First, I want to express sincere appreciation to the Zorin team for making the move to Brave as the default browser. It's a refreshing and bold step toward privacy-respecting, performance-oriented software, and it's encouraging to see a distro recognize the direction that many users are leaning toward.
That said, I’d like to offer some constructive feedback on areas where Zorin OS could further distinguish itself — specifically by reducing reliance on upstream components that carry increasingly strong political or ideological branding.
1. GNOME Desktop Environment
GNOME has increasingly integrated decisions and messaging that many of us find politically charged or ideologically motivated. As a user who values neutrality in tech and prefers tools that focus on functionality and user control rather than pushing a worldview, GNOME has become harder to support.
Suggestion: Consider offering KDE Plasma as the default desktop in future editions. Plasma is:
Highly customizable, yet user-friendly
Performs well on both older and modern hardware
Developed by a community that seems more focused on features and stability than politics
2. Ubuntu as a Base
Ubuntu, while popular, is not ideologically neutral — its parent company Canonical has made decisions and statements that alienate users who want politics out of their software stack. With Ubuntu being the base for Zorin OS, this raises concern for long-term alignment.
Suggestion: While I understand the engineering convenience and ecosystem benefits Ubuntu provides, please keep an open mind to possibly shifting to a more neutral or independent base in the future — or at least make efforts to decouple from decisions made upstream when possible.
Examples of more neutral alternatives at the base level include:
Devuan (Debian fork without systemd and with less political baggage)
Solus (independent build with more pragmatic focus, even if they’ve made some questionable choices too)
Final Thoughts:
Zorin OS is a breath of fresh air in many ways — polished, beginner-friendly, and thoughtfully designed. The switch to Brave was a big step in the right direction. By continuing down this path — perhaps by distancing from GNOME and Ubuntu — Zorin has the opportunity to become the go-to distro for users who value quality and neutrality in their computing experience.
Thanks again for your work, and for being open to feedback from your community.
Can you give me some examples? I keep hearing this about GNOME, but haven't really encountered anything to back it up (save for maybe the pronouns next to names of their devs xd). Maybe I just don't see it..
It's a shame they're phasing out the XFCE version (Zorin OS Lite). It doesn't have the extensions ecosystem that Gnome has but it's highly customizable and quite stable.
Using a different base seems like a good idea as well, although I'd stick to Debian. The fact is that systemd has won and there is plenty of software out there that relies on systemd services to work properly.
I know this because I'm running Devuan right now, and while everythinig works fine, I do have to work around some installer scripts that fail because they expect to find systemd commands.
How are any of these politically charged as the OP said? Just wondering, I haven't read through those links yet but I definitely will once I'm home from work.
Also yeah these choices kinda suck. I am a bit lenient with GTK4 and Libadwaita because I like the way it looks, but even so I love theming and wish they made it easier rather than doing the opposite.
Removing features - I guess it depends on this one. I dont like things being cluttered, but I also don't like that they don't give us some essential features - app indicators for example. Zorin adds a lot of these features so it makes me appreciate them and Gnome itself, even though the gnome devs would probably not like the way I use their DE🙃
I don't think vanilla Debian is a good alternative to Ubuntu. Same ideological push. Maybe something more independent like what Solus is doing as I suggested if not Devuan.
Solus wouldn't be a good Idea for a Base. The Problems in the Past lost Trust. And the Changes in the future are a Point, too. When they will use Serpent OS as Base, there would be a small Distro that is based on another small Distro. I don't think, that this is a good Idea.
Debian would be a good Solution I think. It is a bit more raw that Ubuntu but is reliable and simply works. And through the Debian Backports, You have a bit easier Access to newer Kenels and software if it should be needed.
Because of Gnome: Yeah, as an Organization there are ... not the best. But when it would kick out, there is to think about the Point that all the works of the Zorin with the Customization and Development for their Gnome Extensions and the Desktop would be ... Trash. All the Years of Work would be gone. Maybe Budgie could be a Compromise; then it could be possible at least to take over the Themes.
