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Welcome to AXEM-SX

AXEM-SX is a sovereignty-focused Linux distribution based on openSUSE Leap 16.0. It is built and maintained by Golda-Global Inc., a civic-software company.

Read time: ~5 minutes.

This page is the door. If you read nothing else, read this.

What AXEM-SX is

A workstation operating system designed around three quiet principles:

  1. Your machine answers to you. Administration of your computer stays on your computer. The Control Hub, YaST, and Cockpit all run locally — no cloud account, no remote console, no phone-home.
  2. Deliberate over default. Every package, every menu entry, every default setting was chosen on purpose. Things that distract have been removed. Things that matter have been pulled forward.
  3. Calm, civic, durable. AXEM-SX is meant to last. The visual language is restrained ("Wood & Gold"). The release cadence is patient. The infrastructure is independent.

It is not a niche curio. It runs on the same kernel, with the same package manager (zypper), and the same rpm-based ecosystem as any other openSUSE Leap system. The standard SUSE knowledge applies. The standard openSUSE Build Service (OBS) packages install. What's different is what we chose — and what we chose to leave out.

Who it's for

You are... AXEM-SX is for you because...
A Linux user tired of churn The base is openSUSE Leap. Stable, slow-moving, predictable. No surprise rolling updates.
A small-business operator Local administration. No SaaS lock-in. Your data stays on disks you can hold.
A creator, technical or not Soft Depot brings curated tools forward. The one-command install (axem-sx-pro-full) gives you a complete creator workstation in a single line.
A reviver of older hardware The Light edition runs respectably on x86_64-v2 hardware from the last decade — without nagging you about subscriptions.
Privacy-conscious No telemetry. No analytics ping. No "improve your experience" toggles to find and disable.
Bilingual (EN/FR) First-class French support throughout the system and this documentation.

It is not for you if you want:

  • A bleeding-edge rolling release. Use openSUSE Tumbleweed instead.
  • A heavily customized GNOME-only experience. AXEM-SX defaults to KDE Plasma; GNOME and LXQt are options, but Plasma is where polish lives.
  • An enterprise-managed deployment with central policy. AXEM-SX is for the operator who is the policy.

What you get out of the box

The current release is AXEM-SX 1.0.1 (Codename: Gold), available in three editions:

Edition For Default desktop Slim ISO size
Pro Workstation, creator, developer KDE Plasma ~2.4 GB
Light Older hardware, focused work LXQt ~1.6 GB
Gold Reference build, full curated stack KDE Plasma ~2.6 GB

Every ISO ships slim. Once installed, a single command pulls in the full curated set for that edition:

bash sudo zypper install axem-sx-pro-full # for Pro sudo zypper install axem-sx-light-full # for Light sudo zypper install axem-sx-gold-full # for Gold

Read The One-Command Full Experience for what each meta-package brings in.

What makes AXEM-SX different — three things

1. The AXEM-SX Control Hub

A native Qt6 administration application that bridges your desktop environment (KDE, LXQt, GNOME) with the system underneath. It is the first surface a new user sees. It does not replace YaST or Cockpit; it sits above them, surfacing the daily controls and pointing to the deeper tools when they're needed. Read the Control Hub guide in Daily Use.

2. Desktop Snapshot Manager (v0.9 — early)

A module of the Control Hub that lets you roam between desktop environments without losing your data, identity, or installed packages. KDE today, GNOME tomorrow, LXQt for a quick session on the old laptop. One AXEM-SX, many faces.

3. Boh-IO (staged, returning)

A local AI assistant that runs on your machine, against your terminal sessions, with no data leaving the box. Boh-IO is currently a quiet TUI experience while we sharpen the model and the docs. It will return to the foreground when it's ready to lead.

See also

Welcome aboard.