ShapeBit Docs

Applications

The OS combines a small set of built-in apps with a wide selection of third-party software and support for portable AppImage apps.

Built-in Apps

These apps ship as part of the OS image itself. Every user gets the same versions, and they update and roll back together with the OS:

  • Settings
  • Files
  • Apps
  • Text
  • Terminal
  • Diagnostics

Each one has a defined scope, so it is clear which app owns a given task:

  • Files handles archives, thumbnails, and a limited quick preview. Full PDF and image viewers, audio and video players, office suites, scanning apps, and browsers are installed separately as user apps.
  • Diagnostics owns process and resource monitoring.
  • Settings owns disk, storage, firmware, device, and printing configuration.
  • The shell (not an app) owns screenshots and screen recording.

Installing Apps

The Apps installer shows exactly two sources:

  • Flathub, for third-party applications.
  • The OS repository, for apps and integration packages that OS itself builds and maintains.

The OS repository may contain own binaries, but it never stores, mirrors, or redistributes a third party’s binaries — those always come from Flathub or the vendor directly.

Adding other Flatpak remotes is possible, but it is an advanced, per-user option that most users won’t need.

Recommendations is a manually curated, signed list maintained by OS. Nothing outside the OS image’s built-in apps is preinstalled — every recommended app still has to be installed.

Internet Browsers

On first login, an online user can pick a default browser from:

  1. Google Chrome
  2. Chromium
  3. Firefox
  4. GNOME Web

Nothing is preselected, and the step can be skipped, including while offline. The chosen browser installs into that user’s Flatpak installation and becomes their default.

How each browser is packaged:

  • Chrome — downloaded directly from Google and wrapped locally as a per-user Flatpak.
  • Chromium — built from a fixed set of Fedora-signed RPMs (including split runtime packages), downloaded directly from Fedora and wrapped locally.
  • Firefox and GNOME Web — installed from their regular Flathub packages.

Portable Apps (AppImage)

AppImage is a separate, per-user way to run portable apps outside the Flatpak catalog.

Opening an AppImage offers three choices: Run once, Add to Apps, or Cancel.

OS watches Downloads, Desktop, and any directories a user adds explicitly. It detects new AppImage files by their actual content, not their file extension, and shows one prompt per new file.