For decades, the debate over which operating system offers the most user-friendly, performance-driven environment has simmered, with Linux frequently pitched as the ideal alternative for those disenchanted with the state of Windows. But migrations from one ecosystem to another remain rare; deep muscle memory, decades of UI design, and practical inertia keep most users well-entrenched. It’s in this context that AnduinOS emerges—a relatively new Linux remix crafted by a Microsoft engineer, blending the familiar face of Windows 11 with Ubuntu’s modern heart, and in the process putting a new spin on what “approachable Linux” could mean for an entire swath of the world’s PC users.
AnduinOS stands apart not merely by virtue of its technical tweaks but by the story behind its creation. Developed as a side project by Anduin Xue, a Chinese engineer at Microsoft, AnduinOS is not a corporate-backed attempt at Linux world domination, but rather the ambitious experiment of a single developer bridging two worlds: the power, openness, and flexibility of Linux, with the accessibility and polish that characterizes recent versions of Windows.
This origin story is critical. It puts AnduinOS in a unique category—neither a sprawling corporation’s attempt to “own” the desktop Linux experience nor a generic, quick-and-dirty respin. Rather, it’s an intimate experiment—one that takes cues from both sides of the OS divide. Xue’s day job at Microsoft gives him a uniquely inside perspective, allowing him to identify precisely where Linux repels Windows users, and potentially, how to soften that friction.
This transformation from GNOME’s typically minimalist, somewhat abstract design to a fully “Win 11-flavored” environment is achieved through the careful curation of 18 GNOME shell extensions and a custom Windows-esque theme. This reliance on upstream GNOME—with custom tweaks rather than full forks—means AnduinOS maintains a certain agility; it can remain close to Ubuntu’s release cadence while still offering something distinct.
However, this is a double-edged sword. While extensions allow for rapid iteration and the layering of new features, they’re also prone to breaking with upstream GNOME updates. The GNOME team is aware of the headaches extensions can cause maintainers and users, and ongoing efforts aim to improve extension stability. For now, AnduinOS’s reliance on so many extensions could lead to upgrade headaches as GNOME continues its brisk development pace, especially on interim, non-LTS Ubuntu releases.
This attention to internationalization isn’t just about attracting Chinese users; it’s an indicator of the project’s professional DNA. Corporate software is often judged by how seamlessly it “just works” in any region, and AnduinOS’s documentation and meticulous approach to language support ensure it’s usable by a broader cross-section of global users from day one.
This minimalism carries through to the preinstalled apps. Out of the box, AnduinOS comes with a handful of GNOME’s basic tools: image and document viewers, a simple calculator, media players, and a BitTorrent client. No office suite, no email client, no messaging tools—just the essentials. Clearly, Xue is betting that most users already lean heavily on web apps, and those who need more will appreciate the clean slate.
This “less is more” philosophy might irk users who want a richly featured OS immediately after installation. Yet, it meshes well with a growing Linux ethos: ship the basics, let users install only what they need (with one major caveat around app ecosystems, discussed below).
AnduinOS decisively leaves Snap behind, instead embracing Flatpak—an alternative universal package format gaining favor on distributions like Fedora. The GNOME Software app store in AnduinOS is configured to show only Flatpaks, making for a more curated and (arguably) less fragmented user experience. For users wanting the “latest and greatest” versions of their favorite applications, this is largely a win: Flatpak recipes tend to be up-to-date, and their sandboxed nature is increasingly popular with developers and users alike.
However, the system itself continues to use traditional .deb packages for core software—including Mozilla Firefox—eschewing the default Snap version shipped with recent Ubuntu builds. No Flatpaks are installed by default; the idea is that users will add them as needed. This approach can increase disk usage for those who install many apps, as Flatpaks include their dependencies, but the trade-off is easier updating and greater consistency.
Boot times, resource usage, and responsiveness are all comfortably within what users expect from a modern OS. The familiar look and feel make acclimatization quick, especially for those leaping from Windows 7/10 hardware now disqualified from official Windows 11 upgrades.
Importantly, the roadmap is public. Xue has committed to AnduinOS 1.5 being based on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, ensuring a clear path for users who want security and stability without jumping from interim release to interim release. This sort of proactive communication is a marker, again, of professional-grade thinking—something that even some larger Linux distributions lack.
So what sets AnduinOS apart?
On the technical front, AnduinOS’s approach—sticking close to upstream repositories and minimizing custom code—reduces the surface area for security regressions, making it comparable (from a systemic perspective) to running Ubuntu with some third-party GNOME extensions. The decision to avoid Snap reduces attack surface introduced by Canonical’s proprietary components, and sticking to the vetted Flathub repository for Flatpaks further mitigates third-party risk.
Xue’s reaction to this spike in attention has been humility and transparency—a hallmark, perhaps, of his professional background. Rather than over-promising, he’s quick to point out the project’s limitations, the areas in need of improvement, and the ongoing tension between “perfect Windows clone” and “maintainable, nimble Linux system.”
Feedback from early adopters has been broadly positive, especially among tech enthusiasts in China, where the combination of first-class localization and a Windows-like interface is rare. Some power users lament the lack of more advanced tools out of the box; others celebrate the clean slate and low system requirements.
The blend of technical restraint (staying close to Ubuntu), UI ambition (radical Windows 11 mimicry), and user-centric thinking (localization, documentation) should be a wakeup call to other distros that “accessibility” and “mass appeal” needn’t mean bloat, opacity, or proprietary lock-in.
For readers considering what to do with that soon-to-be-unsupported Windows 10 PC, or those simply curious about how far Linux can go in being “like Windows—but better,” AnduinOS is well worth a look. Proceed with a bit of caution, of course, and keep a backup handy—but know that, as of today, there’s at least one fresh option that melds the best of both worlds, in the truest spirit of open-source experimentation.
Source: theregister.com AnduinOS: A simpler Ubuntu with a hint of Windows 11
The Genesis of AnduinOS: One Engineer’s Quest for Familiarity
AnduinOS stands apart not merely by virtue of its technical tweaks but by the story behind its creation. Developed as a side project by Anduin Xue, a Chinese engineer at Microsoft, AnduinOS is not a corporate-backed attempt at Linux world domination, but rather the ambitious experiment of a single developer bridging two worlds: the power, openness, and flexibility of Linux, with the accessibility and polish that characterizes recent versions of Windows.This origin story is critical. It puts AnduinOS in a unique category—neither a sprawling corporation’s attempt to “own” the desktop Linux experience nor a generic, quick-and-dirty respin. Rather, it’s an intimate experiment—one that takes cues from both sides of the OS divide. Xue’s day job at Microsoft gives him a uniquely inside perspective, allowing him to identify precisely where Linux repels Windows users, and potentially, how to soften that friction.
A Deeply Familiar Desktop: GNOME in Windows 11’s Image
At its core, AnduinOS is a remix of Ubuntu, specifically its latest releases, but it’s the desktop environment that immediately grabs attention. Rather than replacing Ubuntu’s default desktop stack wholesale (as is common with many remixes), AnduinOS instead heavily customizes GNOME so that, at first glance, it’s nearly indistinguishable from Windows 11. The Windows-style taskbar, start menu, icons, and wallpapers all have familiar echoes—right down to details many users might not consciously register but would notice if missing: window borders, hover behaviors, and cursor appearances.This transformation from GNOME’s typically minimalist, somewhat abstract design to a fully “Win 11-flavored” environment is achieved through the careful curation of 18 GNOME shell extensions and a custom Windows-esque theme. This reliance on upstream GNOME—with custom tweaks rather than full forks—means AnduinOS maintains a certain agility; it can remain close to Ubuntu’s release cadence while still offering something distinct.
However, this is a double-edged sword. While extensions allow for rapid iteration and the layering of new features, they’re also prone to breaking with upstream GNOME updates. The GNOME team is aware of the headaches extensions can cause maintainers and users, and ongoing efforts aim to improve extension stability. For now, AnduinOS’s reliance on so many extensions could lead to upgrade headaches as GNOME continues its brisk development pace, especially on interim, non-LTS Ubuntu releases.
Localization That Matters: Global, With a Chinese Core
One of AnduinOS’s distinguishing strengths is its first-rate localization support, especially for Chinese users. Most Linux distributions offer rudimentary multi-language support, but subtle flaws remain: inconsistencies in translations, poor font rendering, or a lack of regional input systems. Since its creator’s roots are in China, AnduinOS goes a step further, offering region-specific ISOs, comprehensive Chinese language support, and input methods out of the box—a boon in a market where “Linux with great Chinese support” is still the exception, not the rule.This attention to internationalization isn’t just about attracting Chinese users; it’s an indicator of the project’s professional DNA. Corporate software is often judged by how seamlessly it “just works” in any region, and AnduinOS’s documentation and meticulous approach to language support ensure it’s usable by a broader cross-section of global users from day one.
Lean, Mean, and Snappy: Less Bloat by Design
Many Ubuntu derivatives pack on features in the hope of appealing to more users, often at the expense of performance and disk space. AnduinOS takes a markedly different approach: it’s even leaner than the base Ubuntu it’s built upon. The ISO footprint of AnduinOS 1.3 weighs in at just 2 GB, less than a third of the full GNOME Ubuntu installer. Even compared to the “minimal” Xubuntu 25.04 (at 3 GB), AnduinOS is svelte. On a fresh install, the system occupies just under 7 GB of disk space (including a 2 GB swap file) and idles at around 1.3 GB of RAM—a testament, in part, to recent GNOME 48 performance optimizations.This minimalism carries through to the preinstalled apps. Out of the box, AnduinOS comes with a handful of GNOME’s basic tools: image and document viewers, a simple calculator, media players, and a BitTorrent client. No office suite, no email client, no messaging tools—just the essentials. Clearly, Xue is betting that most users already lean heavily on web apps, and those who need more will appreciate the clean slate.
This “less is more” philosophy might irk users who want a richly featured OS immediately after installation. Yet, it meshes well with a growing Linux ethos: ship the basics, let users install only what they need (with one major caveat around app ecosystems, discussed below).
Snaps Out, Flatpaks In: The Packaging Pivot
Perhaps the most polarizing move by AnduinOS is its decision to remove Ubuntu’s Snap packaging framework completely. Snap, an application-distribution mechanism developed by Canonical, has been a default in Ubuntu for several years, but it has not been universally loved. Critics cite centralization (reliance on Canonical’s store), performance issues (snaps often start slower), and sometimes inconsistent theming. Despite Snap’s potential advantages (sandboxing, automatic updates, cross-distro compatibility), debates persist within the open source community.AnduinOS decisively leaves Snap behind, instead embracing Flatpak—an alternative universal package format gaining favor on distributions like Fedora. The GNOME Software app store in AnduinOS is configured to show only Flatpaks, making for a more curated and (arguably) less fragmented user experience. For users wanting the “latest and greatest” versions of their favorite applications, this is largely a win: Flatpak recipes tend to be up-to-date, and their sandboxed nature is increasingly popular with developers and users alike.
However, the system itself continues to use traditional .deb packages for core software—including Mozilla Firefox—eschewing the default Snap version shipped with recent Ubuntu builds. No Flatpaks are installed by default; the idea is that users will add them as needed. This approach can increase disk usage for those who install many apps, as Flatpaks include their dependencies, but the trade-off is easier updating and greater consistency.
Installation and System Requirements: An Easy Transition for Old Hardware
With Windows 10 support drawing to a close and hardware requirements for Windows 11 rising, there’s surging interest in Linux as a lifeline for older PCs. AnduinOS seems exceptionally well-positioned here. Its GNOME 48 base has been tuned for better performance on less powerful hardware, and the distro’s overall minimalism means it’s viable on systems with 4 GB of RAM and limited disk space, provided users don’t expect demanding workloads. For the typical web-browsing, document viewing, and light media usage scenarios that describe a growing chunk of home PC activity, AnduinOS is a plausible “drop-in” replacement.Boot times, resource usage, and responsiveness are all comfortably within what users expect from a modern OS. The familiar look and feel make acclimatization quick, especially for those leaping from Windows 7/10 hardware now disqualified from official Windows 11 upgrades.
Documentation, Roadmap, and a Single Developer’s Ambition
While most hobbyist Linux remixes offer little more than a README or sparse wiki, AnduinOS distinguishes itself through clear, accessible documentation. There’s both a transparent version history and an articulated roadmap—again, rare for a one-person show. Release 1.3 is based on Ubuntu 25.04, which, as an interim Ubuntu release, will only receive updates until the following January. This means that users who value long-term stability (and timely security patches) should look to the LTS-based builds: AnduinOS 1.0 (Ubuntu 22.04 “Jammy”) and 1.1 (Ubuntu 24.04 “Noble”).Importantly, the roadmap is public. Xue has committed to AnduinOS 1.5 being based on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, ensuring a clear path for users who want security and stability without jumping from interim release to interim release. This sort of proactive communication is a marker, again, of professional-grade thinking—something that even some larger Linux distributions lack.
Notable Comparisons: AnduinOS, Zorin OS, and the Ubuntu Remix Landscape
AnduinOS isn’t the first, nor will it be the last, Linux distro to court users put off by Windows. High-profile projects like Zorin OS target the exact same audience, re-skinning Linux with a Windows-like UI and promising a gentle landing for the newly converted.So what sets AnduinOS apart?
- Upstream Integration: Zorin, for example, ships its own set of theming and extension packages, and the paid version includes a broad array of additional open-source apps not bundled by default. Zorin also develops its own “Zorin Appearance” tool to tweak layouts.
