diff --git a/scripts/installer.sh b/scripts/installer.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..488690873
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/installer.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,384 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Copyright (c) 2021 Tailscale Inc & AUTHORS All rights reserved.
+# Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
+# license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+#
+# This script detects the current operating system, and installs
+# Tailscale according to that OS's conventions.
+
+set -eu
+
+# All the code is wrapped in a main function that gets called at the
+# bottom of the file, so that a truncated partial download doesn't end
+# up executing half a script.
+main() {
+	# Step 1: detect the current linux distro, version, and packaging system.
+	#
+	# We rely on a combination of 'uname' and /etc/os-release to find
+	# an OS name and version, and from there work out what
+	# installation method we should be using.
+	#
+	# The end result of this step is that the following three
+	# variables are populated, if detection was successful.
+	OS=""
+	VERSION=""
+	PACKAGETYPE=""
+
+	if [ -f /etc/os-release ]; then
+		# /etc/os-release populates a number of shell variables. We care about the following:
+		#  - ID: the short name of the OS (e.g. "debian", "freebsd")
+		#  - VERSION_ID: the numeric release version for the OS, if any (e.g. "18.04")
+		#  - VERSION_CODENAME: the codename of the OS release, if any (e.g. "buster")
+		. /etc/os-release
+		case "$ID" in
+			ubuntu)
+				OS="$ID"
+				VERSION="$VERSION_ID"
+				PACKAGETYPE="apt"
+				;;
+			debian)
+				OS="$ID"
+				VERSION="$VERSION_CODENAME"
+				PACKAGETYPE="apt"
+				;;
+			raspbian)
+				OS="$ID"
+				VERSION="$VERSION_CODENAME"
+				PACKAGETYPE="apt"
+				;;
+			centos)
+				OS="$ID"
+				VERSION="$VERSION_ID"
+				PACKAGETYPE="dnf"
+				if [ "$VERSION" = "7" ]; then
+					PACKAGETYPE="yum"
+				fi
+				;;
+			rhel)
+				OS="$ID"
+				VERSION="$(echo "$VERSION_ID" | cut -f1 -d.)"
+				PACKAGETYPE="dnf"
+				;;
+			fedora)
+				OS="$ID"
+				VERSION=""
+				PACKAGETYPE="dnf"
+				;;
+			amzn)
+				OS="amazon-linux"
+				VERSION="$VERSION_ID"
+				PACKAGETYPE="yum"
+				;;
+			opensuse-leap)
+				OS="opensuse"
+				VERSION="leap/$VERSION_ID"
+				PACKAGETYPE="zypper"
+				;;
+			opensuse-tumbleweed)
+				OS="opensuse"
+				VERSION="tumbleweed"
+				PACKAGETYPE="zypper"
+				;;
+ 			arch)
+				OS="$ID"
+				VERSION="" # rolling release
+				PACKAGETYPE="pacman"
+				;;
+			manjaro)
+				OS="$ID"
+				VERSION="" # rolling release
+				PACKAGETYPE="pacman"
+				;;
+			alpine)
+				OS="$ID"
+				VERSION="$VERSION_ID"
+				PACKAGETYPE="apk"
+				;;
+			nixos)
+				echo "Please add Tailscale to your NixOS configuration directly:"
+				echo
+				echo "services.tailscale.enable = true;"
+				exit 1
+				;;
+			void)
+				OS="$ID"
+				VERSION="" # rolling release
+				PACKAGETYPE="xbps"
+				;;
+			gentoo)
+				OS="$ID"
+				VERSION="" # rolling release
+				PACKAGETYPE="emerge"
+				;;
+			freebsd)
+				OS="$ID"
+				VERSION="$(echo "$VERSION_ID" | cut -f1 -d.)"
+				PACKAGETYPE="pkg"
+				;;
+			# TODO: wsl?
+			# TODO: synology? qnap?
+		esac
+	fi
+
+	# If we failed to detect something through os-release, consult
+	# uname and try to infer things from that.
