Thank you for your continued support and interest in AnduinOS.

As planned, we remain committed to maintaining and advancing AnduinOS. We acknowledge the concerns many of users have expressed regarding why version 1.3 is not an LTS (Long-Term Support) release, the inability to smoothly upgrade from 1.2 to 1.3, future seamless upgrade pathways, and whether certain theme packages can be downloaded independently from Ubuntu. We deeply understand the frustration these issues may have caused.

Given our severe shortage of manpower—currently, the project is essentially maintained by myself alone—we are only able to sustain basic operations and rectify critical bugs at this stage. Moving forward, our plan is to seek sponsorships from various community groups and foundations to enhance and perfect AnduinOS.

According to our schedule, we plan to release AnduinOS 1.4 based on Ubuntu 25.10 in late October of this year. Please note that this release will not be an LTS version. Subsequently, in late April 2026, AnduinOS 1.5, based on Ubuntu 26.04, will be released and this version will be an LTS release.

Throughout the coming year, we have extensive development planned. Our primary goal is to establish our own apt software repository, managing all changes directly via dpkg. This will significantly simplify the process of using apt for system updates, facilitating smoother transitions to future versions. This also allows other Linux distributions like Debian to install AnduinOS's customizations easily. This feature will be experimentally introduced in version 1.4 and fully implemented by version 1.5.

Additionally, this year will involve major structural refactoring of AnduinOS. We aim to modularize and consolidate system components across multiple layers, allowing users to add or remove features such as application stores, Gnome Shell, professional tools, container technologies, and WSL through layered combinations. We will also compile more system core components ourselves to enable finer-grained customization. Consequently, with version 1.5, we anticipate releasing both a Server Edition and a Lite Edition of AnduinOS—the latter featuring only the basic Gnome Shell environment with minimal pre-installed software. All these developments will continue to be community-driven, fully open-source under the GPLv3 license, and completely free of charge.

Our ultimate vision is for AnduinOS to not only preserve an unchanged, user-friendly experience for decades but also to become a versatile customization tool and builder for Linux distributions. This will cater especially to users seeking "an ISO that can meet all personalized requirements within a Live environment," pushing Linux customization closer to declarative system construction.

Regarding the AI wave, many users have asked if AnduinOS plans to integrate voice assistants or system-level MCP functionalities. Consistent with our core design principle—“We will not incorporate features into the system unless we are certain they are universally useful”—we recognize that adding AI capabilities may not be essential for scenarios requiring stability and preservation of existing workflows. However, we will consider selectively integrating AI features, such as system-level MCP, into future editions tailored for specific user groups, like home users, ensuring these features remain easily removable.

We are aware of concerns that AnduinOS might become influenced or controlled by particular governments or institutions. Therefore, transparency remains a top priority in our development process. We commit to fully disclosing all source code, development progress, planning, and even details about our team composition. Efforts will be made to establish a diverse, globally distributed team communicating primarily in English to foster open collaboration and community building.

Thank you once again for your support and interest in AnduinOS.