Discontinuation of Zorin Os Lite

Feedback
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Same and quite recently even. And how often did we dig up even the most simple of examples to show that they listen to feedback?

Honestly, their dropping support of XFCE, all by itself, or even if they changed their mind about it - is not what bothers me.
They dropped LXDE from Zorin OS Lite in favor of XFCE previously.

For me it has been a series of events that each one, taken as one event are easily dismissed, but taken as a whole paint a rather dismaying picture of how the ZorinGroup views us as well as the users in general.
Likely, stronger communication brings greater responsibility. But also, being a part of the community. It makes you care about your community.
By staying so distant and withdrawn and silent, I wonder if the ZorinGroup lost touch with caring about their user base.
And for the well being and welfare of GnuLinux as a whole. With narrow vision, a person will try to stride forward since it is all that they can see.

I work differently.

When there are delays, I immediately notify the customer. I do not wait to be asked.

When a hard decision must be made, I notify the relevant affected parties, even if the decision is mine alone to make.

Summary

To me... the release of Zorin OS 17, which a release of Zorin OS has always brought eager anticipation... Brought something... undefinable.
As I examined the beta, looking for bugs or flaws... I felt numb.
It was as if the veil was lifted and I could see, at long last - what the ZorinGroup Roadmap for Zorin OS offered.
I kind of tried convincing myself that I was being paranoid.
Then, there were the other events I mentioned above and I squashed those, too. But I began to get this sense of dread - and so did others.
Something was floating in the air - and others sensed it too and began asking - is Zorin OS Lite discontinued?
Just as so many ask about the long release cycle.
About the delays in developments of Upgrader Tool and Grid.

Pretty words. Sunset. Pretty words I have seen a lot of. Like a pretty painting or a pretty vase... it is not difficult to peer behind the painting, to lift the lid on the vase - and look at the reality it hides.
Our lifetime experiences teach us how to read silence and to peer behind the veils.

Neither pretty words nor lip-service can offer trust, now. The ZorinGroup must join with their own community and open communication and their eyes. Consistent and clear communication.
The Policy of Release when ready is a real thing. It also requires documentation; in implementing a release-when-ready policy, it needs to be established: clear criteria for determining when a release is ready, such as specific quality benchmarks or user feedback metrics. It is not and never has been just a Public Statement.

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44

Hello again:
I have just written to support to express my dissatisfaction with the reasons and the way in which we have been informed about the discontinuation of the Lite version.
One of the things that always struck me about Zorin Group is its distant relationship with the community. It was argued to me that they always read the forum posts and took suggestions from the community.
I insist, without being repetitive, one of the strengths of the wonderful world of Gnu Linux is precisely the close relationship that several projects have with their community. We are the ones who give support to the projects.
Zorin, at least for the moment, cannot try to compete with a company like Canonical, focused on the business world, which has many more resources.
The way in which this news has been released, in an unclear and uninateral way, deeply hurts the community, which is, I insist, the most valuable thing they have. If it were not for us, this project, like so many others, would have disappeared long ago. We should be treated with respect and this has not happened.
The arguments lack any basis. The Gnome desktop is very heavy, old computers with limited resources do not work well with it.
It is long overdue to change the structure of the project: accept the incorporation of volunteers, improve contact with the community, among other things.
I share the opinion of the moderators, I feel hurt by the way in which
One of the things that always struck me about Zorin Group is their distant relationship with the community. It was argued to me that they always read the forum posts and took suggestions from the community.
I insist, without being repetitive, one of the strengths of the wonderful world of Gnu Linux is precisely the close relationship that various projects have with their community. We are the ones who give support to the projects.
Zorin, at least for the moment, cannot try to compete with a company like Canonical, focused on the business world, which has many more resources.
The way in which this news has been released, in an unclear and uninateral way, deeply hurts the community, which is, I insist, the most valuable thing they have. If it were not for us, this project, like so many others, would have disappeared long ago. We should be treated with respect and this has not happened.
The arguments lack any basis. The GNOME desktop is very heavy, old computers with limited resources do not work well with it.
It is long overdue to change the structure of the project: accept the incorporation of volunteers, improve contact with the community, among other things.
I share the opinion of the moderators, I feel hurt by the way we have been treated.

1 Like
45

Only the latest version of Asmi is in Beta. There are slightly older versions that have been out a while. Google is NOT a good source of reliable information. The Beta version is supposed to be released at the end of this month. However since it does not yet have a support forum I would not recommend it for a new user. I did run into a few problems I had to solve on my own. I waa able to do so because of the help and learning I have gotten from THIS forum.

