Just installed Zorin OS 17 on an old laptop. I tried 16 a while ago and the improvements in 17 are great! I've enjoyed customizing the desktop.
Two issues with installation:
- there is a point where you can choose LVM, ZFS, or neither. There was no note saying what NOT choosing LVM or ZFS would leave you with. Somewhere on the web, it was said beginners should NOT choose LVM or ZFS and that ext4 is what you would get. I can understand why you don't want to explain what "ext4" is, but saying nothing leaves the newbie installer wondering what they get and I almost selected LVM just to know what I got. After installing half a dozen distros over the years, I know what it is, but if it were my first distro, I would feel very uncomfortable moving past that choice. Maybe give it a name during install like "simple" or "generic" or "basic."
- Early in installation, I was prompted for a user ID and password. Fine. When I got all done and booted up for the first time, it wouldn't accept my password. As it happens, caps lock was ON when I created the password. I'd like to have seen a warning (or a better warning if there was a warning.) OK, so I went to the account to change the password and it will not accept a new password of the SAME length as my old password. I think the same rules should apply to the initial password as well as to the new one. AND, on that topic, this is a personal, home computer. I see no reason why the OS is requiring a strong password. It's "none of your business" to put it bluntly. I see other forum comments about using a PIN of 4 digits and that seems to be OK, but if I use letters, 7 is too few? Come on.
the Password isn't only for something like Login. It is for sudo Rights, too. So, a good strong Password should be used. And You can automatically log in if You prefer that. You can already choose that during the Installation (Checkbox under the Account Creation) or after the Installation here:
Wouldn't using a generic label such as "simple" leave the user just as uninformed about what is, and what is not, being installed in the system? I would argue this is even more damaging, since the user wouldn't have the chance to take it upon themselves to research about it.
Keep in mind that in order to get to that prompt, the user must click on a button that is labeled as "Advanced features". It's quite reasonable to expect certain degree of familiarity with the terminology involved, what it means, what other options are there, etc.
I don't see how it would be helpful to try and fit all the complicated intricacies about filesystems in the installation prompt. If the user is unsure, they use the pre-selected defaults. If they're curious, they can browse online to get some answers. And if they're feeling adventurous, they can proceed at their own risk.
The reason is security. If the default minimum were 4 characters, that's what most people would use since very few actually change the defaults at all.
You can still change these rules afterwards, however there's a hard coded minimum of 6 characters. The only way to work around that is to set an initial password during the installation process when these rules are not enforced.
To change this, you need to edit a system configuration file, so you will need elevated privileges, located at /etc/security/pwquality.conf.
You'll need to update the line that says minlen to whatever minimum length you want, and remove the preceding # symbol:
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In respect of what Ext4 is, it is a journaling file system, the Linux equivalent (but better) of the NTFS system used by Windows.
In respect of LVM, take a look here:
Personally I stick to a tried and trusted method (for me) of creating partitions manually during install. LVM is only necessary if you intend to resize partitions and does so without losing data as explained in the link above. If you don't have LVM selected Linux can only shrink partitions, not extend them.
In terms of your password issue you can use the 'de facto' solution for the login loop issue as outlined in the Unofficial Manual I wrote for 17 here:
