1y ago

Zorin OS 17 Has Arrived

Since the release of our last major version in August 2021, Zorin OS 16 has garnered over 6.2 million downloads. Ever since, we’ve been …

Linux @lemmy.world

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1y ago

Zorin OS 17 Has Arrived

blog.zorin.com /2023/12/20/zorin-os-17-has-arrived/

20 5

84 comments

Does anyone use this? I've yet to find a defining feature list of why anyone should use it aside from cosmetic differences. Does it even have a defining feature set?
- I mean, you literally described 99,999% of distros tbf.
  
  Sure, but that's what I'm asking about. Why should people try this one?
- I use it. It's great. I've tried Linux many times over the past decade but it never stuck until Zorin. If you're coming from Windows it's a very friendly (and polished) way of being welcomed to Linux while also showing off Linux's strengths, things that are often hidden to the user unless they want to explore the terminal.
  For Mac users who are Linux-curious I would recommend Ubuntu because it's much similar, whereas Zorin seems clearly designed with people who liked Windows 10 but not Windows 11.
  
  If you want something like Mac, use elementary os.
- Zorin was, at least a few years ago, tailored to be easy to adapt to for people switching from Windows. This new version looks beautiful, I'm going to take it for a spin!
- oh yeah. its an out of the box for folks (like myself) who like that. Lots of apps preinstalled including play on linux. So I can install and start using without adding any additional software. Its not the only oob distro but combining that with the look feel emulation is great and I have never seen an oob that sets up wine so well to use immediately. So its a bit like a combo of a gaming distro with oob and then the lookNfeel thing.
- Tbh I see it as "prettier linux mint". Good distro for beginners but nothing more
  
  exactly!
- No, but I used this back when I was a little penguin and I had to "see" something working on Linux.
- Xrdp server enabled with a toggle instead of messing with the terminal for 1 hour seems unique
  
  That's not exclusive to Zorin however, that's just a Gnome 42 feature (unless the base gnome implementation is the one you're referring to that needs configuring in the terminal).
- yes and I love it
- I’ve got it on my fiancées laptop. She doesn’t use it very often though. It’s a decent enough experience
- It seems ok, guess I should try the free version before making judgements, realized the pro is ONLY $50 and completely optional. Sorry
  at minimum Seems they charge a shitton for "bonus" software like they're a wannabe windows or some fuckin shit. Avoid this if you have any respect for yourself or open source software
  
  Personally, I would say Richard Stallman has respect for open source software: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html.
  Having respect for free (as in "libre") software means caring if the software can sustain its own development, and not just caring if you get it free (as in "gratis"). It's not always viable to support a project on donations and free time the way GNU is. https://xkcd.com/2347/
  
  If you had respect for open source software, you'd be willing to pay for it
  
  Linux people don't pay, they donate.
  
  It's just support, for people that can afford it or want it. The bonus software is all free or foss, the rest are wallpapers or other gnome themes that can be get otherwise
  
  I use the free version. its fine. if you have to have it look like a mac then yeah you can pay or configure it yourself like you would with any linux.

So let me get this straight, they have a windows look by default, but using GNOME for whatever reason, then they give you the option to switch to something more vanilla GNOME but disable all of the gestures and workspaces, and then they advertise it like they invented gestures when they decide to stop disabling all of them
- whats bad with gnome
  
  Nothing, I use gnome, but if you want a windows look by default then plasma is made for that

So basically Ubuntu-based GNOME-skin OS, advertising GNOME’s new features as their own?
- Yeah, I don't get it either. Like 95% of the stuff they promote is already out there in Fedora for a long time. It isn't anything special to Zorin.

Is it me or does most of this look like Gnome? 🤔
- It is Gnome.
  
  Well I guess that explains it 😅

This looks beautiful, congrats to Zorin contributors!

Not much of a progress this time.
Still waiting for zorin grid.

All the shit I hate about windows packed into a Linux environment... I guess maybe it will help Windows users switch over?
- such as?
  
  From the screenshot, an ugly as fuck theme and a useless start menu.
  I suppose it the menu would probably actually be functional in Linux and not just a way for them to spam Bing.

mfw when entire distros are advertising UI features of gnome that came standard on every DE like 15+ years ago, including gnome.
Seriously, Compiz is from 2006.
- Also I find their Zorin OS Pro offer a bit scummy. Now the themes do look nice, but few would spend 50$ for a few themes. So they advertise having 5000$ worth of professional creative alternatives bundled. In screenshots you'll then see Kdenlive, Blender and Inkscape. I don't know what to think about the fact they want 50$ for bundling a few themes and free software. If they had just kept the stupid 5000$ part out I would have been fine with it, professional support can be great for people switching over from windows, but this seems a bit scummy to me.

We need fewer distros and more focus on things that matter.
- Damn, those silly volunteers are doing the wrong things in their free time!
- You're right. I will start a new distro that focuses on the the things that matter.
  
  Man, I laughed so hard at this one
- I think a unified package manager/app store model that is vetted by all contributing distros would go a long way. SteamOS/Steam deck is bringing gamers to linux and that's great. But it would be easier to bring on a lot more desktop users if there was an app store that every distro could visit. Flatpak is close, snaps however I think are too polarizing.
  
  https://xkcd.com/927/
  
  I use fedora silverblue. I'd like to switch to suse microos but the difference is so small that it's probably not worth it to switch. (Just a guesstimate, silverblue has some goodies afterall with the whole image centric os)
  Probably, it's almost the same for vanillaos. Because everything is within distrobox and flatpak, I do not work with the native package manager anymore (almost, there are exceptions because of the DE).
  If I would switch to microos, I, as an enduser, wouldn't notice too much a real difference.
  People should stop making new distros for what should be a post install script. But, things are fucking complicated and that's why we need the forks and new distros.
  
  despite my xkdc smartassedness I would love to see something that made an easy to do thing like this for linux https://portableapps.com/ there are some close things but not quite so easy.
- I disagree. Each distro is a user of a thousand different open source systems. When a distro developer integrates gnome, systemd, bluez, or whatever other system they're finding, reporting, and possibly fixing bugs that end users might miss. Other than arch users, who else is compiling these things from scratch and really digging into the documentation?
  
  Us weird debian testing users.
  
  Gentoo users? Void users?
  
  They’d still be doing that.
  
  That kinda is his point. A distro maintainer patching and distributing a thousand packages is duplicitous. Especially when the only real difference to the user is the DE. Putting those efforts upstream is a better use of resources. I develop software, and I’m not going to test a million different distros especially when the difference between Ubuntu and Zorin is a DE and some additional packages. It makes Linux users very mad, but the reality is that they are too fractured to support every distro they use equally.
- The primary thing that makes FOSS popular is that you can fork it. You're saying that people need to not do the main thing it's designed to be able to do!

Distributions nowadays are defined by their desktop bling :(
It used to be that you could just install whatever desktop you fancied on pretty much any distro.
- I mean you still can
  
  Can you install MacOS by Zorin™ on something else? I suppose there's a source repository somewhere and you can always compile it if you really want it…

More people should start charging for their work and actually staffing security. I like zorin just for the fact that I have expectations for items I pay for where things that are free I can't really hold accountable.
I know that's antiFOSS but I'm somewhere in the middle lately. I want to pay for quality but still be able to tinker with it.
- A lot of free and open source products are in fact funded through grants or corpates
- What do you mean? Payment isn't anti-FOSS at all, it's just a lot harder to make money when the source is libre.
  
  I'm glad you think so. I remember Richard stallman banging on a bongo singing that charging for software is greed.
  I just want people to have enough incentives for their time that things are safe and the workers paid properly. I wish more open source devs got paid.
- That's not exactly anti-FOSS, to my understanding, since the "free" part refers to freedom. As long as after you pay you are free to use the software as you want and get access to the source code, I think it might still count as FOSS? And then, of course, there's the option of paid support on free (of charge) software, though I think recent events might suggest that's not really sustainable.

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