Simon Batt on Winux, Ads in the System, Immutable GNU/Linux Distros, Stability, and KDE 1

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jan 13, 2026

• XDA ☛ This Linux OS looks just like Windows 11, and it got a new update

  As Windows 10 users are left in the cold due to Windows 11's strict system requirements, and Windows 11 users tire of Microsoft's plan for the OS, Linux developers have been trying their best to encourage people to make the jump over to their distro. Some have advertised their strengths over Microsoft's operating system, and others, such as Zorin OS, try to make things as comfortable as possible for escapees, including adding OneDrive support and Windows-like desktop layouts.

  However, one OS is hoping to draw the Windows crowd by being so alike Windows that it's hard to tell the two systems apart. It's called Winux, and it just received its 11.25.12 update just in time for the new year.

• XDA ☛ Windows 11's new Start menu ad makes me happy I swapped to Linux

  You know that feeling you get where you're in a noisy environment for so long, you get used to it? Then you moved somewhere quiet, and you realise just how much noise you've been surrounded by over the past few minutes? That's how I felt when I moved from Windows to Linux a few months ago; once I had an OS that didn't pester me every so often, I realised just how spoiled I was using Linux.

  So, when I check what's happening on the Windows front and see that Microsoft is, once again, adding more pester prompts to its Start menu, I feel bad for the people who have no choice but to use it. However, it's never too late to swap. Just saying.

• XDA ☛ Immutable Linux distros fix the update problem Windows never solved

  2025 was a really interesting year for me, technology-wise. It was the year I finally managed to pry myself off Windows after several decades of use and moved to Linux. I distro hopped, tried different things, and eventually settled down on the immutable Fedora KDE spin, Kinoite. Those last five words would have been incomprehensible to me a year ago, but today, they act as my daily driver.

  I really think immutable operating systems are the future, and they solve problems that I've had with Windows for years. Unfortunately, I really don't see Microsoft adopting the tech for a very long time, if ever. So, here's how my immutable Linux distro fixes the update problem that Windows may never get.

• XDA ☛ Windows users love to underestimate how stable Linux actually is

  There's a phrase that gets passed around the internet that goes "Linux is free if you don't value your time." The idea is that, while Linux comes at zero cost, you put in so much elbow grease into getting it to run properly that you spend more of your free time than if you used, say, Windows or macOS.

  That may have been true back when it was made in the late 90s by Jamie Zawinski, but I don't think it holds any water these days. In fact, I think that Windows users who claim they don't want to switch to Linux because it's not as stable have either parroted what they heard on Reddit one day, or didn't give the right distro a try. In fact, given what happened to Windows 11 over 2025, I think the reverse is becoming true.

• XDA ☛ You, too, can bring the late 90s Linux to life with this modern fork of KDE 1

  As a newcomer to the Linux scene (I don't even have my "1 year of Linux" badge yet), I never had the delight of using one in the late 90s to early 2000s. I kind of wish that I, at least, dipped a toe into the Linux scene at the time, because it'd be cool to see how the open-source operating system scene evolved over time.

  Well, while I can't go back in time to give it a try, I can, at the very least, check out this awesome project that aims to bring KDE 1 into the modern day. It's called MiDesktop, and while it certainly looks like it was released before the turn of the millennium, it's designed to work with the apps we know and love today.