I have on an old HP EliteBook 2530p here which still works perfectly for some office work or as a Distro Test Machine. Just installed Linux Mint 20.2 to get a feeling for Cinnamon DE instead of the resource hungry GNOME.
So far I really really like it. It is dead easy to customize with Cinnamon Spices and still quite sleek looking.
It could be a good alternative for Zorin to go in the post-gnome-era of Zorin OS 17
OK I admit, I installed Latte Dock, so I had to also add KDE-Plasma-Desktop which again was super easy and didn't break anything so far.
I've tried Linux Mint, but somehow I always have to install the codecs separately, which was a drag. With ZorinOS it all comes out of the box and the media codecs are no problem.
But I do like the looks of Linux Mint with cinnamon DE.
I tried installing KDE and removed Cinnamon as Pulse Audio is embedded into it so no thanks. Attempt to do anything with pulse and the whole system gets foobard. For me it would have to be Antix.
Nice one, I remember now that you are using Zorin Lite together with Cinnamon (at least before Zorin 16). What would be the difference between Zorin Core and Lite when you override the DE anyway?
Zorin 15.3 Core with Cinnamon DE
Zorin 15.3 Lite with Cinnamon DE
Would there be a significant difference between those two? Would you be even able to get rid of GNOME/XFCE or are you still using some of their "services" (don't know if that is the right term).
I'm sorry, I didn't quite compute.
If you are using Cinnamon D.E., then you would not be using either Gnome or XFCE on either Core or Lite. You wouldn't really notice the difference.
Yes, you could remove Gnome or XFCE, though it can be a bit tedious to do. I have done it.
I do not recommend removing the other D.E., though. You need to fill in a couple gaps if you remove it. And, having the D.E. present grants you a FallBack D.E. you can log into if you need to.
That can come in very handy.
These days of terabyte drives, space is not really an issue.
You can get SATA SSD's for even cheaper! But your computer has to be old enough to accept them is all. Modern computers use NVME only.
Glad the OP is enjoying Cinnamon DE, and that the installation of sad DE went well on Zorin OS. I get so confused when people start installing many different things onto one thing Aravisian so don't feel bad. My head was a blur when I began reading the first thread.
I already have XFCE running, without any problems, thanks to this forum which answered to all my questions. Now I have decided to try out as many DEs as possible (for fun) Cinnamon next!
Ok cool, so you basically always have the kind of ugly looking Choose-your-DE-Screen showing up at system start?
Fair enough though with the fallback option. At one point I would like to settle though. For now I am pretty happy with Linux Mint on that old machine but once I get my head around the Pulse/ALSA problem and codec installation, I might consider doing a Zorin/Cinnamon installation on my main laptop.
That is good to know, because I don't want to do ugly either but I didn't know how to omit the screen when I installed KDE Plasma over Cinnamon.
Would you mind sharing a screenshot of your login screen?
I just did a fresh Zorin 16 Pro install on the same old laptop and installed Cinnamon DE. The difference in performance in comparison to Gnome is outrageous
Cinnamon is so much snappier and uses around 20% less RAM in idle.
Now I just need to figure out the easiest way of integrating my Nextcloud-account (calendar, contacts and sync folders), because this was all done via Gnome Online Accounts.
