OpenAI's new Linux app arrives with a button for importing your other agent's setup
OpenAI shipped a desktop app for Linux in preview on 11 August, bundling ChatGPT, ChatGPT Work and Codex as .deb and .rpm packages for Ubuntu 24.04 and 26.04, Debian 13 and Fedora 43 and 44, on x64 and Arm. The installer adds an OpenAI repository so the app updates alongside the rest of the system. It also carries an agent importer that pulls projects, chats, skills and plugins across from other agent harnesses, with a reviewable record of what came in.
Why it mattersAnthropic's Claude desktop beta reached Linux at the end of June, so on platform coverage this is a catch-up release. The importer is the part that has nothing to do with Linux: it assumes developers now have an agent set-up worth carrying, and treats the cost of switching as the thing to attack. Three of today's stories are about the same layer — the harness, not the model, is where the fight has moved.
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