[HN Gopher] Zorin OS
___________________________________________________________________
Zorin OS
Author : oldfuture
Score : 174 points
Date : 2025-07-08 15:37 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (zorin.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (zorin.com)
| LorenDB wrote:
| Zorin is one of the best distros to recommend to noobs.
|
| - Ubuntu based, so it has full compatibility with every .deb
| package that you find online
|
| - Not actually Ubuntu, so it doesn't have that weird Canonical
| corporate push stuff (ads in terminal, etc.)
|
| - Has a .exe hook preinstalled that asks you if you want to
| install Wine to run Windows apps
|
| - Has a very Windows-like layout so it's instantly familiar
| (which is not uncommon, but Ubuntu certainly goes the other way)
| dlivingston wrote:
| Interesting. Is it pretty polished or are there some rough
| edges?
| LorenDB wrote:
| I don't daily-drive it myself (openSUSE Tumbleweed user here)
| but in my experience it's pretty smooth and polished.
| debo_ wrote:
| I daily-drive it because of the polish.
| worthless-trash wrote:
| I've not used ubuntu for some time, but
|
| - Ubuntu based, so it has full compatibility with every .deb
| package that you find online
|
| I don't think that .deb files are universally portable.
| kvdveer wrote:
| They are not universally portable, but if your running an
| Ubuntu derived system, most debs can be installed jus fine.
| Thats not because deb is so compatible,but because virtually
| everything assumes Ubuntu.
| jeroenhd wrote:
| You need the .deb files to match your architecture and to
| have the necessary dependencies available, but for programs
| like Google Chrome, Discord, and VSCode, those dependencies
| seem to come down to "any recent version of glibc and
| openssl" and the .debs themselves are available for multiple
| architectures.
|
| You're not going to be installing random Debian packages from
| the Debian FTP server, but for most proprietary software that
| resorts to "install this .deb", it'll work most of the time,
| which beats many other distributions.
|
| On the other hand, installing software this way is a great
| way for upgrades to the next major version to fail
| spectacularly halfway through, so I'm not so sure if it's a
| feature or not.
| biggestfan wrote:
| And in place upgrades! It was a massive problem for years with
| Zorin (and still exists with other "user friendly" distros like
| Elementary), requiring a full system reinstall every time a new
| version released.
|
| That being said, I still think this is a bit of a strange
| option when there's several Ubuntu flavors with more Windows-
| esque desktops, plus Linux Mint which offers a lot of these
| benefits with a much larger userbase and therefore better
| support (though Zorin is more "modern" looking). Not a bad
| option but not one I'd think to recommend often.
| tvgirlfan2004 wrote:
| elementary supports upgrades since OS 8
|
| https://blog.elementary.io/os-8-available-
| now/#:~:text=In%20...
| biggestfan wrote:
| That's about normal system updates. Upgrading between
| versions appears to still require a full reinstall:
| https://github.com/elementary/os/wiki/Release-Upgrades
|
| Also, strange to move those into settings IMO.
| roger_ wrote:
| "Bundled with alternatives to over $5,000 of professional
| software"
|
| That sounds spammy and misleading to me. I'm assuming they're
| just including open source alternatives and assuming the same
| value as commercial offerings.
| koakuma-chan wrote:
| I would rather they didn't bundle anything at all lol
| debo_ wrote:
| The lite install doesn't bundle anything.
| ChrisRR wrote:
| So just the kernel?
| koakuma-chan wrote:
| No, I mean, like all that crap https://apps.gnome.org/
| jonnat wrote:
| Doesn't sound misleading to me. I read "$5,000 of professional
| software" as paid-for software that would have cost $5,000.
| yoavm wrote:
| So clearly it _is_ misleading, because what they mean is
| definitely along the lines of "we include GIMP while
| Photoshop costs $999".
| bigyabai wrote:
| How is it misleading when the sentence includes the word
| "alternative" from the boot? Are you misreading it and
| blaming the author?
| afavour wrote:
| I don't think that's misleading. There are a lot of people
| out there who aren't aware that free software exists that
| provides a lot of the functionality of software that costs
| $999. They clearly say "alternatives to".
| yoavm wrote:
| I was trying to make a point about how funny the parent
| post was, saying it isn't misleading while
| misunderstanding it and thinking that it means "paid-for
| software that would have cost $5,000". But perhapes I
| didn't understand the comment itself.
|
| I personally think the messaging is fine, but the above
| comment was a clear example that some people could get it
| wrong.
| IshKebab wrote:
| But gimp _doesn 't_ provide the functionality of software
| that costs $999. That's why it's misleading. It's
| probably more like Affinity Photo which is PS68.
| Propelloni wrote:
| Which, incidentally, is the software they compare their
| offering to. The only Adobe software they mention in the
| comparison is Adobe Premier Pro.
| ChrisRR wrote:
| What's misleading about that? Did you miss the words
| "alternatives to" in the statement?
| djaychela wrote:
| But for many, they wouldn't even know this was possible. Yes,
| when you look into it it will be all the usual software, but
| 95% of people don't even know there is a world beyond windows
| and macOS, so that might be something that gets them to look
| for a couple of minutes and consider they might be able to use
| this.
|
| But I get what you're saying.
| nartho wrote:
| >Zorin OS is built on the same Open Source software that powers
| the New York Stock Exchange and computers on the International
| Space Station.
|
| >Thanks to the advanced security features of Linux, Zorin OS is
| resistant to PC viruses and malware
|
| The whole landing page is full of those statements. It seems
| like they are targeting a demographics with low tech literacy,
| but I don't know how productive those statements are really.
| qualeed wrote:
| Those two statements rubbed me the wrong way (more than the
| $5000 statement). Reminds me of military-grade encryption,
| etc. Completely void of any meaning, but sounds great to
| laypeople.
| kjellsbells wrote:
| It's simultaneously too much and too little. If the reader is
| genuinely a tech layperson, eg, someone who grew up on iPad
| and nothing else, then "open source" and "Linux" are just
| confusing filler words and a better statement would be
|
| "Zorin OS is built from the same software that powers the New
| York Stock Exchange and computers on the International Space
| Station.
|
| Thanks to its advanced security features, Zorin OS is
| resistant to PC viruses and malware."
|
| The root is that the writers are pushing Linux, and writing
| through that lens, instead of internalizing the ur-problem
| that the readers have of "needing to get off Windows" (for
| whatever reason) and writing content that addresses that.
|
| And I say this as a fan of Zorin.
| kube-system wrote:
| I think the market they're targeting here makes no sense
| whatsoever. What cross section of people are _both_ :
|
| 1. A tech layperson, _and_ ...
|
| 2. In the market for downloading an OS?
