Are you a programmer? Do you want to have a GCC version not older than you? Oh boy, you're in luck!
Distrobox allows you to run as many distros as you want whilst not having to install another operating system and keeping your host clean!
And they can be managed with a simple GUI with Boxbuddy!
It's so nice for programmers who need leading edge tools that also do not want to sacrifice their stability and looks!
Distrobox exists in Ubuntu repositories, but only after 24.04, since ZorinOS uses Ubuntu 22.04 we need to add a PPA
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:michel-slm/distrobox
sudo apt update && sudo apt install distrobox
And BoxBuddy is a simple flatpak that can be installed:
flatpak install flathub io.github.dvlv.boxbuddyrs
Not only that, but Distrobox can also export applications and binaries straight to your desktop! See: distrobox-export
This sounds like an ad but it isn't xD I just really love these two tools and wanted to spread the word, maybe some of you will like them :3
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A nice companion to Distrobox and BoxBuddy is Ptyxis terminal app.
It has its own integration, so you can open your distroboxes from a drop-down on the terminal menu.
I've used them together as a kind of 'package of three' which I discovered while trying out the ublue distros (I obviously came back to Zorin, but ublue had a few interesting ideas).
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As a lighter weight alternative than running an entire distrobox, one might also consider using the update-altetnatives command to manage multiple versions of gcc.
I'm not a programmer, but I do use Nvidia's drivers from the .run installer, which needs a newer version of gcc than Zorin comes with. I installed 13 and set it as default with update-alternatives.
None of this is meant to rain on your parade! There's no GUI for update-alternatives. I think both are valuable tools for different, but adjacent purposes.
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update-alternatives is way different, it serves the purpose to be able to make apps use [app]-[version] binaries on ubuntu/debian while distrobox helps you run any app without needing it installed on your host OS.
The way you opened, pitching using a newer GCC, I interpreted your case primarily as being to run different versions of software. That's on me, apologies. My personal experience with Distrobox was limited to a failed attempt to get a VPN working on Bazzite (they specifically cited it for that use case). I blame Proton for that one, though.
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Oh! Right, that's a misunderstanding on my part... I mostly use it to hold my IDEs stuff like dotnet/java which are simple outdated on ubuntu 22, I guess I could have spoken better
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