And because of Your Video to @zenzen: Where is there a Problem? Debian leaves X and explained the Why. When You care about People and how they are be treated and You are concerned about Discrimination this is a good Thing, not a bad one. I seems that the Guy in the Video doesn't understand this.
I've often rolled my eyes at some of the things that the GNOME people write, but equally often at Lunduke's takes. It would be counterproductive to swap out core components just because some developers are being insufferable somewhere on social media. Zorin and other downstream projects should use what works best.
The concept of neutrality is often misunderstood or misrepresented.
In many contexts, especially regarding policy or community standards, choosing not to discriminate or exclude others is treated as a baseline, neutral position. However, in today’s polarized climate, such inclusivity is sometimes framed as ideological by individuals or groups who personally oppose it.
This creates a dilemma: when organizations adopt inclusive policies, they may be perceived by some as endorsing a particular ideology even if their intent is simply to remain accessible and fair to all users. If they were to reverse these policies to avoid that perception, they would move toward actual exclusion, which is inherently non-neutral.
In this case, the original poster’s claim that Canonical or Debian lack neutrality is supported by videos that primarily express non-neutral political perspectives. These do not demonstrate objective evidence of ideological bias within the organizations themselves, but rather reflect the poster’s interpretation through a particular political framework and a speakers interpretation.
This thread is beginning to fall outside the intended scope of technical or community-focused discussion.
Agreed! Also Ponce-de-Leon makes a good point - the hard work Zorin devs put into their extensions would all go to waste if they abandoned gnome DE. From what I can see, they are aiming to focus on Gnome only (and sunset xfce) to make it better and do so faster than before.
Although I did find myself watching and perhaps agreeing with some of this individual's opinions, that was before I learned he's a zionist. So, with that in mind, even if he has good arguments to make in other topics, I don't care to listen or engage, I find him repulsive to be honest.
I very much rather choose my technology based on its merit and not what people say about it.
There are some distributions that are probably better suited for you, such as AntiX Linux or Tromjaro, that are openly political beyond the scope of the technology they implement.
But I agree with @Aravisian, let's not take this too off-topic.
I don't care about the politics of a project unless they do or promote something very morally bad, which is usually rare. I don't know anyone who asks about Intel's politics before buying an Intel processor. They ask about the cores, the clock speed, the TDP... but not about the politics of the company, because opinions don't matter much in this context. You and your product are not less valuable to me just because we disagree, unless you actively punch people in the face.
In the case of Gnome, the examples I gave only had situations that directly affect the user (harming theming, removing features, trying to force wayland and forcing systemd -back when it wasn't a standard-). I didn't mention any political as in real world politics because that's not important to me (unless harrassment or any other type of behaviour that could harm people was involved). I haven't heard of a Gnome developer supporting something that hurts other people in any real way, and nothing stops you from using another DE if you don't like the software-side direction they are taking, so if Zorin were to leave Gnome for another DE, the only real reasons that could justify it would be that they REALLY do not like how Gnome works anymore, not what its politics are.
I don't believe that Solus would be a good base to go off of. There's simply not enough applications available to be a viable alternative. On top of that, I believe they stated a while ago that they're going to be rebasing to Serpent OS (which by a quick google, might be called AerynOS now? Not sure of the deal there).
It would most likely be something like Debian to rebase, as there are also cases where systemd may be necessary for certain applications. If Zorin is trying to be a good beginner distro, as I believe it is, then restricting the packages available further wouldn't be a good choice.
As for desktop, I wish that we could have an even more love given to XFCE, as it can look quite beautiful and do a lot of things that Gnome can do, just sometimes with a little more effort involved. And with the slower release cadance, less changes required than more up-to-date DEs. I also believe KDE to be (this is my opinion) a little too feature rich, and possibly needing to be trimmed a bit, as the amount of options available as a new user is... overwhelming, to put it lightly. I also have always been able to tell when I'm using KDE, as there are certain design choices in their programs that always give away that it's KDE, something that would be very hard to work around. I'd wager a closer look into Cosmic when it's ready would be the more likely scenario, but even then, if Gnome is what they wish to continue with, then so be it.