|
| Normal people buy computers and use OS that is installed on
| them.
|
| It would probably make more sense to be targeting OEMs or
| something.
| mitkebes wrote:
| Commented this above, but I've had freinds and family ask
| about alternatives to windows lately because of privacy
| concerns or just being unhappy with it. I've been sending
| them the link to the ZorinOS page, and it's been popular
| with them. It convinced my dad to try Zorin on a new
| laptop they were buying, and he's been happy with it.
| kube-system wrote:
| I would think if somebody could figure out how to install
| an OS just being given a link to that page, they're
| probably savvy enough that they could figure out how to
| use something like Ubuntu. But really, in your case, the
| marketing copy on their site isn't really doing much,
| your family got there because of the word-of-mouth
| reference.
|
| If somebody is navigating to a website for an OS, they
| already have some sort of clue that a new OS would be
| solving their problem, which indicates that they do have
| some level of understanding beyond what most people
| would. Really the average computer user today doesn't
| know that an OS is a separable part of their computer...
| most people think of computers as "Mac computers", or
| "Windows computers".
| mitkebes wrote:
| In the case of my dad's computer, I installed Zorin for
| him. However the website itself convinced him that Zorin
| was what he wanted instead of windows.
| lproven wrote:
| > It seems like they are targeting a demographics with low
| tech literacy
|
| True, and often overlooked in the world of Linux.
|
| > but I don't know how productive those statements are
| really.
|
| What it really means is that it comes with 20GB of so of
| preinstalled Flatpak apps for a whole bunch of use cases:
| graphic art, sound and music production, video and podcast
| editing, live streaming, etc.
|
| Stuff you need domain-specific knowledge to find and install
| on Linux, and which on Windows costs real money and probably
| will get you a tonne of spyware, ad banners etc.
|
| Nothing vastly demanding if you have the knowledge.
|
| Rather than giving you an app store and leaving you to it to
| find it, learn it, navigate it, and find the apps you need
| and avoid anything dodgy, they take a whole catalogue of
| premium big-name FOSS apps and preload the lot.
|
| It's big, and when I reviewed it, it filled my VM and then a
| real disk partition -- but in real life, you nuke Windows and
| dedicate a laptop to this, and then it's fine.
|
| My most recent review:
|
| https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/zorin_os_173/
|
| My first:
|
| https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/02/zorin_os_162/
| mitkebes wrote:
| My father has gotten distrustful of windows, and wanted an
| alternative. I sent him a link to the Zorin home page, and it
| convinced him to try it out on a new laptop they were buying
| (I installed it for them). They've been quite happy with it,
| and I expect they'll want to swap over their other PC as
| well.
|
| So it seems to me that this homepage was very successful, at
| least in this case of a linux user being able to recommend it
| to a non-techie.
| yesfitz wrote:
| How would you rephrase the sentiment?
| DSMan195276 wrote:
| I would add - I don't mind them describing it like that, the
| questionable part is how the advertising heavily implies that
| to get access to that software you have to buy the "Pro"
| version. The software is of course free and available to
| install on the "non-pro" version, it just doesn't get installed
| during installation, and they're definitely betting on people
| not knowing this detail and buying "Pro" to get the listed
| software.
| andsoitis wrote:
| You also get support with the Pro version.
| dartharva wrote:
| They are specifically targeting enterprise customers, so corpo
| speak was going to be evident in their promo material.
| frollogaston wrote:
| GIMP, a $23/mo value, yours for $0/mo!
| mitkebes wrote:
| I think that's mostly there to give people confidence that
| they'll have real, quality software available. A concern for
| new linux users is that they'll be missing software they need,
| that statement expresses that there will be a lot of software
| available, and that the quality is comparable to profession
| quality.
| replete wrote:
| I reviewed ZorinOS last year when considering going all-in on
| Linux at home last year, testing around 30 distributions.
|
| While it wasn't a good fit as a techie, I rated Zorin the best
| distro for 'general desktop computing' for "normal" people who
| have used Windows their whole life.
|
| I was impressed by how integrated and easy to use the desktop
| environment was. Now, this is not a statement of Gnome vs KDE etc
| etc, it is of the experience of using it - e.g. simple settings
| for making the general OS feel like Windows or MacOS, lots of
| sensible things.
| franczesko wrote:
| Link?
| mrheosuper wrote:
| how would you compare it with PopOS
| lproven wrote:
| For most purposes, much better.
|
| Pop OS has a whole new desktop metaphor. That doesn't bother
| a techie; it can totally throw non-technical folks.
|
| Zorin coerces GNOME into a Windows-like design, but unlike
| too many distros, it looks good while doing it, and the paid
| version comes with a tonne of apps pre-installed and paid
| support.
| close04 wrote:
| > and the paid version comes with a tonne of apps pre-
| installed
|
| I didn't like the way they sell this on their page,
| "Bundled with alternatives to over $5,000 of professional
| software". They list the commercial alternatives with their
| prices but no mention of what's the bundled alternative.
| Probably the usual free software that any user with a
| modicum of familiarity with an app store can install in
| minutes.
|
| The lack of transparency about what software they bundle,
| and the implication that this software is entirely
| equivalent to the commercial/professional one feels a bit
| dishonest and puts me off.
| bigyabai wrote:
| They say "alternative" right in the sentence. Not
| "replacement", not "superior choice", but "alternative".
| It's not at all dishonest to suggest GIMP as a bitmap
| editor, Inkscape for vectors or Blender for 3D meshing.
| Blender _absolutely_ beats the pants off Maya and C4D,
| and frankly I think Inkscape and GIMP is easier to use
| than Illustrator and Photoshop.
|
| You're kinda splitting hairs, here. If you've used
| Creative Cloud recently then you know it's downright
| awful compared to CS6.
| close04 wrote:
| > Not "replacement", not "superior choice", but
| "alternative". It's not at all dishonest to suggest GIMP
| as a bitmap editor, Inkscape for vectors or Blender for
| 3D meshing.
|
| If anyone told you they need Photoshop for their work you
| wouldn't feel at all silly to offer MS Paint as "an
| alternative"?
|
| Zorin's page doesn't _name_ any alternative, just a lot
| of names of commercial software. They sure do suggest
| that the alternatives are reasonably equivalent to those,
| which is a huge stretch. I can think of 2-3 paid Office
| alternatives that would give MS Office a run for its
| money but that 's not what Zorin offers and I have to
| find this out on Reddit instead of their own page. They
| bundle the free stuff that also comes with a most other
| Linux distributions.
|
| > You're kinda splitting hairs, here.
|
| I'm not the one trying to debate word definitions when
| the complaint was very clear. The vagueness and the
| framing of the comparison are intentionally misleading to
| sell a product. Bending over backwards to defend this
| behavior just draws even more attention to its
| sketchiness.
