Retired Techie

Introduction

Over the past few weeks, several of you have asked me to take a look at the Lunduke Computer Operating System, or LCOS for short. I’ll admit, I hadn’t heard of it before your requests, so today I want to take a look at what it is, how it works, and what its use case is.

I had to do a little research before sitting down with LCOS. I’ve seen Bryan Lunduke’s name on social media, specifically a few X posts, and a few YouTube Videos. I didn’t realize he’d started his own Linux distribution. Apparently, I haven’t been paying close enough attention.

While I don’t follow Lunduke, doing a little research indicated that he has disagreements with large parts of the open-source community. But that’s not what I what I want to look at here. I’m going to focus specifically on the requests I received, and examine LCOS itself and share my thoughts on it from an end user perspective. If you’re looking for political drama, you won’t find it here.

Investigation

When I encounter a Linux distribution I’m unfamiliar with, DistroWatch is one of my first stops.

As of November 6, 2026, LCOS ranks 45th in DistroWatch’s four-week page-hit ranking and 127th over the past six months. That suggests considerable interest in the distribution, though page hits don’t tell us how many people actually use it.

LCOS 0.9.6 was released on October 24, followed by version 1.0 on November 1; beta versions were available earlier. That’s a rapid release timeline for a new distribution. I suspect the controversy surrounding Lunduke in the open-source community may be contributing to the attention, though the ranking alone can’t tell us what’s driving it.

The project’s GitHub page and DistroWatch listing describe LCOS as based on Devuan, using SysV init and the Xfce desktop. It includes Brave Origin and GOffice. The installer defaults to ext4, though LCOS supports other file systems as well.

A quick note on GOffice: it isn’t an office suite. It’s a library that provides office-related functionality for applications such as AbiWord. It’s sometimes confused with GNOME Office, a collection of office applications.

Acquiring LCOS

LCOS is hosted on GitHub. I tried downloading it this evening. But my download failed three times. I suspect the connection was congested: a lot of my extended family was visiting that night, and everyone was streaming, texting, and doing whatnot.

After everyone had settled in, I managed to download the ISO, though the speed was still sluggish. I downloaded version 1.0.0 and verified the ISO’s checksum. The file is a little smaller than 1.5 GB.

While the ISO is downloading, you might want to look around the GitHub page. There isn’t much beyond a basic description, but it only takes a few minutes to read.

First Boot

I’m using virt-manager to run LCOS in a virtual machine with four CPU cores, 4 GB of memory, and 25 GB of storage. I switched the VM’s firmware from legacy BIOS to UEFI. That choice shouldn’t affect my assessment of the desktop,. But I DID disabled Secure Boot because LCOS requires it to be off.

LCOS boots into a live environment, which is nice, Although it isn’t persistent. Your changes won’t be saved, but you can explore the system’s features before installing it. The Xfce desktop is customized with a classic layout reminiscent of Windows 98.

I spent a few minutes looking through the application menu. LCOS includes a decent selection of basic applications.

I selected “About this Computer,” but it provided very little system information. It did show that memory use was about 0.4 GB while idle, which is low for this 4 GB VM.

I tried running Fastfetch and then Neofetch in a terminal, but neither was installed, so I’ll need to gather system details manually.

One thing I noticed was that the screen resolution didn’t match my display. Running xrandr showed a resolution of 1280×800 rather than 1920×1080. I’ve seen this on other operating systems, including Windows; it may be related to how the virtual display is configured or presented to the guest.

Installation

Next, I clicked the Install LCOS icon on the right side of the screen to start the installer.

The Welcome screen explained what makes this distribution unique. I clicked Next.

The next screen displayed a standard map for setting the time zone. I selected Manila.

Depending on your preferences, you may want to use one of the two Change icons at the bottom of the screen. Since I live in the Philippines, I set the locale accordingly. However, I prefer applications such as the calendar to display in English rather than Tagalog. I therefore set the system language and the date and locale formats to US English.

On the next page, I also changed the keyboard layout to US English.

The next step is disk partitioning. Select Erase Disk to use the default EXT4 file system and partition layout. Be aware that this will erase the disk’s existing data. Select Manual Partitioning if you want to choose the file system and partition layout yourself.

Next, I set up a user account and the root password. One option is worth noting: Auto Login was checked during my installation. I unchecked it so users would have to enter a password. I’ll need to install the system again to find out whether this is the default setting or whether I enabled it accidentally.

After that, I reviewed the summary page. Once I had checked the settings, I started the installation. It took about three minutes on my system.

When the installation finished, a screen appeared with a Restart checkbox. I selected it and restarted.

