Wait unti you have to upgrade Zorin to a new release. I still haven’t gotten mine to work. Stick with Mint or Bazzite if you want a Windows alternate
Wait unti you have to upgrade Zorin to a new release. I still haven’t gotten mine to work. Stick with Mint or Bazzite if you want a Windows alternate
I wouldn’t exactly put up Mint as an example for a smooth upgrading experience…
Maybe I lack the technical understanding, but it’s absolutely baffling to me, why one has to download mintupgrade. It’s a reasonable setup wizard once it’s running, but why on earth is that not part of the whole Update tool interface in the first place and gets downloaded automatically?
Amazing how lemmings will find a way to jump off of any cliff.
“Free OS that works great?”
NO! I WANT TO PAY.
To people who will pay whatever they think a thing is worth, a free OS is worthless
Free as in Freedom and not free as in beer. I donate to a lot of open-source projects such as KDE.
I keep hearing about this “free as in beer.” Where are you guys getting free beer? Can I have some?
I’m mostly amazed that they discovered it. When I think of a good transition distro this is not what comes to mind. Must have been some kind of targeted ad campaign. Also there’s probably a ton of people that think no good software could possibly be free.
They’ve been astroturfing the fuck out of it for the last 6 weeks.
This was my guess. This shit doesn’t come from nowhere. My bet is that some big wig or VC backed it and is trying to get ROI.
Nah, y’all just young. Zorin’s designed to look extremely Windows-like, and they’ve always gotten a bump when Microsoft has a stroke. Last time they grew a lot was Windows 8.
If anything, this is just a sign of how badly Microsoft has fucked up with Windows 11.
These kind of distros always existed. I’m pretty sure I still have CDs around with Lindows from around the same Mandrake and Knoppix was the cool stuff.
I’ve been running linux for decades and I only heard of it those past few months. But then I never used YouTube or social stuff much, maybe they communicate there.
It’s been around quite a while, but I never heard it mentioned as much as in the last two months.
Zorin? Its a great transition distro. Clean aesthetic, with back end gnome tweaks so you can have it look like KDE/windows. Software store made easy. Everything seems to work OOTB.
with back end gnome tweaks so you can have it look like KDE
you know what looks like KDE?
KDE.
But KDE isn’t as integrated throughout the system like GNOME, on Zorin you have 4 desktops styles you can choose that range from GNOME like to KDE like without having to switch DEs.
I know KDE is highly customizable, but it doesn’t have the smooth feel of GNOME, and for a distro where their whole vibe is a clean aesthetic GNOME makes more sense
KDE is free
Zorin is a smooth clean aesthetic, and GNOME has that integration into everything, making the system feel polished. So when a user transitions to Zorin you can stay on same DE and have it windows like, and later choose 1 of the 4 styles of interface without tweaking.
KDE Is amazing for customization, but with Zorin being so focused on being a polished UX, GNOME makes more sense.
I mean, I don’t mind monetization if it keeps the project alive and they’re actually doing work. I do mind free stuff that comes at the price of your data, or free stuff that is eventually bought up, or free stuff that can’t sustain itself and constantly splits off and churns through personal drama cycles.
so your going with pro then?
It’s honestly like that with free mobile apps. You either find a paid version or you install free abandonware riddled with ads.
Or you look on fdroid…
If windows users want to pay for a superior OS even though they don’t have to, let them.
Ha, didn’t realise Zorin was paid for. I’ll stick with Debian. Not only is it free, it was made for lesbians who I also whole heartedly support.
Hahah, I can’t tell if this comment is queer, or neckbeard. X)
Neither interpretation paints the commenter in that good a light.
I’ve had Zorin on an old laptop for a few years now, it’s pretty good. I’d previously tried Mint and another distro I can’t remember the name of, but I’ve stuck with Zorin. I’ll probably go with it on my PC once I’ve done a backup.
I hope they find Mint soon. Zorin never worked well for me.
How does Zorin compare to Mint?
Prettier but has a track record of having more technical issues. Also the devs are a company with absolutely no transparency. At some point there was so few communication that I thought they closed shop.
If you want a similar UI, I would advise going for a vanilla Gnome and adding the desired “Zorin *” extensions. It’s a bunch more work to setup but it feels more trustworthy to me.
More glitz and glam than many other distros I’ve tried. It was the first one I tried when trying to leave Windows. Eventually did Mint, Pop, Nobara, and Garuda. Chose Mint to stick with for now and haven’t regretted it.
If one of my less savvy friends asked about switching to Linux, I would mention Zorin as a possible option simply because it goes out of its way to feel familiar.
Thanks! I got the feeling that it was trying to feel like windows to ease the pain of transition. I’ve just seen several hype posts for it recently and wondered what was up.
I don’t really get this “it has to be similar to Windows” approach. It’s gonna be different, the more you try to imitate windows, the more frustrating it will be when you get to things that HAVE to be different.
out of box distro so it comes with a bunch of software pre installed. .
Uses Gnome instead of Cinnamon, has a paid version, that’s all the differences I can think of
@yessikg @King @pressedhams It also tries a bit harder to look superficially like Windows.
Why does Zorin exist?
Linux Mint exists to be defuckulated Ubuntu, and to show off the Cinnamon desktop which is defuckulated Gnome.
