JELOS: An immutable Distro for portable gaming devices

JELOS: An immutable Distro for portable gaming devices

When it comes to GNU/Linux Distributions, the Linuxverse is full of many of them for the most different purposes. There are both general purpose ones for average home and office users, and specific ones for students and educators. And also, for scientists and researchers, professionals in the multimedia field, IT Security professionals, Software Developers and many others.

Also, there are many different GNU/Linux Distributions for the most varied types of computing devices. That is, for the classic and well-known home and office computers, for servers, supercomputers, pocket devices, IoT devices, and many others. But, today we will focus on an interesting GNU/Linux Distro created by a small community of enthusiasts, whose name is «JELOS», and which is intended to be an immutable distribution for portable gaming devices. What comes to contribute a fabulous grain of sand to the Gaming field on Linux. And it will surely be very useful for those Linux gamers who usually enjoy retro games from their computers and any other device they can.

WinesapOS: A GNU/Linux Distro for SteamOS-style games

But, before starting to read this publication about what the interesting and alternative GNU/Linux Gaming Distro “JELOS”, we recommend the previous related post with another similar and well-known one:

Related article:

WinesapOS: A portable GNU/Linux Distro to play anywhere

JELOS: A custom-developed community Gaming Distribution

What is JELOS?

According to Official website of this free and open development, it is briefly described as follows:

Just Enough Linux Operating System (JELOS) is an immutable Linux distribution for portable gaming devices developed by a small community of enthusiasts. Our goal is to produce an operating system that has the features and capabilities we need, and to have fun while developing it.

While, in his official section of GitHub following:

JELOS is a Linux distribution that is made up of many open source components. Components are provided under their respective licenses. This distribution includes components licensed for non-commercial use only.

Features

At present, JELOS goes for his current and stable downloadable version numerous 20240212, dated February 12, 2024. And as of today, it presents the following 10 general and notable characteristics:

1. Support for playing music and video.
2. Support Bluetooth controller and audio.
3. Integrated support for scraping and retrologs.
4. VPN support with Wireguard, Tailscale and ZeroTier.
5. In-game touch support on supported devices.
6. Support for HDMI audio and video output and USB audio.
7. Fine-grained control for battery life or performance.
8. The ability to play integrated into local and remote network between devices.
9. A growing and very active community made up of developers and users.
10. The ability to sync device-to-device and device-to-cloud with Syncthing and rclone.

Furthermore, and something very important, is that its developers affirm that anyone who wants is free to share nowadapt JELOS according to your wishes and needs. But, under the limits of the license Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International.

JELOS Compatible Devices

To date, this GNU/Linux distribution is compatible With the followings portable video game devices with ARM, AMD and Intel chips:

1. Anbernicus: RG351P/M, RG351V, RG353P, RG353M, RG353V, RG353VS, RG503, RG552 and Win600.
2. AOKZOE: A1 Pro.
3. Atari: VCS.
4. AYANEO: Air, Air Pro, Air Plus, AYANEO 2 and AYANEO 2S.
5. Ayn: Loki Zero and Loki Max.
6. GPD: Win 4 and Win Max 2 (2022).
7. Hardcernel: Odroid Go Advance, Odroid Go Super, Odroid Go Ultra and N2/N2+/N2L.
8. Indianroid: Not going.
9. Orange Pi: Orange Pi 5.
10. Powkiddy: RGB10 Max 3 Pro, RGB30, and x55.

Screen shots

Our Top of Known GNU/Linux Gamers Distros

Active for 2023/2024

1. batocera linux: Stand-alone base built using Buildroot and updated to 2023.
2. Bazzite: Based on Fedora and is updated until 2023.
3. Chimera OS: Based on SteamOS and is updated until 2023.
4. Dragger OS: Based on Ubuntu and is updated until 2023.
5. Fedora Games: Based on Fedora and updated to 2023.
6. GroovyArcade: Based on Arch and updated to the year 2023.
7. Lakka: Based on LibreELEC and is updated until 2023.
8. Linux Console: Based on LFS and is updated until 2023, with a version in development.
9. Makululu Linux GameR: Based on Makululu Linux and updated until 2023.
10. Nobara Linux: Based on Fedora and is updated until 2023.
11. PikaOS: Based on Ubuntu and updated to 2023.
12. recalbox: Independent base through LFS and is updated until 2023.
13. OS Regatta: Based on OpenSUSE and updated to 2023.
14. RetroPie: Based on Raspbian and is updated until 2022.
15. Solus: Independent base through LFS and is updated until 2023.
16. SparkyLinux GameOver: Based on Sparky and updated to the year 2023.
17. Voyager Live GS: Based on Ubuntu with support until 2023.
18. Ultimate Edition Linux: Based on Ubuntu and is updated until 2022.

Inactive or abandoned

1. game drift linux
2. Manjaro Gaming Edition
3. SteamOS
4. super gamer
5. Ubuntu Game Pack

And if none of the previous Gamers Distros suits your needs or the requirements of your equipment, there is always the possibility of adapting your own current GNU/Linux Distro based on Debian to run your favorite games. And for this purpose we recommend this old tutorial so that you can optimize it and enjoy your favorite games on your current GNU/Linux Distro: Turn your GNU / Linux into a quality Distro Gamer.

Related article:

ChimeraOS: Ideal GNU / Linux Distro for computer games with Steam

Summary

In short, it is interesting, useful, innovative and versatile. GNU/Linux distribution focused on the Gaming field on portable video game devices called «JELOS» It covers very well a sector little explored and exploited by most Linux Distributions. Sector, which is mostly known for the fame of the Steam Deck with SteamOS. However, it is very likely that there are other similar developments that are equally or more poorly known. So, if you are one of those who is passionate about this Gaming field on Linux, on portable devices or retro game consoles, we invite you to let us know their name, via comments, for the knowledge and enjoyment of our entire Linux IT Community.

Lastly, remember visit our «homepage» in Spanish. Or, in any other language (just by adding 2 letters to the end of our current URL, for example: ar, de, en, fr, ja, pt and ru, among many others) to find out more current content. Additionally, we invite you to join our Official Telegram channel to read and share more news, guides and tutorials from our website. And also, the next Alternative Telegram channel to learn more about the Linuxverse in general.