[HN Gopher] 780k Windows Users Downloaded Linux Distro Zorin OS ...
___________________________________________________________________
780k Windows Users Downloaded Linux Distro Zorin OS in the Last 5
Weeks
Author : m463
Score : 118 points
Date : 2025-11-23 19:38 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.zorin.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.zorin.com)
| rsolva wrote:
| I get a 404, this is the correct URL:
|
| https://blog.zorin.com/2025/11/18/test-the-upgrade-from-zori...
| rolph wrote:
| thats probably because so many people are downloading a 5~7 GB
| file.
|
| a mirror site[s] or a reputable torrent, would likely be
| helpful.
|
| try these:
|
| https://zorin.com/os/download/18/core/
|
| https://zorin.com/os/download/18/education/
| _ache_ wrote:
| No, the link is off. Ether they rename the article or it's an
| error from HN side.
| rolph wrote:
| it seems the link has changed, or corrected, but lands at a
| "blog" page Re zorin and install instructions. my OP has a
| couple links direct to the ISO downloads.
|
| they are large files, and move slow. its been the better
| part of a day and its almost finished downloading for me.
|
| 3.5, and 7.5 GB respectively.
|
| https://zorin.com/os/download/18/core/ [3.5GB ISO]
|
| https://zorin.com/os/download/18/education/ [7.5GB ISO]
| christophilus wrote:
| Why Zorin? It's always struck me as a weird distro. I can't put
| my finger on why, but it feels off.
|
| I wonder how much of a bump other distros have seen in the same
| period.
| Buxato wrote:
| Because usually it works, the out of the box deb + snap +
| flatpak, polished experience cozy look with some presets to
| minimice friction, + ubuntu LTS its a nice pack.
| cosmic_cheese wrote:
| More than other distros, Zorin markets (and has marketed)
| itself as Windows-like, which probably elevates it in search
| rankings and LLM queries for people looking for a distro that
| more closely mirrors what they're familiar with.
|
| People really, really want a "Windows, but just the good parts"
| with as little deviation and required learning as possible in
| terms of desktop experience. A distro with a DE that nearly
| perfectly replicates "greatest hits" Windows versions
| (2K/XP/7/10) would probably be doing serious numbers right now
| if it existed.
| GaryBluto wrote:
| > A distro with a DE that nearly perfectly replicates
| "greatest hits" Windows versions (2K/XP/7/10) would probably
| be doing serious numbers right now if it existed.
|
| Funnily enough Zorin _used_ to offer this.
|
| http://web.archive.org/web/2012fw_/zorin-os.com
|
| "Zorin Look Changer" used to "let you select from Windows 7,
| XP, Vista, Ubuntu Unity, Mac OS X or GNOME 2" themes, whilst
| newer versions want you to pay nearly $50 for the privilege
| (although they have significantly reduced their offerings,
| with their "Windows Classic" theme just being their "Windows-
| list like" theme with a slightly different start menu).
| k_roy wrote:
| $50 seems cheap for what they have probably put tons of
| money into to have consistent theming, in terms of both
| actual aesthetic and functionally.
|
| I say this as someone getting annoyed daily by KDE
| inconsistencies over decades.
| cosmic_cheese wrote:
| I have never used Zorin or its theme changer, but I
| strongly doubt it's much better than what can be
| accomplished by installing a third party theme, which are
| never that good and only resemble the mimicked operating
| systems in the broadest of strokes.
| k_roy wrote:
| Shrug? Our experiences have been totally different then.
|
| I bought an older version of Zorin, probably 15 or 16, to
| review for a blog, and I was totally impressed with the
| consistency of the theming.
|
| To each their own, but Zorin is a cheap on-ramp for
| people coming from older Windows/Mac and looking for a
| somewhat apples-to-apples experience of Windows or Mac,
| with actual updates and not a bunch of ads or telemetry.
|
| Not everyone is a Linux power user
| trelane wrote:
| So... modern Lindows?
|
| Hopefully it goes better for them than it went for Lindows.
| Though at least the name isn't lawsuit bait.