| replete wrote:
| I have my eye on COSMIC Desktop, but ultimately decided
| Fedora was a better fit for me from a perspective of 'latest
| stuff with less hassle, mostly stable' as a technical person.
|
| The real comparison is 'stable distribution for
| developer/techie type people' vs 'stable distribution that is
| easy to use for newbies'. Zorin is the latter, comparing the
| two doesn't quite make sense. If you are the former, you
| wouldn't pick ZorinOS.
|
| Not to say you can't do anything on Zorin you couldn't on
| PopOS, but the point of Zorin is a well integrated operating
| system for non-technical people, which means packages won't
| always be latest because they want to ship a stable operating
| system for non-technical people.
|
| If you had an older system and wanted to use it for basic web
| type activities, Zorin would probably be a better fit for
| that scenario
| afavour wrote:
| I hope this succeeds where others have, well, not failed, but not
| had overwhelming success. Years ago I installed Linux Mint on a
| family member's computer but they got frustrated enough with it
| (and required my regular intervention enough) that we ended up
| switching away. Zorin boasting about you being able to play "an
| enormous library of your favorite games" or boasting about the
| vast software library feels like asking for trouble. It won't be
| long before users run into rough edges.
|
| TBH in the current environment I still think the best OS for
| "revive an old computer for a not very tech savvy person" is
| ChromeOS. I've never tried the open source alternatives for that
| but I'd be much happier setting up a relative with a glorified
| browser as an OS than something that attempts to do everything.
| tombert wrote:
| My cousin got my grandmother moved to Linux Mint with some
| actual success. All she did was check her email and browse the
| internet, and Linux can do that perfectly competently.
| zamalek wrote:
| Same story here. Purchased a System76 machine for my ex-
| wife's grandmother. She "enjoyed learning about the new
| system". As a bonus she is now completely support scam
| immune, one of the advantages of the year of the Linux
| desktop not having happened yet.
| qn9n wrote:
| Not going to lie, I feel a System76 machine is way overkill
| for someones grandmother who likely doesn't really need
| that kind of horsepower... Especially given the cheapest
| model they sell is 1400.
| panja wrote:
| Could have been one of the mini desktop models
| qn9n wrote:
| That makes more sense
| xarope wrote:
| minus the cost of windows
|
| minus the cost of supporting windows
|
| minus the cost of malware and virii on windows
|
| hmm, so that works pretty well, IMHO :-P
| qn9n wrote:
| Windows is like 80? For the average user the average cost
| of supporting windows is basically 80.
|
| You can get windows laptops for $100-$500 just get one of
| those and put Linux on it? Not a single person's
| grandmother (except maybe that one that plays Skyrim)
| needs a $1400 laptop, total waste of resources.
| flkiwi wrote:
| My kid has an excellent Thinkpad I picked up for
| something like $500. Runs linux (NixOS, specifically)
| perfectly well. Even the fingerprint reader works! And if
| he spills something on it, replacing it is substantially
| less awful.
| firesteelrain wrote:
| Honestly, iPad might have been better.
| replete wrote:
| FYI: FydeOS[0] is ChromeOS without google services
|
| [0]: https://fydeos.io/
| biomcgary wrote:
| I'm curious about whether FydeOS would get in the way of
| technical work or just be another Linux for most things?
| odo1242 wrote:
| I mean, while it technically supports Linux, it's all in a
| VM just like normal Chrome OS. It's not any better for
| technical work than chrome is in that sense.
| pogue wrote:
| I'm surprised to hear that about Linux Mint. I installed it on
| an ancient laptop for my octogenarian mother and she could get
| around in it just fine after I explained to her how to use
| their 'store' to install apps. The interface is quite
| intuitive, I felt.
| qn9n wrote:
| My guess is if you are comfortable on Windows then Mint is
| perfect and works how you expect, if you come from macOS then
| perhaps Elementary would be better for you.
|
| Zorin negates this worry entirely and allows you to install
| one OS for everyone and then just choose the Windows or Mac
| mode depending on the end-user.
| throwaway638637 wrote:
| I was under the impression that elementary had stopped
| being as good since the pandemic because of the founder
| leaving. Is that not true?
| penguin_booze wrote:
| OOC, what were the frustrations about? I jumped ship as soon as
| Ubuntu started shipping with Unity. For me, as a moderate
| power-user, it's been pretty smooth sailing so far.
| qn9n wrote:
| I think that's the issue, you're a moderate power user so
| feature discoverability is more natural to you. I guess the
| issues his family had were related to things not functioning
| how Windows or macOS does (although Mint is pretty Windows
| focused) hopefully Zorin is much more user-friendly to casual
| users.
| pjmlp wrote:
| As someone that nowadays lives mostly on Windows, and uses
| Linux since kernel 1.0.9 days, Unity DE was so much better
| experience than GNOME will ever be again.
|
| After Unity got removed from Ubuntu as default DE, I
| eventually adopted XFCE.
| dontlaugh wrote:
| I also enjoyed Unity, we're in a minority.
|
| But I've found Ubuntu with Gnome 46 and a few tweaks to
| offer most of what I like about Unity (and macOS).
| pjmlp wrote:
| The "few tweaks" is exactly the problem.
| dontlaugh wrote:
| It's not ideal, but it was all either in the Ubuntu panel
| options or in gnome-tweaks. I did that once and I don't
| have to think about it again.
| fao_ wrote:
| On windows you have to apply "a few tweaks" just to get
| the start bar to stop showing advertising and work as it
| should. Windows users in the modern day have to do way
| more tweaks than Linux users do just to get a functional
| and unobtrusive operating system.
| pjmlp wrote:
| Which Linux users, from the myriad of Dritrowach
| rankings?
|
| And no, many normies use Windows just as out of factory,
| as anyone that has had to fix the cousin's computer
| during a holidays visit is well aware.
| graemep wrote:
| > And no, many normies use Windows just as out of factory
|
| Which means they do not "get a functional and unobtrusive
| operating system."
|
| My experience of Windows users is that if they do not
| know how to tweak it, they complain about it.
|
| > Which Linux users, from the myriad of Dritrowach
| rankings?
|
| Any of them
| pjmlp wrote:
| A functional and unobtrusive OS, is one where people
| focus on doing work, instead of tweaking the OS to enable
| a beamer.
|
| I would like to see someone using Kali Linux for a DAW,
| without issues, it is any of them, after all.
| fao_ wrote:
| > I would like to see someone using Kali Linux for a DAW,
| without issues, it is any of them, after all.
|
| Why would you use Kali Linux for a DAW? It's designed for
| penetration testing.
