Zorin OS 17.1 has been released

I tried to lookup what Zorin is all about. The marketing department should be fired.

They talk very beautifully, but you never get details about what EXACTLY you get with Pro version. Only desktop themes are mentioned, but no information about what the expensive app alternatives are.

They mention Maya, I mean come on...how many really use this tool? Only Linux app I know of that is even remotely similar to this is Blender, which one can install for free.

Are the rest of the apps also something you can grab yourself? Did I miss something on their web page?

Interesting stuff nevertheless...

I found this that may help some:

SlicEnDicE said:

I tried to lookup what Zorin is all about. The marketing department should be fired.

They talk very beautifully, but you never get details about what EXACTLY you get with Pro version. Only desktop themes are mentioned, but no information about what the expensive app alternatives are.

They mention Maya, I mean come on...how many really use this tool? Only Linux app I know of that is even remotely similar to this is Blender, which one can install for free.

Are the rest of the apps also something you can grab yourself? Did I miss something on their web page?

Interesting stuff nevertheless...

Click to expand...

I did give the previous version of Zorin a shot. Just another distro to me. Nothing stood out.
So off it went. I instead went with Debian 12 with KDE plasma on X, to replace the now defunct XeroLinux.
It's pretty decent, runs Kodi on limited resources, run MS edge well. A solid console and the usual Dolphin file manager.
You have full autonomy of creating widgets along with every inimaginable combinations.
Oh, and it supports the very good Stacer as well.

Its a customised version of GNOME tweaked to remove all the parts that get in the way of a desktop experience.

Vanilla GNOME is like it was built for tablets and smartphones. Not very user friendly.

It has been around for a few years, I may have tried it some time ago.

Hi,
Only thing that ever changes is the price lol

They do offer a paid pro edition with more features. No one is forced to buy.

Everyone can decide if deploying it is worth it for their needs.

Download half a million times when there are at least 1 billion pc users amounts to 0.005% of the world's PCs.

If I suggested a strategy that achieved 0.005% success in my job, I would be sacked immediately!

It has been a long time since I used zorin, but I remember it being pretty friendly and easy to use. I also remember elementary os which was geared towards education. Pretty cool stuff. Might give it a try.

I tried it a few years ago and it was full of bugs - horrible experience. The thing that puts me off most Linux distro is there is nearly always some basic simple thing that doesn’t work - like taskbar icons disappearing or looking different sizes.

I have linux mint 21.3 the latest and it can't see my Epson printer. I too have used a lot of Distros and like you say there is always some little problem that annoys me. If we are forced to go to Linux [ if we can't update windows] they will have to improve them to use as a daily driver.

try nobara one of most polished distros esp for gamers

Brink said:

I found this that may help some:

Click to expand...

Thanks, Brink! I already turned their site inside out and upside down, but did not find what I was looking for. Thus my rant.

Zorin Core demonstration and Zorin Pro for the DE/theme parts is good, but after that...not so much.

Ok, our friend at Explaining Computers demonstrates quite well what Zorin OS is all about, including the Pro features.

OAT said:

I did give the previous version of Zorin a shot. Just another distro to me. Nothing stood out.
So off it went. I instead went with Debian 12 with KDE plasma on X, to replace the now defunct XeroLinux.
It's pretty decent, runs Kodi on limited resources, run MS edge well. A solid console and the usual Dolphin file manager.
You have full autonomy of creating widgets along with every inimaginable combinations.
Oh, and it supports the very good Stacer as well.

Click to expand...

Debian is stable been around for ages, has a good active user base (but IMO the "Arch-Wiki" is by far the best documentation around -- and is extremely well moderated too) and works very well indeed. No probs with that -- many other distros including the one I like --Arch Linux are essentially "Debian based" distros.

@SlicEnDicE

Pretty well any Linux Distro with the KDE desktop with dolphin file manager and firefox as web browser should be easy enough for Windows users -- Linux Mint probably even easier and if you still want a mean and very lean desktop try XFCE. The main thing beginners need to know is how to install packages -- greatly simplified these days on whatever system you use --- on debian type distros -- it's usually pacman -S <package name> or apt -install <package name> - which is far simpler than Windows updates, and uninstalling stuff easier too and you run things either in user mode (as per Windows) or in super user mode (su as root or sudo as user with elevated privileges -- admin user). The main configuration files are usually text or xml files mainly based in the /etc folder under root (/). Any text editor can edit those. Networking is usually a doddle on these things and if you want a comparable Hypervisor to Windows HYPER-V then KVM/QEMU is available with a GUI (virtual machine manager) too.

My main daily use is actually a Linux system with Windows as VM's. No performance issues at all. - If I need specific hardware or different languages or want to do other tests I use a WintoGo system booted from a USBC->nvme ssdtype small 2TB adapter which gives me more than decent performance. For extreme Windows gaming types all this is probably academic but using a lean efficient Linux kernel with a Windows VM where a lot of the host hardware can be passed through can yield some pretty decent results these days.

For Windows users with limited knowlege of Linux I'd also suggest Linux Mint or even Opensuse.. I'm essentially against the more commercial organisations such as Canonical and IBM / Redhat getting too involved with their non commercial server offereings e.g Fedora (IBM/Redhat) or Canonical (Ubuntu). They tend also to add a lot of proprietary stuff into the distros which can in some way make it difficult to switch to other distros and you start to lose the myriad of choices and customisation systems you can do with Linux. We don't need more "Windows clones" !!!!!

The current Windows system is tricky enough to deal with already - especially the crazy way the insider builds are being rolled out where even the same build doesn't necessarily contain the same components - depending on where and how you get served the updates.

I'm not sure I'd bother with things like Zorin - although with any Linux it's easy either to get a Live distro or install and run from a USB type device - You can do the same with Windows but running Windows as a "WindowstoGo" system on an external USB is do-able but a lot more finicky -- especially in that it has restrictions that you can't install a bootable Windows from scratch on to an external device or update to a new build.

Cheers

jimbo

gmcgee78 said:

I have linux mint 21.3 the latest and it can't see my Epson printer. I too have used a lot of Distros and like you say there is always some little problem that annoys me. If we are forced to go to Linux [ if we can't update windows] they will have to improve them to use as a daily driver.

Click to expand...

That's my issue - if things haven't improved in a decade, it seems they're not likely to. I want something that doesn't need extra programming by the user to fix the bugs! To be fair, Linux Mint is probably one of the better ones for stability and things working as they should.

Thanks Jimbo, but I don't need a lesson in Linux. I've built tens of difftent distros from source code and scrap bits including making my own package mangers. It's not a problem for me at all.

I was just frustrated about Zorin marketing. I wanted to know what special I get from paying the fifty bucks, but apparently it's just the same free stuff as any distro can grab, except some more advanced apps comes bundled directly with the installer. Most of the tools I wouldn't use anyways...

gmcgee78 said:

I have linux mint 21.3 the latest and it can't see my Epson printer.

Click to expand...

If your Epson printer doesn't support network printing and/or PS printing format and if your Epson printer uses some proprietary protocols and doesn't provide a printer driver for Linux in this case then you're out of luck. Linux can print to anything that uses proper, well known and standard printing protocols.

What comes to Linux vs Windows in general. It's not a replacement but an alternative. It has always been like this and will always be. For some tasks Windows is better while for others Linux is far more superior. The gap is not as wide as it used to be but nevertheless there still is a gap.

Brink said:

Ever since; we’ve been listening to your feedback and working tirelessly to make our greatest operating system even better.

Click to expand...

Are they the creators of Linux?
I thought it was a cheesy Ubuntu clone.

Back in the U.S.S.R.