Hi to everyone. Been a while since I've posted here on these forums. Thought I'd check in and see what's new with Zorin OS and/or the Zorin Group, if anything. Has there been any word about Zorin OS 17.2? I'm interested in seeing what will happen next with the OS (and the Zorin Group), especially with all the feedback that was provided by myself and the rest of the Zorin community (e.g., @Aravisian) before. I sincerely hope the Zorin brothers took at least some of the more community-oriented feedback to heart, and we'll see the fruits of that feedback down the pike. One thing I must confess is that I notice that it's been "quiet" around here compared to before. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. Ha. Well, in any case, again, I just wanted to check in and see what's new. Still using Zorin, too, of course. It's a good OS. Excellent replacement for Windows. Speaking of which, go here: CLICK HERE. Microsoft basically came out and admitted they're aiming to make Windows 365 a "thing" for everyone in the years to come (as in having it be the new "normal"). Not good. Wrong-headed decision, if you ask me. Makes me more appreciative of Zorin (and Linux in general). Anyway, have at it here.
It is said that no news is good news, isn't it?
As long as Zorin OS is based on Ubuntu, it will be affected by Ubuntu's schedule, and indeed 17 was released that way. However, upgrades should be done as needed, otherwise they would just create new bugs.
Not expecting 17.2 to be out anytime "SOON," no, but was just wondering if there'd been any chatter about what to expect in 17.2, is all. Thanks, though.
In the LTS World I would say yes, haha!
I would think that the Developers maybe working now on Zorin 17 Lite and there on the .1 Release.
If I recall correctly, you joined around the time Zorin OS 17 was released, which typically results in a spike of activity so that probably explains why it has become more quiet now as bugs and other issues are polished.
But even so, it's true that is has been oddly quiet, ever since it was... discovered that Zorin OS Lite would be discontinued. Incidentally this goes to show how the communication side of things is going, so your guess about new updates is as good as anyone else's. I will say however that I much rather wait for a good product to be ready, than having a poorly tested, hasty release. Especially considering how the release of Z17 went (much bumpier than prior versions).
That's what I'm saying. And you're right - I did join around when version 17 was released, yes. I wasn't here for any of the prior versions. So my frame of reference was essentially "nada" for what happened with version 17 and all the bugs that came up (which have been fixed, mostly, I'd say). The rollout for version 18 should be interesting, to say the least. I expect that release to be a (mostly) bug-free one.
There were quite a few important changes under the hood between Zorin OS 16 and 17, that would explain the delays and high number of bugs. A lot of the work goes unnoticed into making things look nice and simple and is easy to overlook.
But this paves the way for newer releases to have a much smoother transition, or at least that's what I would expect... we'll have to wait and see.
I agree. Before 17 was released, some feared new Gnome would destroy everything, but Zorin OS is still Zorin OS. I am not happy with all about 17, but I am not pessimistic about the future.
No one feared this.
Rather, users feared a loss of features and functionality which is the actual wording used and warned against.
At no point did anyone say that it would "destroy everything."
And this fear is indeed realized and easily observed with pattern recognition and focus on trends.
For example, in the release of Zorin OS 17, the Gnome-Screenshot tool was removed due to the change to Wayland, resulting in an integrated screenshot tool that lacks all the features and functionality of Gnome-Screenshot tool.
Gnome devs say that they will try to restore some of the functionality citing that the tool is new... But this begs the question as to why they would force the use of the tool to push Wayland forward creating a "release before ready" situation...
I can go on with more examples which would drastically lengthen this post, but you get the idea. No, this is not a situation of doomsayers claiming the end of the world, but one of users following the trends and patterns and providing clear and evidence-supported warnings of what is not only to come - but what has already arrived and is witnessed in the present.
Zorin OS 17 is a different experience than Zorin OS 16 was in ways that have dismayed some users. The announcement to abandon the Lite version comes on the heels of this, allowing even fewer Zorin OS built options for users to rely on, boxing them into One Model.
This differentiates a clear line between pessimism and providing wise warnings for consequences and choices. One of direction, rather than of results.
And even as a user may question what they call "confrontation" citing wanting peace of mind, they may avoid reading that "confrontational" material, understanding it, and so become confrontational themselves by mis-relaying what others have been warning the user base of when they, themselves, keep bringing up that "confrontational" material.
Maybe Zorin ought to consider doing their own desktop environment? Like how Pop!_OS is doing with the COSMIC desktop environment?
No, I don't think so. That would be a BIG Project - maybe too big for them alone.
A more interesting Question for me is: What comes after Zorin 18? How will Zorin 19 will built?
Agreed, it's just not feasible.
System76 is not Canonical, but it's still a much bigger company than the two Zorin brothers. To get Cosmic working they are not working on Pop!_OS anymore just so that they can focus solely on this. Which is great news as it shows commitment to the project, but also shows how big of a task it really is.
Maybe the Zorin's might try their hand at this new DE as a potential replacement for Gnome... but they currently depend on a lot of extensions and projects that have been around for long, so even this would take a lot of planning ahead of time.
In the extreme, is DE really that important in the world? I have never thought Gnome was great, nor do I agree with their ways. However, Zorin Core is the best distro I know. So I have little motivation to think about this matter.
I think the problem is that DE is a huge and difficult to develop component, but that is no longer a Zorin OS problem.
At its current state, another option could be to fork from an existing DE and take it as a base
Linux Mint, for example, did not like the direction gnome was taking, so they forked the last version they liked and made it their own DE with their own additions. Nowadays, gnome and cinnamon are so different that not much shows that they have similarities other than using gtk. But there are people who like cinnamon and not gnome. And just because cinnamon is a fork from an old gnome version doesn't mean it doesn't get new features from time to time
In the case of Zorin, I doubt they dislike gnome (seeing as they discontinued xfce and decided to keep going with gnome only), but focusing on one single gnome version and modifying how it works instead of constantly fixing their extensions to work on every new version would give more time for focusing on actually bringing the promise of "gnome being as light as xfce", while adding more customization options than vanilla gnome will ever have. This would save a lot of development time, at least at long term (definitely not at short term)
I am not a developer myself, so I am not aware of how complex or viable this would be, so take what I said with a grain of salt
Independent what DE, I think it is. It is the first what You see from a Distro. And with that You are interacting in the Usage. So, I would say, that this is an important Point for Usage and User Experience.
Yes, I agree. It is singly the most important part of the user experience. It is the user interface.
Debian-based distributions are just like that!
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