I wanna try out Linux for the first time with no clue what I’m doing and this seemed like a good starter for what I need it for what do you all think?

  • @Guenther_Amanita@feddit.de
    14•7 months ago

    Yes and no

    Yes

    Because it was my first distro when I started using Linux 3 years ago.

    It still looks very modern and beautiful out of the box, which was something barely any distro provided at that time.

    It will give you a fine introduction to the new OS and act as a starting point in your journey.

    For example, it clearly shows you the software center and other essential steps for a smooth everyday use.

    No

    It hasn’t really changed in the last years. Not in that sense other “stable” distros, like Debian, do, but more in the sense “We have no ressources to keep up with all new versions and changes”.

    There were many many significant improvements in the past, including performance and usability, which Zorin just never got. For me, it looks like a distro on life-support.

    The Wine-implementation (Windows-compatibility layer) is executed badly. It recommends new users to just install everything with it, instead of looking for native alternatives. Wine should only act as last resort and not as great way to run all your software like you used to.

    (Edit: there’s a prompt now to search for alternatives)

    Also, it uses the uncontainered version of it. If you execute Windows-malware, it can attack your host OS. Nowadays, we use “Bottles”, which creates a fake-drive and is isolated from the host, making it safer.

    Some people also dislike their Pro-version-approach, where they sell you customization features (templates) that you can get for free, but have to pay on Zorin.

    I personally just see that as donation system and don’t have a problem with it. It doesn’t affect the usability at all. I personally would prefer it to be activatable by “hacking” too, since you have to reinstall the whole OS if you decided to purchase the pro version.

    (Edit: it can be activated by enabling repos manually)

    What to do?

    I would recommend Linux Mint instead. It is also more on the conservative side, but extremely well maintained and super super user friendly with a huge community.
    Not without reason it is the number one recommended distro out there, especially for newcomers.

    That doesn’t mean Zorin is bad, not at all. It’s just not as great as others. If you want to use Zorin, do that! And if you like the UI or UX of it, you can always just replicate it on any other (“better”) distro like Fedora.

    Remember, there’s infinite choice and pretty much no “bad” one.

    Just pick something simple for the start and see, how your journey will continue! 😊

    • rush
      2•7 months ago

      It recommends new users to just install everything with it, instead of looking for native alternatives.

      There’s actually the “Zorin-exec-guard”, which runs when you wanna use an AppImage (for integration) or windows app and tries to match the filename to a known list of either native versions of the program or native alternatives. It then prompts you if you wanna use those instead.

      They’ve also released a migration tool for a future Z16 > Z17 migration and migration between Core & Pro.

      Another thing, the extensions and everything needed for pro layouts is all in the repos but disabled by default. You can all enable it manually.