For those of you considering Linux Mint you might want to look into the political view of the developer. I used LM for almost 2 years and the OS and support are great. But just prior to the release of Z 17 I discovered something about the political leanings of the the developer of LM. I then changed to the Beta version of Z 17 and dropped LM completely. You can do a search online to research that info for yourself. I don't want to start a political discussion here. This thread already has enough frustration in it.

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This is what I had thought in the first place when they had removed Lite from the download page. So I looked for other xfce based distros and tried Mint xfce. Every other xfce based distros, except Zorin Lite, looks awful(the UI) out of the box. So I again sticked with Zorin lite in the hope that they will make good announcement about Lite soon. It's glad to hear that Zorin 17 Lite is out but the Sunsetting news makes me sad again.

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True, only a handful of distros looks good out of the box. It seems there aren't many artists in the setting up the default of many distros and you can see it's programmers who does it (see lack of artistic inside).

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One thing that I like about Zorin OS is the attention to detail to the look and feel. The way I see it, it's better to impress people by how easy and intuitive things are, than with flashy animations and icons. One other distribution that I really like in this regard is Tromjaro. They even made the decision to replace Gnome with XFCE explicitly for this purpose. Although I think it's just one developer, and I'm not sure how it's going these days. Also, based on Manjaro which I'm not a big fan of.

It's sad that Zorin OS is moving away from this but again, I hope to see things improve from here on in their Core offering. The alternative is that we're witnessing Zorin OS at it's peak, rolling downhill.

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I contacted Tony George and he has started a reddit blog. He suggested I post there if I wanted to. Here's the link: https://www.reddit.com/r/teejeetech/

If we had a way of contacting other Asmi users maybe we could use that blog as a forum to help each other. The biggest problem I have had is finding technical programs that work with Asmi if they aren't already in his software store. I had to try 4 different versions of Cura before I found one that actually worked with Asmi. Hopefully when the new version is released it will solve some of that.

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To say something again:

The Way they make this Announcement isn't the best Way I think. That they say it 5 Years before is a good Thing but the whole Way of ... how can I say that ... hiding it, is a bit weird. I mean, they explain her Step. You don't have to share the Points that they made, but it is an Explanation.

But: I mean, it is not (now) an official Blog Article. They packed it in a Link at the Bottom of the Download Website. And when they will support xfce for Zorin 17 and 18 I would think there is no Reason to seperate it that Way they do. They could pack it to the other Stuff like before.

But they put it all to another Place. For me it feels a little bit like ... an unloved Toy. I hope You understand how I mean that. The Way how they do it feels a bit harsh.

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There's another pretty distro based on Manjaro: BigLinux.
At the page, there's a language box.

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53

I had shared this before and now once again:
Z-lite.jpeg

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54

I also found this very strange, almost like not even they believe in their own product. Not exactly a comforting of a bright future.

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Hello:
Regarding Linux Mint XFCE I recognize that visually it is not very attractive, however, on youtube there are several tutorials that indicate how to customize it to, in this way, be able to improve its appearance.
Precisely one of the strengths of the Linux Mint Project is its ease of customization. There are many tools available for this purpose.
Greetings.

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56

Wow, poor Child! The Swim Ring is so close but so far.

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Many of us previously commented that Zorin Lite was marketed in a way as to make it sound inferior. Indeed, many newcomers were led to believe that "Lite" offered less than Core and was only for use on older hardware.

The way that this was announced comes across as sideways. It was pointed to as a link to the moderators but not stated, nor commented on. Merely, "17.1 is now released with this announcement here (link.) You had to follow the linked embedded in the word "here" to learn it.

To me, it adds to the feeling that Zorin OS 17 is funneling its users into a narrower ideal of GnuLinux.

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Well, there is a great wailing and gnashing of teeth going on here, all over a DE that appears in a number of other distributives. I paid for Zorin 15, and afterwards left due to a moderator here and his PM to me over a matter. It is what it is, no hurt feelings, I moved on to Mint. Mint was great but has its nuances and sometimes can be cantankerous. Thus, I moved on to Debian XFCE and have been quite happy since then.

The action taken by Zorin Group, reminds me of actions I have seen from other companies that were soon sold, or went into a co-development deal with another company. I am not saying this is the intent of ZG as I have no idea. ZG will do what ZG believes is in the best interest of the organisation and that has to be respected.