| rolph wrote:
| microsloth windoze
|
| https://jargondb.org/glossary/microsloth-windows
|
| would probably be even better bait, due to the perjorative,
| and 2 trademarks being adulterated
|
| what was it? "go make a cup of tea this may take awhile"
| trelane wrote:
| That seems almost, but not quite, _entirely_ unrelated to
| my comment.
| cosmic_cheese wrote:
| Kinda. Lindows didn't resemble Windows as closely as its
| name might suggest and played with fire with its naming.
| Ideally this new distro would have a custom built DE made
| to be as close as possible visually and functionally, yet
| legally distinct (which a skilled designer can easily pull
| off) and would not tie the branding to Microsoft or Windows
| in any way.
| netsharc wrote:
| The marketing of it as "looks and feels like Windows 11!" is
| probably the biggest hook, if one can assume the majority of
| the 780k are non-powerusers who are wary about the end of
| Windows 10's support, and getting pwned on the Internet...
| more_corn wrote:
| Microsoft is forcing win 11 updates with a bunch of AI
| features nobody asks for or wants.
|
| The new features render millions of windows machines unable
| to run the new version leaving them ripe for for an upgrade
| to Linux.
| Saris wrote:
| It looks good, plus they're good at marketing it and the
| website is very engaging with telling me what problems of mine
| it solves and how.
| sph wrote:
| Probably like MX Linux, which has, for some reason, topped the
| Distrowatch popularity list for years in front of Fedora,
| Ubuntu, Arch Linux, Debian. Strangely enough, CachyOS seems to
| have adopted the same strategy and it's now first place on that
| site.
|
| I've been using Linux since 2001, and I honestly I find it
| funny how these niche flashy distros are popular with the new
| generations. Probably because newbies follow the screenshots
| and /r/unixporn posts, instead of caring about support, mind
| share and governance. Except Arch, because it's both a really
| good distro and a symbol for cool h4x0r edgelords, so it's
| where everybody seems to land after playing with the niche
| distros like Zorin until they inevitably become unsupported.
|
| Rock-solid distros like Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora don't have that
| "cool" factor so noobs don't even consider them, even though
| under the hood it's all the same, and on day 2 you just want
| something that works, rather than something that looks good on
| a Reddit post.
|
| ---
|
| You know Linux has gone mainstream when baby's first distro
| Zorin has a privacy policy and terms of service page, as it's
| published by a for-profit company.
| cosmic_cheese wrote:
| Distros like Debian and Ubuntu also suffer from issues with
| compatibility with newer hardware due to their older kernels.
| This is part of why distros based on Fedora and Fedora Atomic
| (such as Nobara and Bazzite, respectively) have seen
| popularity.
| tormeh wrote:
| Also, gamers at least want the latest drivers. Not the ones
| from three weeks ago. The latest ones. That's why everyone
| is recommending Arch-based distros for that purpose. I'm
| currently on Pop, and waiting months for Mesa updates is no
| fun.
| arzig wrote:
| I find Fedora hits a nice sweet spot between
| compatibility/updates and random breakage, especially
| since they backport KDE versions along with kernels.
| incompatible wrote:
| I have tried Debian, but I found that the software on the
| main version was out-of-date, and the testing version
| eventually broke during an update (which is when I
| abandoned it.) It's not something I'd recommend to a new
| Linux user.
| slow_typist wrote:
| The question is, do you really need the newer versions?
| If so, maybe check availability via backports or extrepo.
|
| From my perspective a solid OS that stays out of my way
| most of the time outweighs the slight disadvantage of
| working with older software versions. YMMV.
| pluralmonad wrote:
| Stable with back ports works well for me. I have not
| upgraded to Trixie yet and have 6.12, which handles dev
| work, Steam, and llama.cpp (ROCm) without issue.
| XorNot wrote:
| The problem is Gnome have really committed themselves to
| screwing up UI paradigms.
|
| I'd be much less happy with Linux if Cinnamon DE didn't exist
| because that's essentially a Windows like experience without
| the BS.
|
| Conversely the default Gnome desktop is awful IMO.
