Chrome-based browsers, including Google Chrome, Edge and Brave, are causing Zorin OS to crash or freeze.
This is happening to me, using Chromium and Edge browsers and the only way around it for me is to use the Opera browser.
I am currently using Zorin OS 17.3Core
That's interesting, considering that Opera is also Chromium-based. Have you tried disabling hardware acceleration in all those other browsers?
It's a bit hard to disable hardware acceleration if the browser crashes every time I load it. Other users are having the same problem.
As which packages are the browsers installed? If they are installed as flatpak you could try the .deb packages instead of Google Chrome and Edge. First remove the installed versions.
Also try to switch to Xorg. Logout and at login click on your profile then a cog wheal at the bottom right appears. There select "Zorin Desktop on Xorg".
So this happens immediately after launching it? Are you running any other memory-intensive applications at the same time? Can you share your computer's specs?
If you can't even get as far as the settings, you can launch the browsers through the command line (you will find "Terminal" in the applications list), passing additional flags. For example:
google-chrome --disable-gpu
brave-browser --disable-gpu
It may be worth looking into the logs to see if there are any apparent errors that can tell us more about this issue. In the applications menu, you will find "Logs".
It can get overwhelming because a lot of programs log activity while running, so I'd recommend checking these shortly after the crash.
You can also export them to a text file, which can help with searching for keywords like "crash", "error", and so on.
Interesting. I have never seen this issue and use Google Chrome, Vivaldi, Brave, Firefox, etc. etc. Actually, haven't had any of them crash. Normally, issues arise with inadequate hardware. I work with our local computer club and do support for members (in a retirement area) so get lots of practice on old computers. Have still found Zorin very reliable on these ancient machines. That said, first thing I do is look at how much RAM can be installed and if drive can be replaced with SSD. Normally, that makes all the difference in the world!
Hello there, I just switched to Zorin os from windows, and had this same issue. With a updated Brave, or Chrome, the entire thing freezes. Switching to XORG works well, and solves the issue. I couldn't really see anything in the system moniter, so it was quite confusing.
it was quite frustrating, but i do believe zorin will be worth it.!
I was thinking that it was a hardware issue...
Specs:
Thanks @zenzen for this solution that made it posible to start the Brave browser in the Disable-GPU mode so I could do this setting in the Browser itself.
Now it works under Zorin OS 18 Beta as i should do.
Thank you.
Glad this worked out 
Keep in mind this is a just workaround, though. It's possible that some websites that rely heavily in graphics won't work as well as they otherwise would, but this depends on your use case.
Also, you can edit the launcher from the applications menu so that you don't have to launch your browser through the terminal every time. It's best done with a command:
sudo perl -i.bak -plane 's/^(Exec=\S+)/$1 --disable-gpu/g' /usr/share/applications/brave-browser.desktop
With this, next time you launch Brave Browser from the applications menu, it will include this feature flag enabled.
what interests me here that nobody seems to have asked, which GPU is this happening on and which drivers? it seems to be affecting some people but not all of us. I have no issues whatsoever using Google Chrome with hardware acceleration turned on (GTX960, X11 and proprietary nvidia 580 from the repos)
the other thing to mention, X11 or Wayland?
If I turn hardware acceleration on, my browsers become laggy. You would think offloading to the Nvidia GPU, would increase performance, as it did in the Windows 7 days! However, that is far from reality, so I have to keep HA off in all browsers. Thats just how it is on Linux.
A bit in the same vein, another idea, by performing the modifications under Xorg (and not Wayland): forum.zorin.com/t/zorin-os-17-3-freezes-upon-the-google-chrome-browser-start/50880/8?u=merinos
Thanks for the "hardware acceleration" input, will keep posted if it crashes again.
I have a friend who installed Zorin OS 18 on their old PC, and they have the same issue.
ASUS X99-E-WS MB MSI R9-390 8GB GPU 64GB Mem, I start Brave get some crazy screen pixelation then everything freezes, forced reset required.
Tried the brave-browser --disable-gpu this seems to stop the lockups. I am also going to download Firefox to see it this has the same problem.
Initially back the end of last year I tried to load Zorin 18 Core after loading it would freeze just after boot. At least now it is running. I wanted to upgrade to Pro but don't want to waste the money just to discover the software doesn't like my hardware configuration. Anyway, once I see everything is working normally I will pony up for the Pro version.
I am more then willing to test out or help with these issues. I have read on the Web Zorin 18 doesn't seem to work well with Z99 motherboards and high end GPU cards. Maybe this is the issue, anyway, if I can help let me know!
Dan
Can someone explain why this is not being addressed? I mean watching a YouTube video is extremely painful without GPU acceleration (among other things). Brave ships as the default browser in Zorin now, and it literally HARD LOCKs peoples machines. The optics on this for people coming over from Windows is a HUGE turn-off.
P.S. Zorin 17.3 Pro, Wayland, AMD R9 M270X/M370X, VERDE (, LLVM 15.0.7, DRM 2.50, 6.8.0-90-generic)
P.P.S. Not sure when this happened, but some OS update or Brave update caused this, as Brave was working with GPU Acceleration when I first installed Zorin 17.3 Pro.
