Hey everyone,
A lot of you have been asking —
Why was this created?
Who is it for?
And more.
Let me walk you through it, one by one.
TL;DR: Who’s Liya Linux for?
- Home users with older PCs (from around 2010 to 2020).
- People switching to Linux after Windows 10 reaches end-of-life (October 14, 2025).
- Developers who appreciate minimalism and clean environments.
- Users who want a distro that just works — no setup headaches.
- Office users who mostly run one or two apps, access virtual desktops, and enjoy multimedia in their free time.
- Kids or casual users who don’t do heavy gaming.
- Privacy-focused users who prefer a system that stays out of the cloud and “just stays”.
How it all started
It began when I (Hisham) was 13. I was the “tech guy” in my family — if something went wrong with a PC, they’d call me. I was a die-hard Windows 8.1 fan at the time.
One day, my sister’s laptop refused to boot. I tried reinstalling Windows 10, but it kept hanging at “Setup is starting”. Frustrated, I turned to YouTube, found a video by a Hindi creator about a Linux distro, grabbed the ISO, installed it — and boom, it booted.
But there was a catch — it didn’t detect the SSD. After some digging, I figured the SSD was faulty. We got it replaced, and the system worked again.
That was my first real brush with Linux. I was hooked.
From Curiosity to Creation
I always had a dream to build my own OS. I was inspired by Avdan’s Windows 7 2020 Edition concept, and started learning C. It wasn’t enough on its own — but then I discovered Linux.
It had:
- Great app support
- Broad hardware compatibility
- Open and free licensing
- A huge community
Eventually, I started learning the internals of Linux — especially Arch-based systems. In 2021, I released a distro called Aravalli. It was… a flop. [Don't search it on youtube, it was a real flop 😅]
But that failure was important. Over time, it evolved, piece by piece, into what is now Liya Linux.
By 2025, it had a clear vision, a defined mission, and a small but loyal fanbase.
Thanks to all of you who supported this journey.
– Hisham