|
| Most linux distributions ship pipewire which handles
| everything that Jack, ALSA, and Pulseaudio does,
| including many of the advanced low latency features.
|
| Moreover, it's no longer required to recompile Linux to
| get the realtime features, that ships by default these
| days.
|
| Hell, Pop_OS! has better support for my headphones than
| Windows ever had. Windows decided that 1% should be
| "excruciatingly loud and unlistenable", whereas in Linux
| it shows me the interfaces available and lets me select a
| different audio routing.
| pjmlp wrote:
| Confused over here, wasn't the answer "any of them"?!?
| fao_ wrote:
| That wasn't my answer, pay attention to people's username
| ;)
|
| You haven't responded to the rest of my post, and your
| response of "If I can't do it on Kali Linux then it isn't
| possible because the poster said _any_ Linux distro "
| honestly leads me to believe you're more interested in
| nitpicking arguments to "win", rather than debating and
| understanding. But, I'm going to be generous with my time
| and energy here and answer nonetheless.
|
| In response to "Which distro?", literally any of the
| general purpose ones that have an update of this year.
| Whatever distros come up when you type how to move from
| windows to linux into google.
|
| A quick search shows that Linux Mint and Zorin are kind
| of favoured in articles. But hell, Pop_OS!, Fedora,
| Ubuntu, whatever. You're probably not going to turn Kali
| or Puppy Linux into a perfect DAW environment without a
| lot of tweaking, but a simple google shows a bunch of
| suggested distributions that would work fine, and a
| specialist search of "linux distributions for audio
| production" would get you a better selection. None of
| these distributions you generally have to tweak a whole
| bunch, at least any more than you would have to tweak
| windows 11 to get it working right without advertising in
| the desktop (lmao).
|
| We are a long way away from having to deal with
| Pulseaudio, Pipewire was feature complete for general
| purpose use in 2021 before it even hit 1.0, and almost
| all distributions now ship it, that's how much of an
| improvement to the Linux audio stack it is. Linux audio
| is good enough now that big audio companies like e.g.
| Presonus, are now supporting Linux:
| https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-
| us/articles/1921455826958...
|
| And tools like VCV Rack work OOTB on Linux, I even got an
| Interesting copy of Renoise running in WINE out of the
| box.
|
| If you want to see a considered opinion on Linux for
| audio production, here you go:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idcGxMFwvv8
|
| There's a whole bunch more, too. A good bunch of these
| work on Linux, too:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8HvTr_q2Yw (Although
| you'd be better off with Ardour, which is listed)
| spookie wrote:
| Just try to count the amount of people trying to fix the
| goddamn context menu (right click) by going into the
| registry or god forbid the command line.
|
| Windows is as constant of a PITA as Linux. But alas,
| these criticisms are never taken seriously.
| coffeebeqn wrote:
| > Zorin boasting about you being able to play "an enormous
| library of your favorite games"
|
| This has nothing to do with "zorin". Proton, wine, lutris, are
| available for all Linuxes
| fao_ wrote:
| > Zorin boasting about you being able to play "an enormous
| library of your favorite games" or boasting about the vast
| software library feels like asking for trouble. It won't be
| long before users run into rough edges.
|
| Out of the top 1000 games on steam:
| https://www.protondb.com/dashboard
|
| 29 are "borked" (unplayable)
|
| 26 are "bronze" (issues playing like "might crash")
|
| 82 are "silver" ("runs with minor issues but is playable")
|
| 823 are "gold"/"platinum" (works perfectly with tweaks, and
| works perfectly ootb)
|
| > TBH in the current environment I still think the best OS for
| "revive an old computer for a not very tech savvy person" is
| ChromeOS.
|
| Only 52 games are listed as "certified" for proton on Chrome
| OS.
| jeroenhd wrote:
| Proton isn't Wine. The version of Wine that Zorin ships won't
| run games quite so well.
|
| Installing Steam and running games through Steam will fix
| that, but it won't help with users downloading the Epic Game
| Store or GOG or the Rockstar Launcher.
|
| Having helped a few users get acclimated with Linux, I've
| found that there are always a few rough edges around games.
| Zorin seems to hide them very well out of the box, though,
| much better than any of the other distros I've tried.
| fao_ wrote:
| > Proton isn't Wine.
|
| Proton _is_ Wine. Fixes in Proton get upstreamed into Wine,
| and Valve hires developers to work on Proton, Wine, and
| Mesa. Wine isn't in the dark ages anymore and is able to
| run the majority of things you throw at it confidently and
| capably.
|
| > but it won't help with users downloading the Epic Game
| Store or GOG or the Rockstar Launcher.
|
| That's... why we have Lutris? You literally cannot shake a
| stick without coming across those. Even just typing "epic
| games on linux" into google and being a dumbass that reads
| the AI overview, it will tell you that Heroic and Lutris
| exist: https://i.imgur.com/KBiw1cR.png
|
| After that, you just click some buttons that are clearly
| marked and wait for things to install, and it just works:
| https://i.imgur.com/XUFJaUu.png
|
| To be clear, I literally _just_ did this because I wanted
| to try Fall Guys on my laptop with an aggressively
| underpowered graphics card. It took only minimal
| intervention from me (clicking "install" and "next", and
| then logging in to Epic).
|
| It's not as seamless as hitting "Install" on Steam would
| be, but if you're able to mod games on Windows (i.e.
| "follow instructions") you're more than able to deal with
| the state of gaming on Linux in the present day, and in
| many ways it is somewhat easier than Windows with the way
| Linux handles software upgrades.
| ChocolateGod wrote:
| > Proton _is_ Wine
|
| I think it's fairer to say Proton includes Wine, because
| it ships with software that is not part of Wine such as
| DXVK.
| Kaytaro wrote:
| I find protondb misleading because GTA V is supposedly "Gold"
| except Online does not work at all because of anti-cheat.
| Same goes for many other popular multiplayer games.
| jeroenhd wrote:
| The advantage of Zorin is that it comes with some level of Wine
| integration. If it detects that there's a Linux version of a
| Windows installer, it'll guide the user towards the Linux
| version instead, but opening .EXEs works quite well out of the
| box as well.
|
| Getting a recent version of Wine on anything but Arch-based
| distros without some kind of confusing intermediary is quite
| tricky, so making Wine somewhat usable goes a long way for non-
| tech-savvy users.
|
| I've seen Zorin on computers sold for cheap in several second-
| hand stores. All PCs that have no hope of running Windows 11
| (and probably struggled to run Windows 10 before getting a
| RAM+SSD upgrade). For reusing old tech, it's not a bad
| solution, though some users might have someone install Windows
| 10 later anyway.
