Hi to everyone. Long story short, I am back on Zorin OS 17 Pro. I was on MX Linux XFCE, but after I thought I'd try Pop!_OS COSMIC on my PC (I formatted my hard drive for a fresh install), I realized that Pop!_OS COSMIC (while good) isn't just ready for prime time when it comes to feature parity. (Maybe after Epoch 2 or 3.) I wanted to stay on COSMIC, but again, it just wasn't ready. So I mulled over going back to MX Linux, but then I said to myself, "wait; I have over a year of support left for Zorin OS 17 Pro," and decided to just come back to Zorin OS 17. Not the monstrosity or abomination that is Zorin OS 18. I have to say that Artyom and Kyrill have absolutely nailed the LOOK of Zorin OS in both 17 and 18 (well, mostly for 18 apart from a few questionable choices with the theming for colors).
And using Zorin OS 17 Pro in X11 mode (with the "Jelly" setting turned on) not only avoids having to do custom edits to make certain applications work OK in Wayland, but also enables apps to work as they should (e.g., Brasero not resizing itself every time I opened it, which was annoying in Wayland). So either when support ends, I'll switch to COSMIC (depending on how Epoch 2 and 3 go), or go back to MX Linux. Who knows? Maybe Zorin OS, but only if Artyom and Kyrill avoid making the same mistakes they made with Zorin OS 18. Again, who knows? But for now, I'll enjoy using Zorin OS 17 Pro. It is really how a Linux OS should look like (in my opinion). In any case, see you around these forums. All past feedback/criticism of Zorin OS 18 (from me) still stands, though. Learning is what you make of it - either accept feedback or don't. I hope the Zorin Group chooses to learn, and makes much-needed changes for the next iteration of Zorin OS. Thanks to everyone.
EDIT: Wanted to come back here and add real quick that my family was another reason why I came back to Zorin OS 17. My wife has an easier time with Zorin (due to its familiarity), and so do my kids. So there's a "win" for the Zorin Group right there. My wife didn't like XFCE because it was "too complicated" and she couldn't find her Chrome easily (even though I added the icon on the panel for her to see). I will continue staying on Zorin OS 17 for as long as I can, and remain open to what version 19 will bring. If Artyom and Kyrill make substantial enough improvements to version 18 with a point release, maybe. Maybe. Who knows? For now, it's Zorin OS 17.
Welcome back, Omnimaxus Peripateticus, o ye who are constantly in search of the greatest of everything. We know why you're really back though. You missed us. and by the way when it comes to Zorn 18, you don't need to hold back. Tell us what you really think.
I'm hoping at the end of life support for 17.3 that 19 is around the corner. I have plans to jump to Linux Mint after 17.3 ends but I really hate the boring look of Mint and the panel is hideous. Zorin got the best looking floating taskbar, it's beautiful.
... and I'm back on MX Linux XFCE. I was using Zorin OS this morning, and I was reminded of why I switched. I would click on something, and a window would appear to the side and behind Nautilus, for example. (This behavior happened in several other instances with different applications, too.) Another thing was when I tried to format an USB drive, and nothing happened. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Buggy.
And so on and on. I reverted back to my cloned drive of MX Linux XFCE, and was back up and running within 30 minutes. There's a reason why I didn't distrohop for 6 solid months while on MX Linux XFCE. And I'm back on it now. I love the "look" of Zorin, but man, the Zorin Group needs to up its Q&A (quality and assurance) game. Big time. Especially for their next major version release. I'll still come by now and then, though, to this forum. Cheers, I guess. Have fun using Zorin.
When you install it it usually is standard oblong panel not floating and if it is you only need to right-click anywhere on the panel to select 'edit-mode' then 'more options' and turn the floating option off via a switch. I will post back with image. If you have seen my video on installing Plasma to replace the Zorin Desktop and large parts of Gnome you will see the default is an oblong panel that does not float.
I have KDE Plasma on a usb. Mint os as well. I will show you a few image samples later on tonight on why those floating panels pale in comparison to Zorin.
Or it could be an issue I can fix with some extensions? etc
Ok I'm going to have to backtrack (or as they say "eat my words" lol) on only Zorin having the best floating taskbar. I managed to get it working on KDE Plasma, and I must say, I like it a lot:
This is the closest in Linux Mint that I can get to a floating taskbar and I cannot get it to behave like in KDE Plasma 1st screenshot or Zorin. There is no Linux Mint settings to make a floating taskbar, I read somewhere that in 2025 they were going to add one in, apparently they still haven't. You got to use a program/extension to get something similar and I must say that imo it looks pretty awful in that screenshot, compared to KDE Plasma or Zorin.
I also think I have to dig deeper in extensions for Linux Mint to get a floating taskbar and quite frankly I really don't have time to tamper with extensions or other programs to get it looking right. It's got to be baked in like Zorin or KDE Plasma.
Linux Mint Cinnamon does not support KDE, it never has. You have to install the Debian edition, then install Plasma either from the command line or Synaptic Package Manager.
Plasma is not Gnome. It does not have Extensions; it uses Widgets. There is a plethora of Widgets to use. The downside is that Proton VPN is only built for Gnome (just like Winboat also needs Gnome as it needs Docker to run). Plasma differs from Gnome in that it includes Widgets as part of the DE. Gnome would prefer it if you did not use extensions period as they are of the haughty opinion that you don't and should not need extensions as they believe they know better than users and extension devs.
For me I can live without Winboat and ProtonVPN on the Desktop. I will use Windows offline and use RiseUp! for vpn. I don't ever want to go back to any GNU/Linux that uses systemd.
With one exception, Q4OS but only as a last resort.
Well sadly the issue isn't Mint's fault, it is ProtonVPN's shortsightedness as it needs systemd and more importantly, GnomeDE. It will not work on Plasma (or any other DE except Gnome), just like Winboat will not work on Plasma (or any other DE) because it needs GnomeDE to use Docker, which also relies on systemd. RiseUp! works well on Plasma but if you expect it to be able to do streaming then forget that. I have just changed my Weather widget on Plasma that works with RiseUp!
Minority OS's should not be excluded, in the same way users reliant on Accessibility tools should not be excluded.
Well again it is possibly correct. And this is why I have disdain for Brailleblaster's GNU/Linux version as it is geared towards Ubuntu with a 't64' package dependency.
Suspect Ubuntu have tweaked it somehow by including some Gnome dependencies. I am never going back to systemd as a daily driver. You could always check it out yourself by running it as a VM.
I read some high rated comments today at Neowin about this distribution (Q4OS). Piqued my interest and I threw it on my Ventoy. It's a lovely distro, clean, had no issues getting around. Plasma here is very modernish, really dig how easy it was to customize the taskbar/panel. Thanks for suggesting it out as well.
I like 5.9 but 6.6 has an issue in respect of zren's Tiled Menu which is bundled with the Windows 10 Look Switcher. This is down to zren not having updated it to work smoothly with Plasma 6.
I posted a question to the Q4OS forum last night about XLibre. They too are going to adopt this in future releases.
In respect of ProtonVPN when I visited their official site it stated the Linux version was for Gnome?
The terminal is sweet with the green cursor. However it's fully loaded Wayland with xorg completey diminshed.
Kubuntu does not use Gnome or GnomeDE. It does use systemd.