People have to decide what is best for their emotional and spiritual health, if fighting for and dying under an OS flag, any OS flag, works for you then go for it. Otherwise, it is better to move on for your own well-being and for the well-being of members that choose to remain users of the OS and its forum.

Best regards

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There is much worth fighting for, and those that fight for our choices and freedoms are the ones you should thank instead of belittle. What world would you live in if everyone agreed "it is better to move on for your own well-being and for the well-being of members that choose to remain users". One without choices and freedom, a world of corporations that take whatever they want. One where abuses go unchallenged.

I would like to add a little clarity:

Whether or not Zorin OS provides a copy of XFCE4 does not in itself limit our choices. Any user can install XFCE or Cinnamon or Plasma... In fact, many of us have done so for years without any discontent.
A lack of Zorin OS Lite may mean a lack of new Zorin Lite themes, but the existing ones could still be used.

What we are looking at is a Line of choices that make a statement about the current state of GnuLinux.

This thread is about - Alternatives -

Alternatives can be important. It allows a freer market, user choices, competition and these add to higher quality, less monopolization and less restrictions. For how long will we have these alternatives as distros drop support for them?

A market that is dominated by one entity or monopoloy is problematic. It is difficult to hold one sole provider responsible or accountable.

By dropping public support for variety and diversity, the ZorinGroups decision makes a public statement.
Already, a post has been made that demonstrates that the reason a reader might think XFCE was discontinued was because it was unnecessary, broken or inferior.

As any distro drops support for our competitive and varied alternatives, this reduces the applicability of having our variety across GnuLinux as a whole.

It makes the statement that we do not need these choices, any more.
It makes a statement that One choice is Better.
It makes a statement that the diversity and choices are no longer relevant.

And as this happens - we lose these choices.
The ZorinGroup - as The Developers - are perceived as knowledgeable authority. And a choice they make or a preference that they show is perceived as knowledgeable and authoritative.

Let me give an example of how powerful this is and how it deeply affects us all.
When Debian first considered whether to adopt SystemD, the consensus was "no." But one of their top developers pushed very hard for it and in the end, they took it on his authority that it was better, resolved issues and was good.
Only, it turned out that he had never even tested SystemD or looked over the code.
One of the key SystemD developers - was a friend of his.
So he pushed for it. He took it on his friends authority, Debian took it on his authority, everyone else took it on Debians authority... "They must know what they are talking about..." and the simple reality was that they were pals and he never even tested it at all.

And now we are all stuck with SystemD and Pulseaudio sound and integrated system services bloating our Operating Systems.

I am fine with having SystemD as a choice. MXLinux lets you choose - Sysvinit or SystemD, take your pick. They do not choose for you.
I am not fine with Distro Developer asserting monopolization, dominance and restrictions.

Is Gnome now equal to XFCE in lightweight system resource usage? That's... new.
If a person is going to assert this, it would have to mean that Recent changes and developments in Gnome make this possible; which is so new as to not be trustworthy. And if a person is going to make these assertions, they must provide benchmarking evidence to back that up since the claim contradicts the mountains of existing evidence that say otherwise.
I do not feel that the ZorinGroup are the baddies. They are not the villains.
What I do feel is that they are leading us with leading words. I feel that my trust has been broken.
They openly and specifically said that they will never limit the Zorin OS users.
Then they make choices that apply limits the Zorin OS users.
Repeatedly.

We are being told, silently, what we want. What we should accept. What we should have on our computers. With action statements, not written ones.

I cannot ethically show support to a distro that fails to show support to the wider GnuLinux community. We need the support and help to preserve and protect our diversity and choices and freedoms because the Big Players disregard feedback and push their will onto us.

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Then the code a new desktop or new things will be doing from us a slaves with no choices the end user?
Like the opinion us is nothing a worth a penny.
Something like a food chain.

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It looks like that the Comment from @Frog is disappeared.

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I am not sure how the Zorin community became so angered by the developers discontinuing the Lite Xfce version? I agree perhaps a bit better communications would have been better but that is their call to make and a year seems like good advance notice. The current Zorin Lite 16.3 is still supported for 12 months giving users ample time to find another Xfce distribution or just adding the desktop to the current 17.1 Core/Pro/Education version. Seems like a lot of drama for something that happens in open source projects at some point. Change happens and sometimes not everyone can be made happy.

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I think you keep missing the point raised by many here. It wasn't WHAT they have done. It was HOW they have done it.

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