First impressions with problems. Some broken, Some small

[icecat55]

Using ZorinOS for 2 days now and here's what I've noticed right off.

Software Manager icons and loading is broken in its UI and performs bad

Icons rarely load and its slow with freezers.

There's stutters and lag, It freezes frequently and becomes unresponsive. It looks like broken software, It feels like broken software, I can't use it. I think I'm going to go back to mint just because of the software manager but right now I'm using bazaar. Why isnt this the default? I uninstalled gnome software and it seems to have not removed the desktop even though the terminal said it would but idk if it broke anything. Still To clarify these photos are 30 seconds after launching the software store and I've had two freezes where the store wouldn't respond.

This is what bazaar looks like after opening it for the first time

What gaming section looks like instantly after clicking on it in bazaar

So please, get rid of snaps, ubuntu repos and just use flatpak and bazaar is my suggestion. Its quite embarrassing and a stain on the OS to have to remove broken software from a "complete" and "windows 10 competitor" OS.

Not many color options or accents that aren't pastel or that light color.

Wish I could use the dark theme with the blue icons and accents with the dark theming. As in the black dark theme with white text and blue highlights/folders.
There's no real "windows 10" color pallete and dark mode besides this theme in zorinOS and it forces you to use white.

Maybe add a secondary accent color option to let you chose the highlight and icon color and rename Accent color to "themes".

[Ponce-De-Leon]

Welcome to the Forum!

For Gnome Software:
When You have this Behavior, open the System Monitor and on the ''Processes'' Tab look for gnome-software and end the Process. The Gnome Software Window will close; that is intended. Then open it again.

For the Theming:
You could use gnome-tweaks and set up the Theme and the Icons seperately. Then You can use the Zorin Blue Folder Icons Set. And if You want a more Windows Look, You could simply use a different Windows-like Theme from gnome-look.org

[icecat55]

I reinstalled it, killed gnome software in system monitor and restarted it, icons arent loading. Still after opening it again categories, the icons dont load and overall feels sluggish and stuttery when searching for apps. It takes 4-5 seconds to load the app page when you click on something.

I have a pretty good 500mbps internet connection, fiber internet and I updated zorin. Feels broken to use.

Compare it to bazaar after instantly opening a category
It just looks nicer, cleaner, works faster and loads instantly

IMO zorin on my first impressions feels to unpolished and buggy for me to use it. This is a major problem so unfortunately I'll have to go back to linux mint, Its just too rough if the software store is broken.

Also for some reason the file manager doesnt open instantly when I click it. It takes 800ms-1 second. But then after that I close it and open it again, it opens instantly. Pretty sure this is a gnome issue but its too annoying

Video of file manager speed

[DotWayton]

This is not a Zorin Specific Issue, Gnome Software at least for Flatpaks has been beaten by Bazaar Drastically, the reason Bazaar is not used is because Gnome Software is configurable to include multiple file formats, allowing users the biggest pool of packages/programs.

Users have acess to Apt/.deb (system packages)
Snapd (Ubuntu's file format)
Flatpak (Universal Format)

I do believe at this stage the Zorin Team preffers having as big a selection as possible rather then limiting it solely to flatpak & I know the Bazaar team project is solely focused on Flatpak as they serve distros that aren't intended to modify system packages OR have Snapd.

In my opinion, Bazaar is far superior and is my preference, I have only used the other formats for easy installs of things that I want to install as system packages because they are complex software hindered by sandboxing OR it is not available as a Flatpak.

I would prefer Zorin using Bazaar, however that is up to them and the team at GNOME if they adopt it as the standard for their desktop (which does not seem likely at this time.)

[icecat55]

Soooooo..........do the devs just not care about their own OS? They dont care?

I mean have they even tested or used their own OS? How can this possibly be a replacement for windows 10 when its broken.

How are you going to say this is a windows 10 alternative with broken software out of the box that just doesnt work, freezes, is slow and laggy with stutters all over the place.

This is a major problem that makes the distro feel broken, buggy and unpolished. It doesn't work.

This was enough to make me leave permanently and never come back. Lost a user, sorry. Can't even use the freaking app store within the first day because it freezes, cant even load icons, takes 5+ seconds to load the page to click install.

This would be a 5 minute change to bazaar. It made me leave to kubuntu, was going to go mint but I'm liking kubuntu discover just loads instantly and works better.

If they really need an all encompassing GUI store, just fork mint install, It works flawlessly and its ubuntu based or use discover. Anything but gnome software.

Heres a video from youtube showing zorinOS, broken icons, slow loading wyhen he clicks on a page, takes literal seconds to load to get to where he can click install...Not a good look.

[Ponce-De-Leon]

@icecat55

This would be a 5 minute change to bazaar.

But Bazaar is only for Flatpaks. It isn't made for using as a Software Store like Gnome Software. Don't understand me wwrong: Your Critic is fine. But with Bazaar alonge this wouldn't work.

[Aravisian]

Since I first started using Zorin OS years ago, I have essentially ignored the Gnome Software Store.
My advice to other users has been the same. To replace it with what they like better.

I have compared it to a stepping stone: A means of initially allowing the user to have a simple graphical means of managing software installs and removals. Not necessarily their permanent go-to.

And this has been because the Gnome Software application has always been problematic. Buggy, bloated, or missing features. It is one app that has been a constant toothache for users over the years.

The general answer from the GnuLinux community over time has been that it is from Gnome, so the users need to just deal with it. Not in those words, but the gist is that it is defended while indefensible.
I find it odd. I mean, we are supposed to be the group of users that declare "we matter" and when Gnome does something to show that we don't, our response is, "that's ok. I Guess we don't have to matter."

Bazaar is no replacement, since it is far too exclusive.
The reason it is faster and more responsive is because it does not deal with the backend that Gnome Software does.
It handles a much smaller portion of it, Metadata and Flatpak connections, only. Whereas Gnome Software manages:
PackageKit, Flatpak, Firmware updates (fwupd), Metadata aggregation, PolicyKit integration, Distribution-specific plugins and backends. Thhe updater alone takes up a large chunk of this.
And distro's would struggle to replace it and manage that backend, too.

Plus Gnome resists replacement by tightly integrating the Software Store into the Desktop, wrapping it up in their UI and UX policies that are already Microsoft-like in their scope...

So, most agree that the Software Store is bad, but not bad enough to undertake the massive scope of replacing it.
KDE offers its own (Discover) because it is an entirely different Desktop base.
Mint Software avoids firmware, updates and PackageKit, narrowing its package managers duties heavily, making it seem faster.
I think it could work similarly well on Zorin OS.
But that is debatable.

[Thor]

This was enough to make me leave permanently and never come back. Lost a user, sorry. Can't even use the freaking app store within the first day because it freezes, cant even load icons, takes 5+ seconds to load the page to click install.

What's wrong with Zorin 17.3? Why are so many users hung up on Zorin 18 knowing it's buggy? Why not stick with 17.3 until the devs solidify 18. That surely would be the smart thing to do especially when there's not a vast difference between 17 & 18. Might as well wait it out.

[DotWayton]

Personally I use Bazaar, I pin that to my dock and since it come out it has been all I've used, I thoroughly enjoy the rest of Zorin besides Gnome Software so i avoid it by not pinning it and not using it unless I really have to, ie. Snap or System Package, that I'd need.

Its your PC though so if that alone made you swap, you do you