Review Anduinos Linux
Recently my used MacPro 2013 (TrashMacPro) died on me. It refuses to load MacOS and I’ve tried multiple SSDs, different known good RAM sticks, etc. Looks like it’s toast. I absolutely refuse to go back to Windows as a consumer, and I can’t really justify buying another computer at the moment, so I went in search of a linux operating system that I can throw on a spare laptop to use as my daily driver. I started on SUSE back in the day, and then moved to Ubuntu 8.10 I think. From there I’ve distro-hopped between SUSE and some form of Debian derivatives. I tried Kubuntu but HATE Snaps. They aren’t compelling enough to switch to and aren’t actual as portable as Flatpaks because of some security settings that are currently Ubuntu only. This led me to AnduinOS, an Ubuntu derivative that looks and feels similar to Windows 11.
What is AnduinOS
AnduinOS is the brainchild of Anduin Xue, an ex-Microsoft Software Engineer, that they developed in their spare time. In their post “Story behind AnduinOS - A letter from Anduin” they write “It was simply a toy and practice exercise I put together during a leisurely afternoon.” They mention the use of Windows at work, and they prefer the interaction logic of Windows, but not the actual shell and adds. In their spare time they use Linux exclusively, preferring Arch or NixOS. The gist of the letter is that they created AnduinOS as a passion project in such a way that requires very little maintenance. It also appears to be more of a showcase for the build system they hope that AnduinOS will be “…user-friendly experience for decades but also to become a versatile customization tool and builder for Linux distributions,” according to their post in AnduinOS Future Development and Roadmap
Installing
This is a pretty short section since if you’ve ever installed Ubuntu nothing here will seem drastically different. You’ll walk through the basic system setup, and it has a few nice customizations, but it’s nothing crazy, which to be frank, is nice. A simple and intuitive installer built on something that Ubuntu has refined is not a terrible idea. And it also symbolizes what AnduinOS is going to be overall. It’s Ubuntu, but tweaked in some interesting ways.
Basic Layout
The basic layout of AnduinOS is heavily inspired by Windows 11, with the taskbar at the bottom, the notification center is on the bottom right along with the date and clock, and the start menu is to the left of the icons on the taskbar. There’s even the weather widget that sits to the far left. There’s a customized icon set, Fluent, that helps unify a lot of the system, and little touches to blur the shell. Pressing the “start” button reveals the start menu with an “All Apps” arrow up top, your pinned apps, and below that a frequent apps. On the very bottom of the window is your username, which will take you to settings for your user account, and then Files, Console, and Settings shortcuts, along with shutdown shortcuts.
Even though it looks very similar to Windows it is not like Winux or Lindows or Wubuntu or whatever in which it tries to emulate the entire OS visually, too. AnduinOS strikes a good balance of emulating the layout and workflow of Windows, without being exactly like Windows. I also use Windows daily at work, and when I was using MacOS as my daily driver, had to context switch from work to personal or personal to work. With AnduinOS, however, the general layout is similar enough that there’s not much context switching, but it’s also different enough that I don’t mistakenly try to run Windows commands or use it like I would windows. I think this, like ZorinOS, is the better way to do it. Keeping the layout but reminding users it’s not Windows will lead to fewer frustrations.
That being said, if you don’t like the windows layout, you probably won’t like this one either. I might be a heretic, but I actually like the taskbar icons and start button in the center, especially with dual monitors or ultra-wides. I’m not mousing as far to get to where I need to be.
Customizations
AnduinOS features a slew of Gnome extensions to achieve it’s layout and look. This is really apparent if you use the multi-touch gestures on newer trackpads, it kicks you over to the Gnome overview with your virtual desktops and all the apps. This is not inherently bad as that makes AnduinOS an un-Snapped Ubuntu Gnome edition. Anduin even acknowledges this in their letter, it’s the idea that any and all customizations are small and appear seamlessly. This also means that you can load any of your own desired Gnome extensions and tweaks. Unlike Windows, this OS is still customizable.
Using Day-to-Day
Using AnduinOS day-to-day for the last 2 weeks has been…fine. And I say this as glowing praise. The fact that once I got it installed and setup how I wanted it just got out of the way and faded into the background. It reall is a seamless experience coming from a Windows world. Using Software Center to load apps was easy, loading anything that’s compatible with Debian/Ubuntu was no different than using Ubuntu. AnduinOS is a perfect daily driver, except for one glaring detail, which I’ll cover in the conclusion.
Conclusion
I could see AnduinOS this being a viable option for someone who doesn’t need Microsoft software products or something like Adobe Photoshop and who doesn’t want to learn how to use GNU/Linux “the Gnome Way”, or “the KDE way”, and instead can use much of their same muscle memory and learned behaviors to quickly and easily get up and running. It’s built on Ubuntu, with all the pros of that, and it removes Snaps. However there are a few concerns I have with AnduinOS. First, you can’t currently do an in-place upgrade for major versions, i.e. 1.3.5 - 1.4.0. Their roadmap does indicate they are working toward this as a goal, however until it’s actually live in the wild…you can’t count on it. The other major concern is that AnduinOS is basically maintained by one person. There are some contributors in the Github repo, but it seems like Anduin is the primary developer. There is nothing wrong with a solo dev, but it does mean that if Anduin no longer can maintain the software and there’s no one else to help them out, that’s the end of it, and that would suck to have your daily-driver OS no longer update and having to completely re-install to a new OS. It’s not the end of the world, but it is something to keep in mind.
I think that once they get in-place upgrades working AnduinOS offers a very compelling option for Linux Newbies and veterans alike. It’s sleek, simplified Ubuntu. Until then, I plan on setting up Debian as my daily driver…Or OpenSUSE…