I downloaded zorin yesterday afternoon, the installation went very smoothly but as soon as I rebooted I faced my first problem, the password I chose didn't work, I had to enter it +- 5 times, I even thought I had forgotten it or that it was in caps lock but the password was correct, after that I was a little worried about the system but it only happened the first time.
Then I faced some problems uninstalling programs from the program store, sharing my screen on discord, adding steam game shortcuts and using the virtual box.
Anyway, it wasn't an easy task, I managed to solve these problems by researching but it was exhausting because in theory they were supposed to be simple things, download a program and use the functions that are available.
About the system itself I liked it, it's beautiful and in theory it's simple, if it weren't for these specific problems I would be satisfied, now it seems like everything is stable and as it should be but it's annoying to keep things in your mind in the background about the system, for example, if it is in xorg or wayland, if I used autoremove to uninstall programs, if I should install a program from an old repository or not, etc., maybe certain things are not problems with zorin but anyway, they were problems that I faced
Maybe write down the password next time. It’s unlikely Linux for forgot it. More likely the human operator - I have done it a few time and had to do the terminal thing to reset it.
Just to add, if you use a seperate Discord client (IE WebCord) then screen sharing under wayland will work. I do not know the validity of these clients, but I'm definitely aware that the desktop Discord client has given me numerous problems in the past.
Also game shortcuts via steam was probably a permissions issue due to flatpak, but given you said you had already figured out the issue, it's no big deal anymore.
I think for me is the issue of Wayland. Personally I think the devs should have made xorg the default compositor with Wayland as the second option. I have found that Steam .deb package to be the best option. I don't use it for games. I only installed it for ProjectM which is no longer available for Clementine. As for Discord I only used that when I was running FerenOS as there is no forum for it, and there have been quite a few issues reported about Discord so I avoid it like the plague. I would be surprised if any screensharing app will work with Wayland as Nick from thelinuxexperiment reported that it is not capable of screensharing period. In terms of the password I myself when I was at work accidentally caught the spacebar before entering the password. One issue that can cause issues is a corrupt .Xauthority file amongst others which I have covered in the unofficial manual for Zorin 17 Core. On a separate note I have encountered issues on another OS, Devuan. 3.0 had no issues but both 4.0 and 5.0 have issues with the # sign if used in the password. I have en-GB as keyboard and locale layout, but in Devuan 4 and 5 I had to use en-US keyboard shortcut of Shift+ 3 to input #!
I think this is very valuable feedback. I wish I had concrete numbers but the vast majority of the issues people complain about are related to Wayland or Flatpak.
As you suggested, these issues are not with Zorin OS directly, but since the developers decided to use Wayland as the default they are not entirely out of fault.
Now, people such as yourself, willing to try something new and who may or may not care about these sort of details, – and indeed, shouldn't need to – have to be bothered with "fixing" something that a bunch of companies claim is the future of Linux.
To the credit of the Zorin developers, they have listened to the community before in using the native version of Firefox, instead of the Flatpak. Which is why your feedback is more valuable than you think, and I sincerely hope they listen to you.
To their discredit, I should not have to constantly apply pressure to the devs who will jump at the very next opportunity to push their wants onto the user.
I am reminded of Capt. Mal Reynolds addressing his crew in "Serenity" above "Miranda" pointing out that the Alliance will try again to create their perfect controlled society.
They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more running. I aim to misbehave.
When a developer is out of touch enough with their user base, it makes it easy to see them as a commodity for their own benefit.
Having to wait for the next thing to drop to then protest and see if it is reverted is not a healthy environment.
That's pretty much it, yeah. It's abundantly clear at this point that these supposedly better technologies do create a lot of unnecessary friction, while providing very little in return. While I'm glad that we've seen the developers responding to this in the case of Firefox, Aravisian makes a rock solid point here.
Should Zorin OS side with the latest laptop that can play games or an old PC? How can Zorin OS be an alternative to Windows?
Laozi said:
There is nothing in the world as weak and soft as water,
But there is nothing better than water to break something strong and hard
Because there is nothing that can break water.