| lawlessone wrote:
| >. If it detects that there's a Linux version of a Windows
| installer, it'll guide the user towards the Linux version
| instead,
|
| My anecdotal experience with the steam and steamOS has been
| that the windows versions of games run better via proton than
| their native linux versions.
|
| One game i have didn't run even run when i was on windows,
| but the windows version worked in Linux..
| cosmic_cheese wrote:
| Something that I believe is dragging down "mass audience" sorts
| of distros like Zorin is that they're only Windows-like in a
| vague sense, leaving them in an "uncanny valley" of sorts. One
| of these distros really needs to commit to the bit of Windows-
| like-ness so it's a seamless drop-in to the greatest degree
| possible.
| prmoustache wrote:
| I don't know, when I installed a linux distro with xfce on
| her laptop after he hdd died it took my partner months to
| realize she wasn't using windows.
|
| I mean she only figured out libreoffice was installed instead
| of the pirated copy of office she used to run and complained
| the menus were different. Little she knew that a more recent
| version of Office would too have different menus/items
| placement anyway.
| debo_ wrote:
| I've installed Zorin for several elderly folks who were
| bewildered by the Windows 11 upgrade, and they all seem to like
| it.
| malomalsky wrote:
| I use arch btw
| tombert wrote:
| I remember seeing this a few years ago. It certainly looked
| interesting, and maybe something I could convince my parents to
| use.
|
| I've been so entrenched in Linux for the last two decades and
| have come to Stockholm-syndrome myself enough to genuinely like
| modern Gnome desktop, and Sway nowadays, so a part of me isn't
| completely sure why you'd _want_ Windows on Linux, but of course
| I 'm not the target audience for something like Zorin.
|
| That said (and this is coming from a guy who is running Linux on
| the computer typing this and has spent a lot of time customizing
| Sway [1] and lots of other tinkering to the desktop), I'm
| skeptical of the claim that moving to Linux will be "faster". I
| haven't used Windows 11 yet at all, but for day-to-day desktop
| use I haven't really noticed Windows being slower than Linux. I
| haven't done benchmarks but I doubt the people running something
| like Zorin will either; it's _all_ vibes based, and personally I
| don 't really think that Linux feels faster than Windows, at
| least not Windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows 10.
|
| [1] https://github.com/Tombert/rs-swanbar
| webdevver wrote:
| THE ROTATING CUBE IS BACK!!!! LFG!!!!
|
| https://youtu.be/4QokOwvPxrE&t=120
| NackerHughes wrote:
| I'm glad to see it. It really didn't get much better than
| Desktop Cube back in the day.
| netbioserror wrote:
| Being Ubuntu based, I really think Zorin should be combining
| efforts with Linux Mint. There is quite a bit of work duplicated
| here. IMO Mint is the prime project; I prefer an ideal form of
| the core OS to a facade of others. Mint's choices have, as a
| side-effect, made it rather familiar anyways.
| hrdwdmrbl wrote:
| And Mint should be combined with Pop OS?
| lproven wrote:
| They're both in Dublin, as well.
|
| Clement Lefevbre is French, and Artyom and Kyrill Zorin are
| Ukrainian, although they grew up in Dublin. I met them and had
| lunch with them. They sound like it. :-)
|
| The big difference is that Mint is free and runs on donations;
| the premium Zorin OS edition is paid-for and had paid support.
|
| I can't see how the business models would combine. But, apart
| from that, I think you're right.
|
| Both have an Xfce edition, and in Zorin's case, it's free.
|
| Mint's flagship has a fork of GNOME 3 called Cinnamon. Zorin
| uses real upstream GNOME, but with pre-installed GNOME
| extensions to recreate a Windows-like desktop. Zorin sponsors
| Dash-to-Panel, and was involved in the original fork from Dash-
| to-Dock. It also uses Arc menu and a bunch of other extensions,
| and they're on Github, but they're not in the GNOME extensions
| store.
|
| And there's also GNOME Flashback, which is a separate Windows-
| like desktop based on GNOME $Current tech, but maintained by
| the GNOME team.
|
| There must be some way to combine these things and make a
| better experience with the combined efforts, but none of the
| three companies wants it.
| jestinjoy1 wrote:
| My computer lab with 20 computers working fine due to Zorin. Was
| fidning it difficult to run Ubuntu in these systems - 2 GB RAM,
| Intel dual core.
| trklausss wrote:
| My only issue with this project is that, after navigating the
| webpage for a while, I can't see _any_ reference to open source
| software, and compliance with their licenses.
|
| They should at least put a link anywhere in the webpage, where
| people can click and at least be redirected to their components.
|
| I know compliance is about "you only provide it if asked for",
| but they could be a bit more proactive and _embrace_ that they
| are using FOSS, not merely try to sell it.
|
| By the way: How does selling of the Pro version work with GPL? Or
| is it covered because they offer the Core version?
| OsrsNeedsf2P wrote:
| It depends what's included, but if it's only extra apps/better
| integration made in-house, those don't need to be open source
|
| Also you can charge money for GPL software. If someone wants to
| pirate Zorin OS, that person seems outside their non-techie
| target audience
| abhinavk wrote:
| https://zorin.com/about/#source-code
|
| The link is also in the middle of the home page.
| guestbest wrote:
| Is this the spiritual successor to Lindows?
| lproven wrote:
| Lindows became Linspire.
|
| Because Microsoft sued over the name:
|
| https://www.networkcomputing.com/data-center-networking/micr...
|
| Linspire was paid-for, and later introduced Freespire as the
| free community version.
|
| https://practical-tech.com/2007/08/05/linspire-ceo-kevin-car...
|
| Remarkably enough, it is still available. I reviewed the then-
| latest version in 2023.
|
| https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/15/freespire-95-breezes-...
|
| It's a successor in name only; the company acquired the
| Freespire and Xandros brands. The product, sadly, is unrelated.
| (I say "sadly" because it had a pretty good desktop based on
| KDE 2.x.)
|
| But -- yes, you're right, it sort of is.
| jim201 wrote:
| I'm glad that there are distros catering towards less techy
| people. Linux needs this. But I take issue with selling open
| source projects that could otherwise be downloaded for free.
|
| The $48 Pro version resells open source software (Blender is
| mentioned on their website) and slaps on a few themes. Even if
| legal, this just seems highly unethical.
| bigyabai wrote:
| > it is highly unethical to resell open source software
| produced by volunteers intending to make their work free.
|
| Why? ZorinOS users can still download Blender for free if they
| don't pay for the mega-pack. You have to imagine that it's not
| very hard for Zorin to follow GPL guidelines ("here are your
| 13,000 source tarballs, good sir") with this business.