- Minimalism: AnduinOS ships with far fewer apps out of the box, closer to Ubuntu Minimal, meaning power users don’t have to spend hours uninstalling bloat. For those who primarily use cloud or browser-based apps, this is a distinct plus.
- Clean GNOME Implementation: Crucially, because AnduinOS doesn’t heavily fork or re-base upstream GNOME (just extend it), it potentially benefits from faster updates and better compatibility—at least until extension breakage rears its head.
- Dual X.org and Wayland Support: While Cinnamon (as in Linux Mint) still treats Wayland as experimental, AnduinOS’s GNOME roots ensure robust support for both display servers.
Security, Updates, and the “Single Maintainer” Conundrum
No review or feature on a Linux remix can ignore the matter of long-term sustainability and security. While AnduinOS’s documentation and roadmap suggest careful planning, the reality remains: this is, fundamentally, a one-person side project. That comes with ramifications:- Rapid bug fixes and urgent security patches might lag, especially if personal obligations intervene.
- A major illness, job change, or loss of interest could leave users marooned.
On the technical front, AnduinOS’s approach—sticking close to upstream repositories and minimizing custom code—reduces the surface area for security regressions, making it comparable (from a systemic perspective) to running Ubuntu with some third-party GNOME extensions. The decision to avoid Snap reduces attack surface introduced by Canonical’s proprietary components, and sticking to the vetted Flathub repository for Flatpaks further mitigates third-party risk.
Community, Hype, and the Future of Accessible Linux
Notably, AnduinOS’s rise from hobby project to international curiosity has surprised even its creator. The ongoing “End of Windows 10” cycle—complete with relentless reminders from Microsoft about unsupported devices—means that tens of millions of PCs are looking for a lifeline. Projects like AnduinOS, although niche, suddenly find themselves in the spotlight, especially as media outlets and online communities sniff out credible alternatives.Xue’s reaction to this spike in attention has been humility and transparency—a hallmark, perhaps, of his professional background. Rather than over-promising, he’s quick to point out the project’s limitations, the areas in need of improvement, and the ongoing tension between “perfect Windows clone” and “maintainable, nimble Linux system.”
Feedback from early adopters has been broadly positive, especially among tech enthusiasts in China, where the combination of first-class localization and a Windows-like interface is rare. Some power users lament the lack of more advanced tools out of the box; others celebrate the clean slate and low system requirements.
Critical Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, and the Broader Lessons
Strengths
- Unusually Familiar UI: The degree to which AnduinOS feels “like Windows 11” is unmatched outside of the KDE/Plasma world and, for GNOME, is genuinely impressive.
- Minimal Bloat: The basic install is lean, making it ideal for older hardware or virtual machines.
- Localization: Top-notch non-English support, especially for Chinese users—sets a new bar for community projects.
- Clarity: Good documentation, visible roadmap, sensible defaults, and transparent about what is and isn’t supported.
- Package Management Choices: The move from Snap to Flatpak aligns with open-source community preferences, clearing the way for easier app updates and wider compatibility.
Weaknesses/Risks
- Fragility of Extensions: Heavy use of third-party GNOME shell extensions is a double-edged sword, as updates can and do break critical UI functionality.
- Single Developer Bus Factor: While Xue’s professionalism is commendable, any side project faces existential risk if its sole maintainer cannot continue.
- No Office or Email Suite by Default: Mainstream users looking for a direct replacement for Windows may expect a “more complete” software selection on first boot.
- Release Cadence: Interim Ubuntu base versions have a short support window, meaning users must keep up with releases or explicitly stick to LTS builds.
Conclusion: More Than a Curiosity, Less Than a Revolution
AnduinOS isn’t about to overturn the Linux ecosystem, nor does it pretend to have all the answers for Windows refugees. But its existence is instructive—not just for what it delivers, but for what it signifies. A single developer, drawing on both technical depth and practical user empathy, can craft a distribution that is, for certain users, better than what the biggest corporate players or most established Linux projects currently offer.The blend of technical restraint (staying close to Ubuntu), UI ambition (radical Windows 11 mimicry), and user-centric thinking (localization, documentation) should be a wakeup call to other distros that “accessibility” and “mass appeal” needn’t mean bloat, opacity, or proprietary lock-in.
For readers considering what to do with that soon-to-be-unsupported Windows 10 PC, or those simply curious about how far Linux can go in being “like Windows—but better,” AnduinOS is well worth a look. Proceed with a bit of caution, of course, and keep a backup handy—but know that, as of today, there’s at least one fresh option that melds the best of both worlds, in the truest spirit of open-source experimentation.
Source: theregister.com AnduinOS: A simpler Ubuntu with a hint of Windows 11