First Run

After rebooting, I had to correct the screen resolution. I added an xrandr command to Xfce’s startup applications to restore my preferred resolution after each reboot. This changes the resolution only within LCOS. Fixing it during system startup would require modifying startup scripts, something most users probably won’t want to attempt.

The wallpaper also failed to scale correctly after a restart. Re-selecting it in the settings fixed the problem, but only until the next restart. The desktop icons were on the right and stayed in place when I expanded the screen, as expected. I moved them to the left so they would remain near the edge as the resolution changed. This may be an issue with the virtual machine; I’ll try a bare-metal installation when I have time to see whether the problem occurs there too.

Curious about the system’s foundations, I checked /etc/apt/sources.list and found that LCOS uses Devuan repositories. Devuan is based on Debian and supports alternatives to systemd; LCOS uses SysVinit.

For many everyday users, the choice of init system may make little difference, but it matters to me when managing background services.
I ran cat /proc/1/comm to check the name of process 1. The command returned init.

Aside from the wallpaper and icon issues, everything ran fairly smoothly on the first boot.

Software & Features

LCOS comes with an interesting selection of software. For office work, it includes AbiWord and Gnumeric. Both launched quickly in my tests and should handle basic writing and spreadsheet tasks, though they may be less suitable for complex document formatting or spreadsheets that rely on advanced features.

VLC is included for media playback, and Brave Origin for web browsing. VLC handles a wide range of media formats; I haven’t used Brave Origin enough to offer a fair assessment.

The distribution also includes several programs created for LCOS: Lunduke Edit, Lunduke Paint, and Lunduke City. Edit is a plain-text editor, while Paint offers tools for image work, including layers. Lunduke City is a retro-inspired city-building game reminiscent of the early versions of Sim City.

I especially like Cool Retro Term, the CRT-style terminal emulator. It takes me back to using Osborne and Kaypro computers with CP/M. Some of you will know exactly what I mean! The CRT effects may become distracting during extended use, though, so I’ll use Xfce Terminal for everyday work.

Appearance and Responsiveness

Visually, the desktop feels cohesive: most of the default applications share a consistent style. If you like a classic Windows 98 aesthetic, you may enjoy the layout.

It looks dated beside modern desktops such as GNOME and KDE Plasma. That isn’t a dealbreaker for me, and the overall appearance still feels polished and intentional.

The desktop felt very responsive in my virtual machine, with no noticeable lag or stuttering.

The main visual issue I encountered was the screen and wallpaper behavior I mentioned earlier. The default wallpaper is 1792×1008, while my display is set to 1920×1080. Both resolutions have the same 16:9 aspect ratio, so the size difference alone doesn’t explain the scaling problem. It may be specific to my virt-manager setup; testing LCOS on physical hardware could help narrow down the cause. I may try installing it on an older Intel NUC3 when I have time.

My Thoughts

Based on my testing in a virtual machine, LCOS could be a viable option for older hardware and everyday tasks such as web browsing, email, and basic document editing. It felt lightweight and responsive, though I’d want to test it on older physical hardware before recommending it for that use.

Users with more demanding workflows—such as professional graphics or video editing, or documents that rely on complex formatting and macros—may find the included software limiting. Other applications may be available, but compatibility would need to be checked. Based on the software included, these workloads don’t appear to be LCOS’s primary focus.

LCOS is based on Devuan and does not use systemd. Some software that depends on systemd-specific services or interfaces may be harder to use, but compatibility varies by application. I’d check each application’s requirements and package availability rather than assume it will need to be installed manually.

Overall, LCOS is a responsive, user-friendly distribution that may work well on older or less powerful hardware. One caveat is that, because it uses SysVinit, some configuration options differ from those in many mainstream distributions that use systemd.

Assuming there are no hardware compatibility problems, I’d rate LCOS’s initial usability as beginner-friendly. Hardware issues, however, could quickly make the experience more difficult.

There’s clear care in the layout and setup, but LCOS doesn’t feel as polished as some other distributions. It also lacks the custom configuration applications that some distributions provide.

If you’re an old-timer like me, you may have used SysVinit back in the day. I’ve used it before, though I still occasionally need a quick refresher.

Conclusion

LCOS made a promising first impression in my virtual machine. Its classic Xfce desktop feels cohesive and responsive, and the included software should cover everyday tasks such as browsing, email, and basic office work. Its Devuan base and lack of systemd may appeal to some users, though systemd-dependent applications could present compatibility challenges.

The distribution has some rough edges: I encountered display and wallpaper issues, but further testing is needed to determine whether they stem from LCOS or my VM setup. Users with more demanding workflows may also need to install additional software. LCOS is worth considering if you want a lightweight, traditional desktop, particularly for older hardware. I’ll need to test it on a physical machine before making a stronger recommendation.