Neon is KDE’s in-house distro, because I guess they get to have one even if it is functionally identical to Kubuntu.
Manjaro is Arch that’s ready to go out of the box.
What is Zorin for? Do they develop any software, or do they charge money for re-themed Ubuntu Gnome?
please do not suggest that manajaro is arch ready to use arch. manjaro is just bad. if you want easier to install arch go endeavour os or cachy or some other arch plus gui installer. https://manjarno.pages.dev/
I said that’s the reason Manjaro exists, not that it’s any good at it.
Nobody has answered me what Zorin is for.
It’s for people who don’t know what an operating system is (probably over half the world population or much greater) but can understand “this is like Windows but works faster and with less viruses, and it has something like Microsoft Office but free”.
It was the most easy to convince others to use it during the Windows 8 era because it looked so much like Windows 7 and likely the same is happening now with the end of life of Windows 10.
Not that hard if you ever spoke to anyone who doesn’t really understand computers. Good for you I guess that you came from a family of tech literate people I guess.
Same could be said about Mint; I was asked several times what version of WIndows I had on my laptop. Some people are convinced to this day they met a guy running Windows 9.
This EXACTLY what I’m gonna tell people now with a straight face
Thanks
Sure, these days it could be said (though Mint still is a bit different looking enough that it could also be said it looks less like Windows 10 than Zorin - that’s why they think you’re running Windows 9 instead). 10 - 15 years ago? No, Mint didn’t look like Windows. Maybe Windows XP but not 7.
That’s why Zorin exists, because back then it actually looked a lot like Windows, and was one of a few that did so.
And, it could also easily change it’s look to XP, Vista, 95, and Mac back then too. I think now though it’s only Pro that it has all the options, but it also has expanded options I see including ChromeOS (which I imagine is something certain schools would prefer).
And unlike Mint, even the core edition can easily swap to a touch type interface for those with touchscreen laptops.
I, personally, think Omarchy is the best “easier to install Arch” out there - you can hand out a flashdrive to anyone with at least the most basic IT-knowledge and they would get a working, useable and upgradeable system within ~20 minutes.
Why would anyone who wants something easy to install go with Arch? You’re not the target audience! Just install Fedora or Debian!
Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Suse… in the end, it doesn’t matter. If you (you as in “newbie Linux user”) find a distro that captures your attention that is all that matters. For me - personally - it was some Slackware based distribution that hooked me back in the 90s…
I am not going to get into politics, and just suggest a read of https://マリウス.com/a-word-on-omarchy/
Yes, Omarchy is in some ways quiet… hacky and has a bit of a “style over substance” approach, but i think that is not THAT important for the role it fills. It remembers me of the various riced up setups from the early 00s (and perhaps late 90s, but my memory is hazy in that regard) that simply looked cool (i just say “compiz”) and had this WOW effect on regular Windows users.
Omarchy has this and also benefits from an idiot proof setup routine. If it drags in people from Windows its good, some will start tinkering with it, some will dig deeper into the Linux / Unix world… its an entry level drug in a way.
It’s a defuckulated Ubuntu with a a dozen custom Gnome extensions. They do publish the extensions code. It exists because Mint is often ugly and not very ergonomic. See the “file” apps for both distros, Mint’s buttons are too small and the progress indicator is a tiny 16px icon in the status bar.
And sometimes the dark themes available in Mint make the buttons the same dark colors as the dark backgrounds ;u; (cinnamon user here)
No wonder Windows users switched to it - Core, Pro and Education editions, each with a cost? That’s Windows in a Linux jumpsuit
There’s nothing wrong with giving money to FOSS projects.
In fact, a major issue with the open source world is users never donating.
I’ve never used Zorin and don’t intend to, but the existence of optional paid software isn’t why.
The Pro edition is basically a donate button that gets you a few themes and applications that you can just as easily install from Flathub.
Core is free. And then you install the apps to make it like Pro. Some people like everything done for them, and some businesses won’t approve free software for use, as it has a stigma of being sketchy, so adding a paid version can get this past your chief technical officer at a corporation.
The answer to your question which sounds like a statment is no.
Removed by mod
Oh fuck off. You’ll Luigi the open source people who offer a free OS designed for people unfamiliar with Linux but not Oracle or Microsoft CEOs? Surrrrrre.
You harm the open source community far more than the average closed source marketer. Haven’t even heard of a distro that’s been around over a decade either? Poser
Where have you been? Lol. Its been quite popular in Linux discussions I have seen around the COVID era. Started in 2009/2010 Used to have a suggested fee and you’d just type how much you wanted to pay, even $0. Looks like they now specifically set it into separate downloads , free for core version and money for preinstalled apps.
Zorin’s been around for years. I’ve only ever used the free version. It’s okay, but I think Mint is a better transition between Windows and Linux.
I’ve been using Nobara as my first distro for the past couple months. It’s been braindead easy and I haven’t had any issues aside from Steam Remote play refusing to work.
I’ve heard of Zorin before. It’s been around for a while, but last I heard anything was years ago. There’s not been much hype or anything since.
ive used it for years but yeah seems like with 18 they are trying to leverage windows 11 popularity to increase users.
