I tried AnduinOS 2.0, and it may be the easiest way to ditch Windows for Linux

"Today, AIURSOFT Limited is thrilled to announce the beta release of AnduinOS 2.0.0. This is not just another system update; it is a fundamental, ground-up architectural rewrite of our entire operating system."

That's the opening to the announcement about AnduinOS 2.0. It continues to say, "Listening closely to community feedback regarding maintainability and package management, we have completely reimagined how AnduinOS is built, distributed, and maintained."

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Essentially, AIURSOFT Limited is leaving behind the era of 'remastering' and moving into the era of true distro engineering.

What does that even mean? Well, to begin, AnduinOS is now assembled within a pristine, sandboxed debootstrap and chroot pipeline. Again, what does that mean? AnduinOS now uses a proprietary, XML-based declarative domain-specific language and an automated compilation toolchain that makes the AnduinOS core modularized into 56 standalone, native .deb packages. In the end, that makes for a more stable, predictable, and reproducible operating system.

More importantly, AnduinOS now enforces a strict "hard-fail" policy, such that if any unwanted Ubuntu packages are detected during the build, the ISO generation is aborted. By doing this, you can be certain that the AnduinOS ISO you've downloaded is pristine and fundamentally respects your privacy.

Now, here's the important part of AnduinOS 2.0 -- it's really good. Yes, it's laid out like Windows 11 (which is great for some users, but I prefer a much more Linux-like desktop), it's remarkably stable for an early release (beta), it ships with zero bloatware, it doesn't track you at all , and it will make you feel right at home at first login.

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This is GNOME refashioned to look like Windows 11.

As for default apps, you get Firefox, a text editor, GNOME Software, a music player, a video player, and a few utilities. That's it. Of course, you can install anything you need from within the Software app, including Flatpak apps, which are enabled out of the box, so there's no need to be concerned about having enough software.

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What really struck me, beyond the privacy and the stability, is the speed. AnduinOS 2.0 is fast. Click an app, and it immediately opens. I've grown accustomed to Linux desktop distributions being zippy (whether they are of the lightweight type or not), but AnduinOS is surprisingly sprightly, especially for a beta release.