· 4 min read
The app or the OS: two ways to run Novastart.
Try Novastart as an app in a window on the computer you have, or install Novastart OS on a PC of its own. What each one needs, and which to pick.
By Novastart
There are two ways to run Novastart. The app runs it in a window on the computer you have, and Novastart OS installs on a PC of its own.
Both give you the same infinite canvas. They differ in what they need, how quick they feel, and what they do to the machine you put them on. Here is each one, and how to choose.
Two ways in.
Novastart is a complete operating system: its desktop is the canvas, and it draws the screen itself. Running an operating system means giving it a computer, or giving it a window inside one, so that is the choice.
The app is the quick way to try it. It runs the full OS inside a window on Windows or an Intel Mac, and your desktop stays as it is. Novastart OS is the full package. It replaces what is on a PC, with nothing between the canvas and the screen, so it is faster and it is the whole experience. Start with the app for a first look. Pick Novastart OS for everyday use.
Either way the apps are the ones you already use. Gmail, Excel, WhatsApp, Notion and thirty more open as real windows, signed in as you, and any site opens in bundled Chrome. There are no plugins to add and nothing to import. And it is the same canvas in both: zoom from 5% to 1000%, windows that snap and pack into grids, a hundred undo steps on every canvas, and canvases that reopen exactly as you left them.
The app: a whole computer, in a window.
Download the app, open it, and Novastart starts in its window. Everything you have read about is in there: the canvas, the zoom, the apps as windows, the undo. Close the window and you are back on your old desktop, which was there all along. The app sits alongside it rather than replacing it, and you can go back whenever you like.
Two things to know. The first start takes longer than the ones after, because the first launch copies the OS image into a personal disk before it boots. And expect a little lag. It is a computer running inside your computer, so windows answer a beat later than they do on the OS. That is plenty for a look around. For everyday use, there is Novastart OS.
What the app needs.
The app runs on Windows 10 or 11, or on a Mac with an Intel chip. It needs 8 GB of RAM, about 32 GB of disk, and hardware virtualization turned on.
Hardware virtualization is what lets one computer run another inside it. It is a setting on your computer, and the app needs it switched on before Novastart can start. Those figures are for the app. Novastart OS comes with its own instructions in the download.
Novastart OS: the full experience, on its own PC.
Novastart OS installs on a PC as its operating system. Nothing sits between the canvas and the screen, so everything is quicker than in the app, and you get the whole experience. The desktop draws the screen itself, so forty windows zoom like one.
It is one download with everything in it: the OS, the drivers, and the instructions to put it on a PC. Once installed it keeps itself current. Updates install on their own, in the background.
One thing to be clear about: the install takes the whole machine. It replaces what is on the PC's disk, so use a PC you can give over to Novastart.
Already on Ubuntu.
Novastart OS is itself Ubuntu-based, so if the PC already runs Ubuntu there is a third path. A package adds Novastart to the desktop you have and leaves it in place. You get the canvas without giving up the machine, and you can go back to your old desktop whenever you like.
Which one to pick.
Pick the app if you want to look around on the computer you have, and you can live with a little lag. Pick Novastart OS if you want the full speed and the whole experience, and you have a PC to give it. Pick the package if that PC runs Ubuntu already. Can you go back? In two of the three cases, yes: the app sits alongside your old desktop, and the Ubuntu package leaves it in place. Novastart OS is the one that takes the PC.
Whichever you choose, your data lives on your machine, and nothing leaves it until you share a canvas. Sharing streams window to window, with no server in the middle. If you close something by mistake, undo it: a hundred steps per canvas, even closing an app.
Both downloads are on the install page. To see what you are getting into first, read why your work should never run out of room, or the infinite canvas page. The pricing page lists the plans.