GNU/Linux Distributions and Operating Systems: Universal Blue, Windows Copycat, and NixOS

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jan 26, 2026

• XDA ☛ Universal Blue is the operating system framework that Windows should have adopted

  Universal Blue, by contrast, is a Linux operating system framework that's built entirely with immutability in mind, meaning that the base image is read-only, and any modifications can be easily rolled back. This framework is genuinely something that Windows should've tried to copy, or even adopt as its own.

• XDA ☛ Love it or hate it, Windows 8's controversial UI just landed on Linux

  Windows 8 was perhaps the most controversial release from Microsoft in recent decades. Some praised its UI, while others rejected a tiled-based interface on a desktop OS. The software giant did try to address some of the criticism with the release of Windows 8.1, but it didn't land very well, either.

  As a result, Windows 8 holds less than one percent market share worldwide, according to Statcounter's December 2025 data. However, its unique take on the desktop environment is something that people still talk about even today. I, for one, still love the idea of the full-screen Start menu with tiles and miss it.

  If you are like me and running Linux, you can get a seriously good taste of Windows 8 on your desktop. You can now recreate the Windows 8 vibe on your Linux desktop with the help of an open source project called Win8DE.

• XDA ☛ NixOS finally clicked for me when I stopped treating it like Ubuntu

  I spent a long time approaching NixOS as just another Linux distro that needed a slightly different installer and a new package manager. I looked for the equivalent of apt install, tried to tweak things live, and expected my changes to “stick” the way they do on Ubuntu. That mindset made every small task feel harder than it needed to be. Once I accepted that NixOS wants me to describe my system rather than babysit it, the whole thing started to make sense.

• Distro Watch ☛ DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.

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