|
| Taskbar, start button and menus all have decades of proven
| effectiveness, no one needed to mess with them just get the
| details right (e.g. fonts and interactions).
| gregoryl wrote:
| It took me a week or so to get used to Gnome, and now I
| find Windows 11 (and KDE) frustrating!
| arzig wrote:
| I like the gnome paradigm. The gnome implementation is
| bad though. I was promised that xwayland would be the
| bridge to a glorious future yet stuff like pointer
| confinement just doesn't work and their implementation of
| refresh rate doesn't play nicely with vscode. So, the
| reality is I still use KDE even if it's not quite as
| visionary.
| prmoustache wrote:
| Same here I switched to Gnome many years ago and even the
| newest windows and macos desktop feel old and non user-
| friendly in comparison.
| WD-42 wrote:
| You know what is proven effective? Not needing to reach for
| a mouse to interact with taskbar, start button and menus.
| GNOME is extremely effective as long as you aren't a
| clicker. If you want to stick to a 30 year old desktop
| metaphor that's on you but the rest of us have moved on.
| aucisson_masque wrote:
| I often see people praising gnome for it's keyboard
| efficiency but they are not even 10% as good as macos.
|
| If they cared so much, they would have keyboard shortcut
| for everything, in every app, with the top bar displaying
| menu and every shortcut attributed to it, just like
| macos.
|
| Instead you can use the keyboard to switch an app, close
| it and so on but once you are working inside, you
| immediately need to take your mouse. What's the point ?
| It saves 1 second and confuse lot of beginners.
| WD-42 wrote:
| I'm not sure what you mean - pretty much every modern
| GNOME application has keyboard shortcuts. In fact they
| use a consistent keyboard shortcut to bring up the screen
| that shows all the keyboard shortcuts: ctrl+?
| baal80spam wrote:
| > Rock-solid distros like Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora don't have
| that "cool" factor so noobs don't even consider them
|
| Isn't Ubuntu the first thing a "noob" thinks of when they
| hear the word "Linux"?
| II2II wrote:
| Ten years ago, sure. Judging from their landing page, not
| any more.
| type0 wrote:
| CachyOS is the new cool noob distro, with plenty of
| footguns so it stays fun
| shevy-java wrote:
| MX Linux is quite ok. Not sure why it is so highly ranked on
| distrowatch though.
| trelane wrote:
| > baby's first distro Zorin has a privacy policy and terms of
| service page, as it's published by a for-profit company.
|
| As though Red Hat and Ubuntu weren't a thing for literal
| _decades_.
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| The distrowatch rankings are based on page views to the
| distros section on the site. So the distros that lead the
| rankings tend to be moderately popular distros that link to
| that page on their site.
| thekevan wrote:
| I don't trust Distrowatch's popularity list. I have thought
| for years it was probably gamed.
|
| There are constantly distros in that top ten list that aren't
| in other top ten lists like mentions of reddit, mention on
| Twitter, Google searches for "linux distro", etc.
| Cadwhisker wrote:
| I have to do tech support for grandma. Every few years, her
| Windows laptop gets so slow that we get her a new one. This
| time I will test out a switch to Linux instead of buying a new
| computer. Zorin is the most attractive option because it's the
| least strange.
| bee_rider wrote:
| They have a very slick and professional looking webpage. Is it
| weird that that makes me wary? I'm used to the best distros
| having webpages that look like a wiki or a professor's website.
| jimbo808 wrote:
| In the past it made more sense to have a shitty webpage because
| open source projects don't tend to have graphic designers
| contributing to them, but anyone can AI a decent looking static
| site these days, so it wouldn't surprise me if some of those
| open source maintainers start choosing to use them.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| You can so easily vibe code a landing page that these days
| still having a bad landing page suggests you really don't care
| about the details, and that's a bad sign.
|
| It's a brochure website.
| GaryBluto wrote:
| Who decides what a "bad" landing page is?
|
| I'd argue many older and more simplistic landing pages look
| way better than their current equivalents.
| JoshTriplett wrote:
| > You can so easily vibe code a landing page that these days
| still having a bad landing page suggests you really don't
| care about the details, and that's a bad sign.
