Feedback as a Windows User

Feedback
,
1

Hi Zorin OS community,

I’ve recently been running Zorin OS on an older work laptop and overall I’ve been having a great time with it. I originally found Zorin while looking into alternatives after all the news about Windows 10 approaching end-of-life, and as a general “Windows replacement” experience, Zorin gets a lot right.

That said, I wanted to share some feedback around file management and app-launch behavior, mostly because I ended up going much deeper than expected just to get some very basic workflows working.

I don’t know if Zorin is intentionally trying to emulate Windows, but if that is part of the goal, the default file manager setup feels a bit off.
1. The default detailed or list view doesn’t quite match the familiar Windows layout.
2. I personally prefer Nemo, since it more closely resembles Windows Explorer in both layout and behavior.
3. I’d love to see an easier way to align columns in the classic:

File Name | Date Modified | Type | Size

format without having to tweak things manually.

This is a relatively small thing, but it matters a lot for users coming from Windows who rely heavily on file browsing.

My biggest frustration was the lack of Shift-click behavior on the docked file manager icon.

On Windows, Shift-clicking a pinned file manager opens a new window. On Zorin, this doesn’t work out of the box, not with Files, not with Nemo, not with other file managers I tried.

I went pretty deep trying to solve this. The short version:

  1. The Shift-click event does reach the Zorin Taskbar code.
  2. Simply trying to launch a new window does not work reliably because file managers like Nemo behave as single-instance apps, especially under Wayland.
  3. The key insight was that the right-click menu option “Open Window to Home” works consistently because it triggers a desktop action defined in nemo.desktop.
  4. I ended up modifying the GNOME Shell taskbar extension so that Shift-click triggers that same desktop action instead of trying to spawn a new process.

Once Shift-click was routed to the desktop action Nemo already supports, it worked perfectly and reliably.

The takeaway for me was that the system is capable of doing the right thing, but users should not have to patch GNOME Shell extensions to get expected file manager behavior.

This same pattern came up again when I tried to bind Super + A to toggle an app, in my case a ChatGPT web app.

On Windows, this kind of behavior just works. Many applications, especially assistant or AI tools, ship with simple shortcuts like Alt + 5 or similar that:

  1. minimize the app if it is focused
  2. bring it to the front if it is already open
  3. launch it if it is not running

I expected to set a shortcut and be done.

Instead, I went down a fairly deep rabbit hole learning the differences between X11 and Wayland, how GNOME restricts window control under Wayland, and why many traditional window management tools no longer work the way they used to.

To get a simple toggle app with a hotkey behavior working reliably, I ended up having to:

  1. use GNOME Shell specific APIs instead of standard window tools
  2. account for Wayland versus XWayland differences
  3. prevent duplicate launches manually
  4. treat web apps differently from native apps

All of this effort was just to replicate a very normal, very common desktop behavior.

I do not think users should need to understand windowing protocols or patch extensions to get:

  1. Shift-click opening a new file manager window
  2. predictable toggle behavior for pinned apps
  3. reliable global shortcuts for assistant style apps

My hope is that Zorin could eventually:

  1. expose these behaviors directly in Settings or Taskbar preferences
  2. internally map Shift-click to supported desktop actions like file managers already provide
  3. provide first class support for toggle, focus, and launch shortcuts

Zorin is already very close to being an excellent Windows replacement. Polishing these small but important workflow details would go a long way toward making the experience feel seamless, especially for users who just want things to work without having to learn how Wayland and GNOME internals differ from Windows.

Thanks for all the work that has gone into the distro. This is meant as constructive feedback, and I am happy to share technical details if that is useful.

9 Likes
2

What can I say...
Linux is not Windows and will never be, you will have to learn a different way to use your computer.
Zorin is easy to use and will also never be a straight copy of Windows, because it's Linux and Gnome.
First if you are in Wayland switch to X11...
Then if you want to open many nautilus from the taskbar use middle click and check if in Gnome extension "Launch New Instance" is activated.

2 Likes
3

While this is true, I think the O.P. deserves much credit on their resourceful configurations and sharing the feedback.

5 Likes
4

Do you want to share the code changes in Zorin taskbar extension with us? I would be very interested to know how you managed that!

1 Like
5

Welcome to the Forum!

When You want create Shortcuts, You could take a Look in Settings>Keyboard. there You can set up Keyboard Shortcuts.

6

@jfitz1994 I was encouraged by reading your interesting post to try again to run a Windows program, a graphical network interface that I've sorely missed in Zorin. I tried a couple of months ago to run a Windows program but the Wine/Bottles layer refused to install; but this time after a restore (theoretically the same Zorin) a few things are different, and one difference is that the Windows layer installs and runs. After all these months I'm able to see at a glance what activity is happening on my connection - not only more visually than with the System Monitor numerical display in the taskbar but also more accurately, since the SM doesn't take account of my VPN adaptor and doubles the figures. Thank you for the encouragement... :slight_smile:

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Hi.

I'm assuming you're asking about the Nemu shift-click operation?

I attached this block to appIcons.js.

if (
(modifiers & Clutter.ModifierType.SHIFT_MASK) &&
this.app &&
this.app.get_id &&
this.app.get_id() === 'nemo.desktop'
) {
// Shift-click on Nemo: open Home in a new window
try {
const info = this.app.get_app_info();
if (info && info.launch_action)
info.launch_action('open-home', null);
} catch (e) {
try {
const app = Shell.AppSystem.get_default().lookup_app('nemo.desktop');
if (app) app.open_new_window(-1);
} catch (e2) {}
}
return
}

8

I feel like the context is important here, however. I came here due to countless YouTube videos and media proclaiming that Zorin OS is the de facto replacement after Windows 10 support ended.

Now, whether or not Zorin wants to meet the expectations created by these claims, I don’t know. It’s ultimately their decision, and I respect the team’s direction regardless.

I will continue to use the OS. It’s been really fun so far!

1 Like
10

I think the important word is "replacement". It doesn't claim to be a direct copy of Windows, and is all the better for it. It is certainly the easiest distro I've ever tried, and I've tried (and failed with) quite a few over the years. The goal, after all, is to have a working device, not an ongoing struggle.
I'm enjoying it too. There are a few challenges, but with community help plus Google I've beaten all of them. So far...
Edit: Just as an aside, I have Zorin 18 Core on my Acer Swift Edge and also on a 2007 Dell XPS M1210 - yes, a 19-year-old machine. And it works very well. Unsurprisingly it's slower than my Acer, but still very usable as a backup device. For a modern OS to run on it at all is a great piece of work.

3 Likes