+	if [ -z "$OS" ]; then
+		if type uname >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+			case "$(uname)" in
+				FreeBSD)
+					# FreeBSD before 12.2 doesn't have
+					# /etc/os-release, so we wouldn't have found it in
+					# the os-release probing above.
+					OS="freebsd"
+					VERSION="$(freebsd-version | cut -f1 -d.)"
+					PACKAGETYPE="pkg"
+					;;
+				OpenBSD)
+					OS="openbsd"
+					VERSION="$(uname -r)"
+					PACKAGETYPE=""
+					;;
+				Darwin)
+					OS="macos"
+					VERSION="$(sw_vers -productVersion | cut -f1-2 -d.)"
+					PACKAGETYPE="appstore"
+					;;
+				Linux)
+					OS="other-linux"
+					VERSION=""
+					PACKAGETYPE=""
+					;;
+			esac
+		fi
+	fi
+
+	# Step 2: having detected an OS we support, is it one of the
+	# versions we support?
+	OS_UNSUPPORTED=
+	case "$OS" in
+		ubuntu)
+			if [ "$VERSION" != "16.04" ] && \
+			   [ "$VERSION" != "18.04" ] && \
+			   [ "$VERSION" != "19.10" ] && \
+			   [ "$VERSION" != "20.04" ] && \
+			   [ "$VERSION" != "20.10" ] && \
+			   [ "$VERSION" != "21.04" ]
+			then
+				OS_UNSUPPORTED=1
+			fi
+		;;
+		debian)
+			if [ "$VERSION" != "stretch" ] && \
+			   [ "$VERSION" != "buster" ] && \
+			   [ "$VERSION" != "bullseye" ] && \
+			   [ "$VERSION" != "sid" ]
+			then
+				OS_UNSUPPORTED=1
+			fi
+		;;
+		raspbian)
+			if [ "$VERSION" != "buster" ]
+			then
+				OS_UNSUPPORTED=1
+			fi
+		;;
+		centos)
+			if [ "$VERSION" != "7" ] && \
+			   [ "$VERSION" != "8" ]
+			then
+				OS_UNSUPPORTED=1
+			fi
+		;;
+		rhel)
+			if [ "$VERSION" != "8" ]
+			then
+				OS_UNSUPPORTED=1
+			fi
+		;;
+		amazon-linux)
+			if [ "$VERSION" != "2" ]
+			then
+				OS_UNSUPPORTED=1
+			fi
+		;;
+		opensuse)
+			if [ "$VERSION" != "leap/15.1" ] && \
+			   [ "$VERSION" != "leap/15.2" ] && \
+			   [ "$VERSION" != "tumbleweed" ]
+			then
+				OS_UNSUPPORTED=1
+			fi
+			;;
+		arch)
+			# Rolling release, no version checking needed.
+			;;
+		manjaro)
+			# Rolling release, no version checking needed.
+			;;
+		alpine)
+			# All versions supported, no version checking needed.
+			# TODO: is that true? When was tailscale packaged?
+			;;
+		void)
+			# Rolling release, no version checking needed.
+			;;
+		gentoo)
+			# Rolling release, no version checking needed.
+			;;
+		freebsd)
+			if [ "$VERSION" != "12" ] && \
+			   [ "$VERSION" != "13" ]
+			then
+				OS_UNSUPPORTED=1
+			fi
+			;;
+		openbsd)
+			OS_UNSUPPORTED=1
+			;;
+		macos)
+			# We delegate macOS installation to the app store, it will
+			# perform version checks for us.
+			;;
+		other-linux)
+			OS_UNSUPPORTED=1
+			;;
+		*)
+			OS_UNSUPPORTED=1
+			;;
+	esac
+	if [ "$OS_UNSUPPORTED" = "1" ]; then
+		case "$OS" in
+			other-linux)
+				echo "Couldn't determine what kind of Linux is running."
+				echo "You could try the static binaries at:"
+				echo "https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/#static"
+				;;
+			"")
+				echo "Couldn't determine what operating system you're running."