|
| "Looks like a wiki or a professors web page" is not "bad
| landing page", it's "aesthetic that is not the mainstream
| aesthetic". We're not talking about "things don't line up",
| we're talking about _functional_.
|
| And frankly, if I see that someone pointedly _doesn 't_ vibe-
| code their landing page, that's a good sign that they're not
| phoning in the rest of the work, too.
| II2II wrote:
| > having a bad landing page suggests you really don't care
| about the details, and that's a bad sign.
|
| That depends upon your definition of a good landing page.
| Personally, I will pay more attention to a Linux distribution
| if the landing page has information that is valuable to the
| community. If it looks like they are trying to sell
| something, I will just move on. In a way, I treat caring
| about the details as a bad sign (though I realize that I am
| just prioritizing a different set of details).
| swatcoder wrote:
| "At least vibe code it, so people know you care about detail"
|
| Do you see the irony there?
|
| If something is a cheap template or just vibe-coded slop, it
| denotes precisely that someone _doesn 't_ care about detail.
| It's exactly for those style-over-substance people that these
| tools exist!
|
| That's not to say that a dated, perfunctory, or poor attempt
| might not suggest a lack of interest in detail itself, or at
| least a lack of personal insignt for user experience. It
| could, but vibe coding delivers no cheat around that. It just
| writes it in big bold letters.
| GaryBluto wrote:
| I think a project's web page design conveys a lot about the
| philosophies of the project itself. My first thought when the
| page loaded was "Chinese knockoff of Windows 11" - it looks
| like a product.
|
| Update: It is a product. To get themes/configurations more
| palatable to former Windows and Mac users, you need to pay $48
| https://zorin.com/os/pro/
| omnimus wrote:
| Unfortunately for microsoft it looks better than windows.
| more_corn wrote:
| I'm used to Linux having a user experience that looks like a
| wiki or a professor's website.
|
| At this point Linux is stable and works and is reliable. It
| just usually looks jankey.
|
| I was pleasantly surprised to find that the zorin desktop
| experience reminded me of a professional OS.
| prmoustache wrote:
| What kind of OS are you calling professional?
|
| Solaris is dying, Irix last release was in 2006, is nowhere
| to be seen, all that is left is AIX and HP-UX but their
| available desktops are the very same you find on Linux and
| the BSDs
| shevy-java wrote:
| May be an age problem. Slackware has a homepage stuck in the
| 1990s.
| oAlbe wrote:
| That has not been the case for quite a long time now. Lots of
| distros still have websites that look like a wiki, see Arch.
| But in their case the Arch wiki is one of the best wikis ever
| existed for what it covers.
|
| If you look at modern yet established distros, I struggle to
| find the outliers that don't have professional looking, slick
| web pages. See all the *buntus, Fedora, Elementary OS, Cachy
| OS, Bazzite, Endeavour, Manjaro, Linux Mint, and so forth.
| oarsinsync wrote:
| Check out the Debian website. Slicker than it used to be.
| Still not slick.
| oAlbe wrote:
| I mean, ignoring the fact that it's one example versus a
| list of examples I posted, I still don't think Debian
| website is that bad. I remember how it used to be, when it
| had a link to get the CDs with the distro and the option of
| getting all the packages in the package manager repository.
| Debian evolved like everybody else.
|
| To me, and of course this is personal, Debian website looks
| pretty professional in an enterprise-y kind of way. I quite
| like it.
|
| But then again, it's one example. Hell, even OpenSUSE's
| website looks super slick and modern.
| ac29 wrote:
| Zorin OS' main pitch is the design work they put into it to
| make it look like Windows or macOS. As far as I can tell they
| wrote zero new software (the taskbar is a forked GNOME
| extension, and the Zorin Connect app is a forked KDE Connect).
|
| So, its not surprising they made an effort to make a nice
| looking webpage, design work is basically the only thing they
| are doing.
| aucisson_masque wrote:
| Honestly that's one of the thing where Linux is truly behind
| other os. Design really need someone to step up, gnome
| choices are really debatable, kde is great but c'mon.. it's
| not for beginners or people who just want things to work.