|
| You also can't prove that any of these volunteers are against
| downstream repackaging of their work. If they were _really_
| ideologically against the idea of people being able to sell
| Free Software, then they probably wouldn 't be putting time
| into a GPL project. Commercial redistribution of GPL software
| has been a thing since the 90s, with much larger pricetags than
| $48.
| 0x6c6f6c wrote:
| I still don't understand the conflation of free as in freedom
| with free as in free beer.
|
| You reserve certain rights to the code, that's not to say no
| one gets paid for _putting in work_.
|
| If anything these models are about as close to providing
| _some_ manner of income to upstream projects. If Zorin
| donates a portion back, that is.
| yesfitz wrote:
| Would it be less unethical to charge a $48 installation fee?
|
| Because as far as I know, there's nothing stopping you from
| installing the free version of Zorin OS and then installing
| Blender, Krita, Inkscape, etc.
| thisislife2 wrote:
| They aren't selling a product (open-source software). They are
| selling a service - the effort to customise the distro and
| package it with free, useful softwares. Hopefully, they also
| donate some time and money back to those free, open-source
| softwares. Note also that GPL has never been hostile towards
| commercial software. In fact, with MySQL (before it was owned
| by Oracle), the FSF even endorsed MySQL's dual-license open-
| source business model.
| apopapo wrote:
| Strongly disagree on the "unethical" part. Maintaining a
| distribution is a lot of work, and the infrastructure also
| costs money. Paying for the distribution of software is totally
| fine. You are not even forced to pay anyway.
| dartharva wrote:
| The Pro version has dedicated support and is meant for
| enterprise customers.
| carlosjobim wrote:
| > But I take issue with selling open source projects that could
| otherwise be downloaded for free.
|
| Why should they concern themselves with you taking issue? What
| I mean is what gives you the right to have an opinion on their
| conduct?
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| I miss my early days of CS college and tinkering with distro
| installs and installs and so on. In fact it was so fulfilling
| that it felt like "cooking your own meal". I never used Windows.
| So in last two decades my experience has been Linux distros to
| osx/macos. If it was not for the internet cafe computer+internet
| usage before college (had no other exposure to either, otherwise)
| my experience of Windows would have been absolutely ZERO which is
| what it is now.
|
| I wish OEMs had made Linux distros first class citizens for their
| laptops and computers and I wish these distros also _imagined_
| "regular people" using their OS /software. I guess both never
| happening kinda kept nullifying each other. Maybes it's too late
| now?
|
| In fact there was a time (around a decade ago?) when the Linux
| based laptops had started becoming kinda "normal" -- I remember
| buying a Linux Dell Vistro with Linux pre-installed from Dell,
| had helped a friend buy an XPS with linux pre-installed. We both
| haven't touched anything other than a Mac in a really long time
| and last two times I had to buy a laptop I found zero Linux
| options (in India) -- let alone "good" options.
|
| PS. Oh, my favourite was always Elementary OS even though it was
| clearly in beta when I migrated to the macs. There was just
| something about that distro.
| bigyabai wrote:
| > I wish OEMs had made Linux distros first class citizens for
| their laptops and computers
|
| What more are you waiting for? Pretty much the only holdout is
| Nvidia, and they don't really make great laptop chips anyways.
| Almost every x86 chipset with UEFI and ACPI supports Linux to
| _some_ degree. At this point, if your chip isn 't running Linux
| it's because you've made a concerted effort to prevent users
| from accessing the bootloader.
|
| When people say 'first class citizen' I feel like it's always a
| moving goalpost. First it's 'working WiFi drivers' but Broadcom
| modems have been supported for a decade now. Then it's 'proper
| Wayland support' but even Nvidia has a working Wayland session
| now. So then the goalpost moves to 'but I want Wayland on XFCE'
| and the cycle starts anew. These days, the 'regular people'
| workload I see on most computers boils down to gaming and
| running Google Chrome. Linux does both of those fine; it's the
| culture that has to change before people accept it. Look at how
| successfully the Steam Deck penetrated the market.
| frollogaston wrote:
| "First class citizen" never moved that much other than
| Bluetooth being kind of a requirement now, since it's
| increasingly hard to find good headphones that use 1/8" jack.
| mrheosuper wrote:
| first linux is just the kernel, you can't do much with only the
| kernel, you have to target a distro.
|
| But which distro to target?, Ubuntu, Linux mint or fedora, or
| all of them. That would take a lot of effort to developing and
| validating (And no, we don't only validate the kernel, it's not
| enough).
| qn9n wrote:
| Elementary's terminal emulator and the notification bell which
| rang every time my computer finished a bell is embedded in my
| brain. I learned how to program properly on that OS and enjoyed
| every minute of it.
| tslocum wrote:
| Just because you _can_ charge for open source software, doesn 't
| make it moral to do so. Concentrating our efforts on making
| Debian even easier to use seems much more in line with the ethics
| of the FOSS ecosystem.
| pogue wrote:
| If you want to check out Zorin, or other popular Linux flavors,
| in your browser to see if you like them without having to install
| them on a VM/separate partition, try Distro Sea:
| https://distrosea.com/
|
| There's also quite a few good reviews on Zorin on YouTube.
|
| People should also note Zorin sells a "pro" version for around
| $50. I'm sure most people could achieve the same features the pro
| edition has without much trouble, but it also helps them with
| development costs and everything else.
|
| https://zorin.com/os/pro/
| jazoom wrote:
| DistroSea is amazing. I just tried it and it worked well.
| Though huge latency for me.
| qn9n wrote:
| I get a `proxy detected` error whenever I try a vm on
| distrosea, I've tried disabling all content blockers and am not
| running a proxy of any kind.
| gxonatano wrote:
| I know there's a place for distros like these, designed to be
| familiar to users of Windows or MacOS, but to me it shows Linux
| at its laziest: where exciting new ideas in system and UI design
| are skipped over, in favor of bad design ideas from 1995 (looking
| at you, Start menu). On MacOS and Windows you're stuck with
| whatever OS UI those respective corporations decide you get--the
| Apple menu, the Start menu, floating window management, and so on
| --and there's nothing inherently good about those paradigms; they
| mostly just exist for legacy reasons. On Linux, you have the
| freedom to customize everything, and to so it just seems sad that
| so much good development effort is going into building systems
| that value familiarity over innovation.
|
| Put differently, I find it sad when user-friendliness is valued
| over user-centrism. Linux is full of software that is user-
| centric more than user-friendly: look at Vim, for instance, which
| is famously difficult to quit, yet is designed to be ergonomic
| and efficient in a way which puts the user first. The Vim
| philosophy (modal editing, ergonomic arrow keys, etc.) has even
| been extended to web browsers (Qutebrowser, for instance), and to
| window managers (i3, sway, etc.). These types of programs, in my
| opinion, are where Linux really shines.
