks for sharing :)

Edit: found the thread
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_on_micro_sd_card

Edit n2:
I wonder how it will handle sd card removal without eventuall data corruption...

It seems focused on giving that feeling of popping in a game cart and just playing with no need to let a computer startup and going into a client, account, or folder. Just insert a piece of physical media and begin playing.

I have seen places in the community that love making labels and such for custom DVD's and such so there is a market and the simplicity would be appealing for those that just want to turn a system on and just start playing a game.

Though the hurdles right no require some knowledge in creating the device and making the physical media the system can read it is a bit counter intuitive at the moment since you need to be knowledgeable to setup this simplicity.

I can appreciate the effort and understand wanting a physical representation of your game collection though.

(Hope this doesn't post, got the gogbear error page last time I tried)

That actually looks pretty cool.

I tried RetroPie several years ago but got put off by the general jankyness of it when it would switch between a GUI and TUI. More recently I switched to Batocera which I found to be so much more superior.

However, I tend to use RaspberryPi's for this sort of stuff, not a full blown machine in the traditional sense. So from that perspective, amok's comment makes sense.

Ultimately though, I'd probably get cheesed off with needing to swap out the "cartridges" (as well as having to create them I suppose) when my fickle mind wants to hop between games. But who knows.

Interesting project, will keep an eye on it.

Which one is it based on? Do they bother to say?

[Checks].

Nope, not on the main website. And wowzers, those are some insane, if true promises.

It's Docker and Arch based, by the way.

I guess it'll be good for cute hobby projects, but I could already smell some interface issues.

Yesterday had some time and the weather was nice so took the system for a ride. My first impressions is that it's really barebones at the moment, something more akin to a proof of concept.

The good:
It works :)
It actually works!
Holy crap, it definetely works!!!!
Mostly.
I was able to get a couple of native Linux games to run just fine without any hiccup.
The system works on external storage, although there was a message that was not recomended.
Played a bit of Hearthlands with KB+mouse just fine, it's not gamepad only.
With no game detected the system opens a very cool "save game" manager, while very barebones with the only option being to delete any save, is still very neat, as is the working concept.
The documentation provided on the github page is very clear to a point that a idiot like me can understand.

The bad:
I couldn't get any Windows games to run, it would display a message stating something along the lines of "the medium has been removed". Not sure if it's related to my setup but native Linux works fine.
Windows games need Wine of course, they provide a 1.5GB package called "Windows Runtimes" wich must be downloaded and placed inside the memory card alongside the Windows game. I do understand that placing it inside the SD card has the advantage of creating a "self contained" game with everything it needs to be played, even years from now. However, that makes the system even more slow that it is already and copy 1.5GB to a slow SD card multiple times gets old really quick.
Couldn't find any way to reboot or shutdown once the system boots up. I thought that exiting the game would shutdown but the system always hangs.

The ugly:
Wich bring us to the way the system actually works, once it boots it looks for a determined file inside the SD card with some parametres to start the game, like executable path, name and type of game. There is no way to unmount the SD card and change it, the computer must always be shutdown and restarted to change the SD card, making the process excrutiating slow. Coupled with the fact that Wine libraries are loaded from the SD card itself, it's not uncommon to see a game attempting to boot (in my case with an error) after 2-5 minutes. It's not the end of the world but not very practical in real world.
The system must be installed before use. Unlike, say, Batocera where one create the pen drive and is ready to use, with Kazeta there's the need to burn the ISO on a pen drive and then install it on a hard drive. No live test either.
Only 1 game per SD card. Works as intended but hurts me seing all that space going to wate O.o
There's no possibility for installing a game, only copy a folder from a previous install. I don't have a issue with it but in some cases it's not possible to run a game without setting some registry keys, would be nice to provide a installer option. The SD card must be setup on another computer (not necessarily another physical computer per se but another system, although it shloud be doable from the command line), would be nice to provide some sort of interface to be able to create the SD card from Kazeta itself, preferably with a nice GUI, something like a file explorer and the ability to run the installer provided by GOG would be awsome.


My test setup was a bit on the slow side, with a ryzen 4500u laptop running the system on a old and slow 2.5" hard drive over USB3.0, the memory card was not fast either, it's a very old 8GB card.

If it seems that I'm a bit to critical, that's because I actually love the concept and would like to see it expanded. Not sure if would use it myself, there's must be plenty of people interested though.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5j7rRC8wIDs

A quick video demonstrating the OS.

He did get Fallout 4 working on it.

Managing small pieces of physical media sounds fun/appealing. I'm not of fan of the storage it takes to build a collection of Nintendo games or any console games in general. The switch had the right idea, and I like that there could be a viable Linux OS for gaming.

My only concern is can it really accomplish things I would want to do with a Linux machine or is it being re-branded, repackaged, what have you.

I'm unclear as to what the benefits are since I mostly game and only know windows.

Maybe it's because I have no nostalgia for 90s consoles, but I don't think I get the point of this. Why would I want to turn my PC into a console? How am I supposed to do anything else with that I use my PC for? Am I supposed to get a separate PC just to turn it into a console ... to play games I presumably could already play on my normal PC? I mean, I like physical media, but couldn't I just store my games on SD cards anyway, if that's what I decided to do? Am I missing something, or is this just a sort of goofy experiment for the sake of it?

I think it can expose people to use Linux as an alternative to Windows. Netting gamers into an arguably better Operating System.

Yes, you are supposed to have a separate PC just to turn into a console, hence why it was clarified in the OP that it primarily for hobbyists and enthusiasts. But what's the point... you need to think more communally perhaps, but if you don't have that nostalgia for consoles but instead, like myself, sequester yourself in some dark and lonely corner then it might not come naturally. I also have no need for a project such as this.
But, it seems like an interesting enough experiment for people who once enjoyed the console experience (and actually have friends in real life), but dislike having to either purchase or have creating clutter the many different consoles and peripherals required to play a wide variety of games, and/or dislike how the console market is currently "progressing": away from actual ownership, reduction in build quality. etc. The Switch line from Nintendo is easy prey, with its pathetic joycons and cartridges which may actually just be game-key cards. Also, eventually, the controllers for my old consoles will cease to be manufactured, spare parts become unavailable, and the data on the physical medium eventually rendered corrupt. At least with projects like this, I can keep replenishing and refreshing everything more affordably.
In other words, it's just another way for users to control and tailor the experience to their liking. But this project seems like it's in its infancy, and its flaws need ironing out.

This simple feature:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/gog_galaxy_20_big_picture_mode_gui_with_gamepad_support
could work much better than such backbreaking splits :)