|
| I found that Linux mint desktop environment is the best of
| both world, zorin a bit behind then everything else.
| AuthAuth wrote:
| there is actually nothing complex or hard to understand
| about KDE. You can navigate your way around as you would
| with any other piece of software you're new to.
| doubled112 wrote:
| My 8 and 11 year old both use KDE. About 10 minutes and
| they figured out enough to start a browser and mod
| Minecraft.
|
| I think the people who have the hardest time are those
| who think they know what they're doing so feel they need
| to change things.
| accrual wrote:
| I tried KDE Plasma 6.5 on my gaming rig recently and found
| it quite intuitive. It retains most of the usual keyboard
| shortcuts and expected behaviors. Granted I'm a "power
| user" unafraid of dialogs and errors, but I bet my parents
| could figure it out.
| debo_ wrote:
| It's not weird, but it is wrong. I have used zorin as my daily
| driver for years now, and it's a great, boring Ubuntu distro. I
| love it.
| mhitza wrote:
| Looks pretty generic to me, in line with modern trends of
| spaced out, extra padded, pale tones.
|
| What it does well compared to websites of the same bunch is
| that it has good contrast for text. Not the obnoxious light
| gray on white.
| VadimPR wrote:
| If you know what a distro is, and that distro is most
| trustworthy when the website looks unappealing, chances are you
| don't need to be convinced of benefits of Linux!
| abcd_f wrote:
| How many came from AWS, Azure and GCP IPs? ;)
|
| Seriously though, a per-country breakdown would've been very
| interesting to see.
| stanac wrote:
| Who would run Windows on AWS? I know some companies do, but
| it's like 0.01% of all Windows machines.
| polski-g wrote:
| So what is it? Ubuntu with KDE?
| mastazi wrote:
| Ubuntu with a custom DE that has pre-set options to look like
| Windows or MacOS, so that people moving to Linux from another
| OS find themselves at home. The custom DE is based on Gnome
| according to the Wikipedia page[1].
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorin_OS
| zamadatix wrote:
| Customized Gnome https://zorin.com/os/details/
| codingrightnow wrote:
| Ubuntu with Gnome.
| constantcrying wrote:
| If people stopped creating weird spinoff distros, which offer
| zero value except for a preconfigured Desktop, the entire Linux
| Desktop ecosystem would be in a far better place.
|
| These distros focus on aesthetics choice, but underneath they are
| always plagued by the same things, tiny maintainer teams
| completely overwhelmed with the task of managing a distribution.
| Leading to a great first impression, but an inevitable breakdown
| in usability.
|
| Every single person would be better served by Kubuntu than Zorin.
| Simply because Kubuntu has far superior backing behind it.
|
| There are _hundreds_ of these weird distros, targeting different
| audiences and they are all terrible, because none of them have
| the actual capabilities of maintaining their distro.
| more_corn wrote:
| This opinion is what's holding Linux back. Having a clean and
| pleasant user experience on top of a stable Debian based
| distributed is the goal.
| GaryBluto wrote:
| > Having a clean and pleasant user experience on top of a
| stable Debian based distributed is the goal.
|
| That may be the goal for you personally but it certainly
| isn't the greater goal of Linux as a whole.
| constantcrying wrote:
| Exactly, you do that by installing Debian with KDE. _Not_ by
| creating a new distro, which you do not have the resources to
| properly maintain, which is then perpetually broken in weird
| ways, which no user can figure out since the base
| distribution does not have the problems the completely
| understaffed maintainers introduced.
|
| What all of these distros want to be is a basic configuration
| script. What they are is a nightmare for every user, since
| the user is now in the hands of a few people, who as a hobby
| are maintaining his OS and occasionally will break it.
|
| It is so bizarre that so many people want to make distros,
| when they are completely unequipped up do so.
| tvb12 wrote:
| It would be a really huge advantage if there were a really
| clean way to browse, apply, and (extremely importantly)
| reverse and remove such a configuration script. I've tried
| using KDE's customization options to tweak my desktop, and
| what I found is that I'm very capable of creating the worst
| desktop I've ever used.