|
| Most people commenting here, however, describe this
| familiar/innovative or friendly/centric dichotomy in terms of
| user archetypes: "techie" and "normal" people. That feels
| unnecessarily essentialist, implying that "normal" people aren't
| curious enough to learn something unfamiliar, like a new style of
| user interface. But if we always assumed that, we'd never have
| had any innovative interfaces at all: mouse-driven desktop
| interfaces, smartphone touch screens, or any of it.
|
| Of course, Linux distros are diverse enough to have something for
| everyone. I just think that conventional, familiar ones like this
| represent a missed opportunity.
| frollogaston wrote:
| As a longtime Mac user, I kinda wish it had a start menu. So
| much useful stuff easily accessible. But also, none of those
| choices affect my productivity all that much.
| qn9n wrote:
| As a longtime Mac user, just use Command-Space.
| lproven wrote:
| I'm both. (Mac and Windows since 1988, before Linux
| existed.) The point of the start menu is that you can
| search; the point of Spotlight is that the computer
| searches.
|
| With Spotlight, you're telling the computer to run
| something you know is there, without bothering looking for
| it. You need to know it's there.
|
| With a dedicated app launcher, such as say the macOS
| Launchpad, you can explore what apps are available to you.
| Once you know, you can quickly open it with cmd+space and
| 2-3 letters.
|
| You can't open things that aren't there. You need to find
| what's available.
|
| They are different tools for different purposes, which is
| _why Launchpad is also there_.
| qn9n wrote:
| I agree that it's important for user-centrism to be a focal
| point of Linux, however I am also happy that distributions like
| this exist, yes you do lose some of the _magic_ of Linux by
| replicating a workflow a user is already used to, however this
| is perfect as non-technical people simply just don't care about
| that and just want to check their emails, social media, do some
| shopping, research stuff and watch some content online. They
| don't need to learn user-centric workflows like Vim to do such
| a thing.
| lproven wrote:
| > in favor of bad design ideas from 1995 (looking at you, Start
| menu)
|
| For what it's worth, that's the point when your comment jumped
| the shark. I knew then that this was just a rant.
|
| The Start menu was a _superb_ piece of design, as was Win95 in
| general. If nothing else, the existence proof of this is the
| sheer number of other desktops that imitate the design:
|
| KDE; GNOME 1/2; MATE; Xfce; QNX Neutrino Photon; Inferno; OS/2
| Warp 4; BeOS Tracker; Enlightenment; Moksha; XPde; Fvwm95;
| IceWM; JWM; Lumina; LXDE; LXQt; Cinnamon; GNOME Flashback; EDE;
| Budgie; UKUI; Deepin; Aura; FyneDesk.
|
| I could probably find more, but 24 should do for now. Even
| combining forks, there are over 20.
|
| You may not like it, and that's a legitimate view I am not
| arguing with, but _billions_ of people use desktop interfaces
| modelled upon it, representing the combined work of _thousands_
| of developers, reimplementing it in dozens of languages.
| gxonatano wrote:
| > the existence proof of this is the sheer number of other
| desktops that imitate the design
|
| That's where you're wrong. The desktop environments that
| imitate Win95 elements do it to provide something familiar
| for their users. The KDE team is not sitting around going,
| "you know what was designed really well? The Start Menu!" In
| fact, many of the desktop environments you mention (GNOME
| Flashback, Cinnamon) were a conservative reaction to the new
| GNOME 3 design which broke from the Windows aesthetic. The
| Wikipedia page for Cinnamon, for instance, says it aims to
| "follow traditional desktop metaphor conventions" and aims
| for a "gentle learning curve." They're explicitly choosing
| familiarity over innovation.
|
| > The Start menu was a _superb_ piece of design
|
| Not really. It achieves a reasonably clean look, but at the
| expense of excessively hierarchicalizing programs and
| documents. GNOME's Activities panel allows you to click
| "Activities" then click the program you want to run. Even
| better, you can just tap the Super key, type a letter or two
| of the program, and press enter. On Windows 95, I remember
| trying to launch a calculator, and clicking Start, then
| clicking Programs, then clicking Utilities, then clicking
| Calculator. In 1995, lots of people were complaining about
| the Start Menu, how clunky it was and how it slowed down
| common tasks. GNOME 3's approach is better, as is MacOS's
| Launchpad, as well as lots of other desktop launchers.
|
| > billions of people use desktop interfaces modelled upon it,
| representing the combined work of thousands of developers,
| reimplementing it in dozens of languages.
|
| The idea that pervasive ideas are somehow good, just because
| they're popular, is a well-known logical fallacy called
| Argumentum ad Populum. The Start Menu was never good. It was
| just popular. One does not follow from the other.
| pjmlp wrote:
| The only UNIXes that I consider ever caring for the whole
| experience as a full stack, for users and application
| developers alike, were Irix, Sun NeWS, Solaris, NeXTSTEP and
| its evolution as OS X.
|
| Sure you can argue Linux distributions can also offer something
| similar, the problem is which flavours and for how long, which
| brings us to shipping the Linux kernel underneath Java and Web
| frameworks, as being the most successful approach thus far.
| anonymousiam wrote:
| It's a catchy name that I haven't seen in very many places. A few
| years back, I met a salesman named Zorin. I thought for a moment
| and realized that was the name of a Bond villain (played by
| Christopher Walken). I mentioned it to him, and he said that his
| mom had named him after the character.
|
| The OS looks interesting, and may be appealing to non-power users
| who want more freedom and/or privacy.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvxumh7ULx4
| nemothekid wrote:
| Why has the spinning cubes / compiz demo remained a mainstay for
| desktop linux presentations for 20 years now?
| vivzkestrel wrote:
| can someone kindly explain to me how this is capable of running
| AAA steam games? is it running them natively or through some
| virtualization layer?
| lpzimm wrote:
| They mean through proton, which is Valve's compatibility layer
| based on wine. It was made for the arch-based steam deck but
| can be used on most (any?) distros. IME it works surprisingly
| well, although some games drop out when the anti-cheat gets
| updated, then might come back when proton updates.
|
| https://help.zorin.com/docs/apps-games/play-games/#steam
| __loam wrote:
| I assume it's just using proton like the steam deck.
| t_mann wrote:
| This looks like my favorite for installing on relative's PCs
| before the Windows 10 sunset - I'm just a bit worried about Dual
| Boot, I've heard some stories about hiccups there. Does anyone
| have comments about how Dual Boot works with Zorin today, or
| general experience with that use case?
