Linux-OS: AnduinOS Linux - Newest Windows 11 Theme Linux Distribution

     With Windows 10 end of support on 14 Oct 2025, there is a trend of unsupported Windows 11 upgrade laptops users likely throw or choose alternative operating system such as Linux. The newest Windows 11 theme AndurinOS Linux distribution is developed by a China Chinese guy working for Microsoft. The desktop environment is using GNOME desktop and is based on Ubuntu Linux distribution. 

AnduinOS on my HP Envy 13 laptop

    I came across this Linux distribution when I was looking at YouTube videos. I forgot the guy who was introducing this Linux distribution but I got curious and when to look at it. It looks promising and as it is a pretty new Linux distribution but it got quite a lot of people looking and reviewing it made me even more curious. It is then I decided to give it a try. 

    AnduinOS Linux distribution is developed by a single Chinese software developer working in Microsoft. Since he is into developing .NET applications, he wanted to use a customized Linux distribution that he can use whenever he needs to setup a new development platform. So he based it on Ubuntu distribution and customized its theme to be similar to Windows 11 using GNOME desktop environment. He disabled snap but enabled flatpak on this distribution (only in version 1.3). It has limited apps so it is easier for someone who can install their preferred apps instead of wasting time removing apps. 

Minimum system requirements:

Architecture:         x86_64 architecture

Firmware: UEFI or BIOS

Processor: 2 GHz processor

RAM: 4 GB RAM

Disk Space: 20 GB disk space

Screen: 1024x768 screen resolution

Ports: USB port or DVD drive

System requirements for the best experience:

Architecture:         x86_64 architecture

Firmware: UEFI firmware with Secure Boot

Processor: 2.5 GHz quad-core processor

RAM: 8 GB RAM

Disk Space: 50 GB disk space

Screen: 2560x1440 resolution 27 inch screen

Internet: Internet access

!!! note "Only x86_64 architecture and ACPI-compliant hardware are supported."

    The initial RAM usage after installation is about 1.24GB to 1.34GB. This is from different laptops running the same Linux distribution. It uses 1.34GB on HP Envy laptop. Not recommended for any laptop using 4GB or less since RAM usage can easily hit close to 4GB just by loading a browser and open a few tabs for browsing the Internet. 

    The internals look and feel like Windows 11, just that they are actually Linux apps or configurations in the backend. Normal users do not need to bother about the configurations and it is actually usable upon install, except version 1.1 which you need to install flatpak and gnome-software app before you can actually find and install linux apps. Other than that was quite easy to use, like Windows 11. 

    Since I am not a Windows guy, I will not go too much into the experience but definitely the experience wasn't too bad. At least I don't have to wait for the stupid windows update to take hours and not sure will fail or not. Updates jsut took minutes since there are not much updates so far.

    I would recommend anyone who wants to ditch Windows to come try AnduinOS Linux and especially for those whose laptop hardware don't meet Windows 11 requirements. Main concern are the apps you used in Windows may need to find an alternative or use Wine or other emulators to run. Since most apps can use web browsers to access, apps issue is not a big issue anymore. So give it a try if you dare!

** UPDATE **

    After using AnduinOS on two of my laptops (ASUS X556UB and HP Envy 13), I noticed that there would be a lag (message window asking to wait or close the app in use). This happens on both laptops and also I found that AnduinOS is also slower (more resource needed) and also the similarity of Windows is crippling my preference to use Linux. So I actually have gave away the ASUS X556UB laptop and reinstalled Linux Lite (my current favourite Linux distribution) on HP Envy 13. Bye bye AnduinOS.