| WD-42 wrote:
| Username checks out. Not everyone wants to use Debian
| stable, with 3 year old packages. And most certainly not
| everyone wants to use KDE. Choice is what makes the Linux
| ecosystem great even if it leads to fragmentation. Most
| distros are created by volunteers, what do you contribute?
| lousken wrote:
| It's not like Ubuntu LTS does not provide 3 year old
| packages as well. Other than that I agree
| prmoustache wrote:
| > Not by creating a new distro, which you do not have the
| resources to properly maintain
|
| Given the fact said distro is based on Ubuntu LTS there is
| very little to maintain except a set of themes and desktop
| customisation and default choices. The long support cycle
| makes it that the Zorin team is not facing major changes so
| often as they keep the same Gnome version for a long time.
| This is a perfectly decent sokution for people who do not
| feel the need to stay current with the latest version of
| any given desktop at all time.
| lousken wrote:
| You could also ask why XFCE does not use KDE in the
| background and just work on apps and provide their own KDE
| theme instead. They can't even make a wayland session in
| 2025 working so why bother? Or unity, mate, Pantheon from
| elemenetary os - why don't they just stick to being a theme
| on top of gnome or KDE and instead focus on the apps?
|
| The answer is the same.
| garganzol wrote:
| A distro working out-of-the-box for a certain user group is not
| a weird spinoff. Some people love to economize time; a distro
| that takes care of exactly that is a good deal.
| constantcrying wrote:
| None of these distros economize time. This is _not_ Debian
| /Arch/Ubuntu with some preconfiguration. Every single user of
| these distros is in the hands of a tiny number of developers
| who mostly work on this as a hobby. Things are going to break
| and they will break in ways nobody will know why, since the
| base distro does not have these problems.
|
| There is a very good reason why the Arch forums do want
| reports from arch derivatives, because they are all
| inevitably broken by their tiny maintainer teams.
| debo_ wrote:
| Zorin is not a hobby distro. They are a small company that
| does this for profit. You may like or dislike that, but
| your assessment is wrong in this case.
| prmoustache wrote:
| > This is not Debian/Arch/Ubuntu with some
| preconfiguration.
|
| Well yes it is. Zorin is literally based on Ubuntu LTS and
| their packages are binary compatible.
| EffrafaxOfWug wrote:
| I think you have a typo. The arch forums don't want reports
| from arch derivative distros
| aniviacat wrote:
| I don't get why major distros like Kubuntu don't just add a
| nice looking default theme.
|
| ("nice looking" by the standards of the vast majority of
| people, not some small group of hackers to whom Windows 95 was
| the pinnacle of design.)
| constantcrying wrote:
| I think Kubuntu looks very reasonable and switching KDE
| themes is as simple as it gets.
|
| Where I think you are right is that it would be very feasible
| to create a few different builds of e.g. Kubuntu which come
| with different presets or make those available during
| installation, with easy switching in the life desktop
| environment. Maintaining each one should be quite simple, as
| it is just a few packages, with some configuration on top.
| immibis wrote:
| How else will you ship your desktop to less-technical end
| users? Convince Canonical to include it in Ubuntu by default?
| Every time you create a customized version of Linux that people
| can install out of the box, you are by definition creating a
| distribution.
| shevy-java wrote:
| It seems as if Microsoft really put the gun to many people. Many
| things they don't want in Win11 yet Microsoft does not listen.
|
| Hopefully that will last - Microsoft has caused more than enough
| damage at this point in time. Quality-wise I feel the new Win-
| releases are progressively getting worse, less and less caring
| what users may want.
| dingdingdang wrote:
| And I bet even more have downloaded Linux Mint tbh!
| Jailbird wrote:
| Did we learn nothing from "A View to a Kill" ?
| mattmaroon wrote:
| Linux fans are like Charlie Brown with the football every time
| some new distro claims to be starting to eat MS's market share.
| Someone1234 wrote:
| I've been a Windows user since 3.1; and I've even defended
| Microsoft in the past (particularly when they made unpopular
| choices, but for technically correct reasons, like UAC or forcing
| vendors to rewrite their drivers into userland or using a safer
| driver model).
|
| BUT, I won't defend Windows 11 and Microsoft's general direction.
| I feel like there has been a slow cultural shift within
| Microsoft, from a core of fantastic engineers surrounding by
| marketing/sales, to the org's direction being set by
| marketing/sales UX be damned.
|
| Plus it feels like a lot of the technical expertise retired out,
| and left a bunch of engineers scared to touch core systems
| instead preferring to build on top using Web tech. It means that
| Windows/Office stopped improving, and have actually both
| regressed significantly.
|
| I've actually found myself recommending MacOS, particularly the
| prior generation of Macbook Airs which are absurdly powerful with
| absurd battery life for a fair price. Combine that with the lack
| of user hostility, and UX, that MacOS brings relative to Windows
| 11, and it is hard to ignore.
| api wrote:
| A big concern I have for the industry is what happens as people
| who truly understand how this stuff works age out.
| Unfortunately we seem to have stopped replacing them.
|
| Part of the issue is that computers today require no deep
| knowledge to use, unlike first or second generation PCs that
| genX and millennials grew up with. So you're not getting as
| many people with this knowledge.
|
| Just as significant I think is the prevalence of lucrative work
| higher up the stack. Why learn deep system internals when
| slinging JS and wiring together APIs pays as much or more.
| xuhu wrote:
| Thank God for lucrative work higher up the stack. Maybe
| programmers will stop being the only scapegoats for rising
| home prices and the high cost of living.
| laxd wrote:
| > Part of the issue is that computers today require no deep
| knowledge to use, unlike first or second generation PCs that
| genX and millennials grew up with.
|
| A point that I've often tried to convey among friends and
| family. No! Todays kids aren't natural tech wizards because
| they grew into it. All they know is pressing buttons where
| the UI/UX norms are good enough that you'll figure it out
| quickly, especially as a kid.
|
| In my early days I'd press commands out of the back of a
| manual in order to see what my commodore 64 was all about if
| I didn't load a game. Later, in the 90's with your family PC,
| you were bound to learn some stuff just by being a kid
| wanting to play games. Drivers? Filesystem? Patches? Cracks?
| OS? Hardware components (you'd not unlikely put it together
| yourself).
|
| And I think I was born too late for the best of lessons.
| preisschild wrote:
| > arly when they made unpopular choices, but for technically
| correct reasons, like UAC or forcing vendors to rewrite their
| drivers into userland or using a safer driver model
|
| Also UEFI and TPM requirements. And i don't even use Windows.
| stefanka wrote:
| You mean the m3 MacBook Air?
| Someone1234 wrote:
| Currently, I do, but mostly I mean whatever last year's
| generation of Macbook Air is. Since you get the best bang for
| your buck that way, and there are some incredible deals on
| the M3 and will likely be on the M4 when it is replaced.
| mips_avatar wrote:
| I think the toughest thing for me has been watching my former
| coworkers on Windows transform from technology loving builders
| into depressed cynics. Like these were some of the most
| brilliant people I knew and now they struggle to get out of
| bed.
| lousken wrote:
| 100% agree, I still can't believe how fast windows is
| deteriorating. With that said, Linux and Debian helped me a
| lot. I enjoy tech again. With windows I hated 95% of changes,
| with linux it is the exact opposite. Having some experience
| since Ubuntu 12.04, it's amazing to see the progress
| especially of the last 5 years.
| accrual wrote:
| Dave Plummer, retired Microsoft engineer from the early days,
| made a video on this 2 weeks ago:
|
| > Windows "SUCKS": How I'd Fix it by a retired Microsoft
| Windows engineer
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTpA5jt1g60
| cons0le wrote:
| I fired up my 10yrs old windows 7 PC for the first time in
| forever and was appalled at how snappy and quick the OS was
| compared to my same spec win10 PC. As a career primarily-
| microsoft-shop engineer I'm done with windows for personal use.