| sonderotis wrote:
| Been dual booting for 2 years and I have distro hopped over 6
| distros. Never had a hiccup. Ever
| jeroenhd wrote:
| For what it's worth, Windows 10 will sunset in two years. You
| can pay $30/year for security updates (or get updates for free
| by enabling Windows Backup or spending Microsoft Reward Points
| you earn by using Bing) and keep using Windows 10 until
| programs stop working, which will probably take a while with
| the current status.
|
| My advice on dual booting Linux in general:
|
| 1. Resize the partition from Windows if you're going to install
| to the same disk
|
| 2. Do not use MBR mode to install anything. Windows updates
| will break your Grub bootloader, and Grub updates will break
| the Windows bootloader. Most PCs default to UEFI these days
| already, but it's always good to check
|
| 3. If at all possible, use the computer's UEFI OS dialog rather
| than chainloading Windows from the Linux bootloader. Kind of
| requires a user-friendly motherboard GUI, but if Bitlocker
| decides to turn itself on, you'll be struggling with recovery
| keys a lot less if you let both bootloaders just manage
| themselves.
|
| 4. If that's not possible or the motherboard OS selection sucks
| ass, and Bitlocker is enabled, write down the recovery key,
| boot through the Linux bootloader once (Windows will notice the
| boot process changed and prompt for a recovery key), and enter
| the recovery key. After a reboot, Bitlocker should unseal when
| booting from the Linux bootloader automatically, and now
| directly booting from the motherboard OS selection will require
| the recovery key.
|
| 5. If you're going to use a new disk, make sure to create a
| sufficiently large UEFI partition (>1GB, storage is cheap these
| days!) so bootloader/kernel updates don't break in the coming
| years.
|
| 6. Not really a dual booting issue, but if you're doing tech
| support for your relative, do yourself a favour and set up a
| tool like Timeshift (including automatic snapshots on updates,
| and if your configuration permits automatic integration into
| Grub). It'll offer system restore-like features, allowing you
| to revert the system to a known-good configuration in case an
| update breaks something. Timeshift itself works best on btrfs
| installs, but it'll also work in rsync mode on any file system,
| and other tools like it exist.
| pjmlp wrote:
| Just another Linux distribution.
|
| If it wants to be better than Google, Apple and Microsoft desktop
| offerings, needs to be available on random shopping mall stores,
| with the same adoption complexity as the competition.
| johnisgood wrote:
| Without Pro, I cannot choose macOS style interface at all? I
| think that looks the best.
| jeroenhd wrote:
| The macOS style looks very close to out-of-the-box Gnome from
| what I can tell.
|
| There are free themes that will also look like macOS if going
| for the macOS look is your goal:
| https://forum.zorin.com/t/making-zorin-os-look-like-macos-bi...
|
| Comes down to installing WhiteSur, a few fonts, and an icon
| pack.
| johnisgood wrote:
| Your link says: "You need to have Zorin OS Pro and the macOS
| style enabled."
|
| At any rate, as techie, I could make it look like macOS, but
| I was thinking of installing it on family members' computers
| without much effort.
| tom_ wrote:
| But there's already a Zorin OS! Example footage here:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=043WEs_6TAo
| ThinkBeat wrote:
| I used this (pro) for a few years. It is ok but it does not have
| any particular feature I found worth the cost of the upgrades.
|
| I bought the current version back then. I dont remember the
| number so X. Less than a month later they released the new
| version X+1 and that was at EUR39 I believe for a discounted
| upgrade.
|
| (numbers may not be 100% accurate it has been a while)
|
| But they do have a free version and that is nice of them.
| kwanbix wrote:
| The full price is 48+tax, so 44+tax for the upgrade sounds
| wrong.
|
| I personally use Mint/Ubuntu with XFCE which I found it to be
| the closest to my work habit and the closer to Windows (I use
| both Linux and Windows).
|
| About ZorinOS Pro, I think it is too expensive. They are
| competing with Free Windows, Free MacOS, and Free
| Mint/Ubuntu/Fedora/Arch. That said, if it works for them, let
| them be. AS long as they respect the GPL/LGPL and contribute
| back, I don't see a problem.
| neiesc wrote:
| It`s open source?
| jeroenhd wrote:
| Some components, like paid-for themes in the Pro version,
| aren't. But most of it is as open source as any Linux desktop.
| olejorgenb wrote:
| I assume it's due to marketing, but it really irks me that I have
| to scroll down to the bottom and click "View technical details
| about Zorin OS" to find out that this is a Linux distro build on
| top of Ubuntu...
| marci wrote:
| It's in the homepage, in the blue and green parts near the
| middle (Reliable | Secure). But still, they have the place for
| windows and macos in the tagline, they could add linux.
| timeinput wrote:
| I think I'm mostly agreeing with you.
|
| In old newsprint there was a term "below the fold" with a
| literal meaning. If it's below the fold it's less important
| than what is "above the fold" since no one reads below the
| fold.
|
| Is it burying the lede to point out that it's Linux (or
| GNU/Linux+Ubuntu extra packages how ever we want to pronounce
| it)? I would guess probably not.
|
| On a 32" monitor in portrait mode I did have to scroll quite
| a bit to see those bits. It was worse on my phone, and was
| even worse on a landscape monitor. "It's Linux" is far less
| important than what Forbes has to say about it, and it being
| Linux is more important than it being privacy respecting
| (which probably means Firefox as the default browser) to the
| page authors, but who am I to question them. Maybe this is
| the year of the Linux desktop.
| woodrowbarlow wrote:
| is Zorin Connect something that can be installed and used
| independently of Zorin OS? and does Zorin Connect depend on
| Gnome?
| incanus77 wrote:
| I have been using and administering macOS since 2002 and Linux
| since 1998. Zorin is my favorite distro when I need to put an OS
| on a machine and want a cohesive, well-designed, low hassle, free
| system for myself or others. It's really well done and truly
| feels like a unit instead of the many, many disparate parts that
| it is made of.
|
| Sure, you can do all of the things that it does in more custom
| ways assembling and using those disparate pieces yourself. Sure,
| it is probably less efficient on disk space and resources as it
| uses a variety of software installation approaches including
| Flatpak. Sure, its Windows compatibility is just Wine. Sure, it's
| hard to find info on the main product page about what it's
| actually running. None of those things matter when you want a
| computing system that is polished, free, and lets you start being
| productive instead of managing your system. If that's not for
| you, don't use it! You'll be fine.
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| How does Zorin compare to the likes of Mint?
| 44za12 wrote:
| I've been looking for a better ecosystem than Apple. This looks
| like it.
| pmkary wrote:
| Basically every linux marketing ever: a polished desktop theme
| that is familiar to windows users and works on old machines, also
| never mentioning this is a linux.
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