+				;;
+			*)
+				echo "$OS $VERSION isn't supported by this script yet."
+				;;
+		esac
+		echo
+		echo "If you'd like us to support your system better, please email support@tailscale.com"
+		echo "and tell us what OS you're running."
+		echo
+		echo "Please include the following information we gathered from your system:"
+		echo
+		echo "OS=$OS"
+		echo "VERSION=$VERSION"
+		echo "PACKAGETYPE=$PACKAGETYPE"
+		if type uname >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+			echo "UNAME=$(uname -a)"
+		else
+			echo "UNAME="
+		fi
+		echo
+		if [ -f /etc/os-release ]; then
+			cat /etc/os-release
+		else
+			echo "No /etc/os-release"
+		fi
+		exit 1
+	fi
+
+	# Step 3: work out if we can run privileged commands, and if so,
+	# how.
+	CAN_ROOT=
+	SUDO=
+	if [ "$(id -u)" = 0 ]; then
+		CAN_ROOT=1
+		SUDO=""
+	elif type sudo >/dev/null; then
+		CAN_ROOT=1
+		SUDO="sudo"
+	elif type doas >/dev/null; then
+		CAN_ROOT=1
+		SUDO="doas"
+	fi
+	if [ "$CAN_ROOT" != "1" ]; then
+		echo "This installer needs to run commands as root."
+		echo "We tried looking for 'sudo' and 'doas', but couldn't find them."
+		echo "Either re-run this script as root, or set up sudo/doas."
+		exit 1
+	fi
+
+	# Step 3: run the installation.
+	echo "Installing Tailscale for $OS $VERSION, using method $PACKAGETYPE"
+	case "$PACKAGETYPE" in
+		apt)
+			# TODO: use newfangled per-repo signature scheme
+			set -x
+			curl -fsSL "https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/$OS/$VERSION.gpg" | $SUDO apt-key add -
+			curl -fsSL "https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/$OS/$VERSION.list" | $SUDO tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tailscale.list
+			$SUDO apt-get update
+			$SUDO apt-get install tailscale
+			set +x
+		;;
+		yum)
+			set -x
+			$SUDO yum install yum-utils
+			$SUDO yum-config-manager --add-repo "https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/$OS/$VERSION/tailscale.repo"
+			$SUDO yum install tailscale
+			$SUDO systemctl enable --now tailscaled
+			set +x
+		;;
+		dnf)
+			set -x
+			$SUDO dnf config-manager --add-repo "https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/$OS/$VERSION/tailscale.repo"
+			$SUDO dnf install tailscale
+			$SUDO systemctl enable --now tailscaled
+			set +x
+		;;
+		zypper)
+			set -x
+			$SUDO zypper ar -g -r "https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/$OS/$VERSION/tailscale.repo"
+			$SUDO zypper ref
+			$SUDO zypper in tailscale
+			$SUDO systemctl enable --now tailscaled
+			set +x
+			;;
+		pacman)
+			set -x
+			$SUDO pacman -S tailscale
+			$SUDO systemctl enable --now tailscaled
+			set +x
+			;;
+		apk)
+			set -x
+			$SUDO apk add tailscale
+			$SUDO rc-update add tailscale
+			set +x
+			;;
+		xbps)
+			set -x
+			$SUDO xbps-install tailscale
+			set +x
+			;;
+		emerge)
+			set -x
+			$SUDO emerge net-vpn/tailscale
+			set +x
+			;;
+		appstore)
+			set -x
+			open "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tailscale/id1475387142"
+			set +x
+			;;
+		*)
+			echo "unexpected: unknown package type $PACKAGETYPE"
+			exit 1
+			;;
+	esac
+
+	echo "Installation complete! Log in to start using Tailscale by running:"
+	echo
+	if [ -z "$SUDO" ]; then
+		echo "tailscale up"
+	else
+		echo "$SUDO tailscale up"
+	fi
+}
+
+main