| I'll never forgive the for wasting everyones time with this
| garbage. Meanwhile I constantly find bugs from before 2002 that
| are still in windows10. Windows honestly made me slowly hate
| all computers.
|
| The only piece of technology in my life that does exactly what
| it's supposed to do are my keyboards where I make the firmware.
| Everything else is pop up ridden dogshit
| BoppreH wrote:
| Very sleek marketing, but why did they rebrand (the fantastic)
| KDE Connect to "Zorin Connect"[1]? From the mere <30 commits, I
| see no reason for the fork, only confused users.
|
| If it was tightly integrated into the OS I could sort of
| understand not mentioning its name, like you don't want "Foobar
| Control Panel" and "FizzBuzz Start Menu". But KDE Connect is a
| standalone app you can install even on Windows. And this is not
| just hiding the name, it's replacing it!
|
| So, why the "rebrand"[2]? It feels like an attempt at stealing
| credit.
|
| [1] https://github.com/ZorinOS/zorin-connect-android and
| https://github.com/ZorinOS/gnome-shell-extension-zorin-conne...
|
| [2] https://github.com/ZorinOS/zorin-connect-android/issues/19
| ddtaylor wrote:
| Forking it makes it easier to convince your flock of sheep that
| you must pay for GPL software. It also gives them a lot of
| opportunity to inject their own happy accidents into there.
| casey2 wrote:
| One thing that's important but rarely mentioned in discussions
| like these is how many Windows users even have experience working
| on unix systems these days? I feel like they are in for a rude
| awakening if they assume every OS is like windows
| nehal3m wrote:
| If all you do is start a browser and maybe an e-mail client
| then for the majority of users it will be like Windows.
| prmoustache wrote:
| It took months for my other half to realize she wasn't on
| windows anymore after her hdd died and she only knew it because
| I said I could not install office 365 on Linux so she'd better
| get used to either libreoffice or onlyoffice is she didn't want
| to pay 5bucks a month to use a limited web version of office.
| jasonfarnon wrote:
| why? I don't think if it's customized sufficiently it wouldn't
| be much worse when os x went BSD. I would guess very few apple
| users back then were familiar with linux and I don't remember
| issues.
| jackvalentine wrote:
| I'm looking for a replacement OS for my mother in law whose
| computer is aging out of Windows 10 support. I'm glad to see
| slick distributions like this trying to fill that gap.
|
| That said her requirements are _so_ simple that Debian with
| Chromium would probably satisfy 100% of her requirements which
| are 'download documents from gmail and print them'.
| chillfox wrote:
| Get her on a Mac if you can. I got my mum to switch to Mac from
| Windows over a decade ago and it's been fantastic for both of
| us. Her support needs dropped from once every two months to
| once every few years, and she's been able to do more with her
| computer than she would ever have attempted on Windows. She's
| been using knitting software to make patterns to share and
| learnt how to use photoshop, all by herself. The computer just
| working and not breaking anytime she tried something was
| fantastic for her confidence in trying/learning new things.
| jackvalentine wrote:
| No I don't think I'll spend a minimum of A$999 so she can use
| chrome and print things.
| OsrsNeedsf2P wrote:
| And how many people are running Zorin?
| oliyoung wrote:
| Could it be? Could 2026 be the year of linux on the desktop?
| ddtaylor wrote:
| I have a long history with ZorinOS, and I will make it very
| short.
|
| They are grifters.
|
| The simple fact is that they release open source software, much
| of which is licensed as GPL. They modify these programs from time
| to time to be compatible with ZorinOS, etc.
|
| They refuse to release any of their sources sometimes, and when
| they do, they put takedowns and ban people from their community
| because they believe their paid-for ISOs are closed-source -
| which is not true.
|
| If you think I'm wrong, mistaken, lying, etc. grab any ZorinOS
| ISO and go put it on a ZorinOS community website, such as Reddit
| and sit back and watch.
|
| It's worth mentioning I find all of the ZorinOS downloads using
| DHT scan. I haven't touched them in a while, but I still find the
| entire situation perplexing. I have to imagine part of this issue
| is that the Chinese community is newer to FOSS and doesn't
| understand these longstanding ideas.
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