I'd like to explore the possibility of setting up mirrors for Zorin and PPA repositories.
As many users, including myself, are drawn to Zorin because it is developed in Europe, I noticed that the official Zorin website does not use EU-based servers or registrars. Instead, they appear to be hosted by a US registrar and server provider. However, having a mirror of their repository, even if it's just an Ionos mirror that simply "copy" it, could provide several benefits.
For instance, even if the primary server remains hosted in the US, having a local mirror would ensure that the Zorin repository remains accessible in Europe. This is particularly concerning given the increasing trend of companies and countries expressing disapproval towards US services due to their President erratic behavior. If such a scenario were to arise where EU servers are blocked or restricted, having a localized mirror like Ionos would help mitigate this issue.
Additionally, having a redundant system in place would enable Zorin, to continue operating even during emergencies or unexpected disruptions. This preparedness is crucial for organizations that must remain operational despite external challenges and company that are hesitant to go to Zorin could see this as an additional reason to take the pro edition.
The mirrors utilized by end users are global. While many of the more stable mirrors are located in the USA, they are operated and maintained by Universities.
There is a difference between making politically charged opinions... And making observations about verifiable facts.
Currently, Universities are drawing the ire of said erratic president.
GnuLinux users are being directly affected and it is unfortunate that the ZorinGroup is being affected by such drastic behaviors.
I think you're correct and most importantly, that the trend of shying away from the US is comeuppance. We deserve this.
Actually This president have waken up many people about the risk of US software even our CEO have asked us if we had US thing in our backend, and have mandated reducing the dependency by 2 before the end of the year.
its why i checked the actual backend of zorin repo.
i was pleased to see mirror for download ... simply sad those mirror do not allow the download of zorin app to replace in source list
I am not sure I understand. To download Zorin OS .iso, any user can select any global mirror.
Once installed, any user can perform the same for their sources; using Software & Updates app, choosing a regional server.
I do recommend Main Server, even now, despite any shared opinions about making a statement against domination.
This is because it is the most swiftly updated and most actively maintained.
Taking a stand against a guilty party is admirable. However, one must be careful to not stereotype or clump all of a people together.
The United States is a diverse nation.
I would look at this in the same manner I do others: I would withhold my support for any entity that I deem supports things I oppose.
I would not, however, blanket my displeasure with those minority entities, across a population as a whole.
For one, I still may need a supplier.
If the grocery store near me opposes something I believe in, I could go patronize a store that does not. I will not cease to buy bread.
These universities and organizations that help support GnuLinux can be affected by the current president, but are not supportive of his regime.
Mistreating them as he also does the same; is not a logical action.
We can afford to do this for our personal system ... but not the company's, we cannot take risk with our employee to save unknown people, our duty is to protect them first, so sorry for us but we stop with them.
For update ou miss a point as changing the country will only change the country of "ubuntu" servers, zorin's ppa.launchpad and repo will remain the same.
For the CEO order : "we must remove them from any system that can slow us if lost, (we had already not send any personal, sensitive or client data due to GDPR), and we have seen that some EU compagny had the same price so instead of losing time pin point what to change we ditch them completely.
because here (until it's transitioned) if US close EU connection we lose all our system and we close the company in 3 months without revenues.
This makes sense to me. As I pointed out above, if a company is in compliance with edicts that pose risk to you; you are correct to mitigate those risks. You switch your source of bread.
However...
On your personal machine at home, running Zorin OS, you have not established this risk for the GnuLinux servers.
It's true but in my case i don't like uncertainty, also having the exact same system at home that work (for test in homelab).
And to do this i must "convince" zorin to at least propose an "optional" repo for EU, for it to be "acceptable" at work.
Also there is very competitive compagny for the server part, my search seem to show that behind the repo is ppa and a VM from Digital Ocean, hetzner is very competitive and EU based for example (one of our pic to replace our VM)
For PPA is more difficult as i don't know witch feature they use, but moving the VM would already be a very good step
The beauty of disagreement and debate is it allows us to examine the merit of ideas, stripping away bias and assumptions.
I think that this point above is valid.
You are not speaking of a Certain Risk; but of uncertainty.
You are not referring to a known threat actor; but the strong potential of possibilities, given observation.
I think that this is reasonable and it also narrows the discussion down to defining certainty.
If the ZorinGroup can address that factor; would that help, whether switching the default mirror is applicable or not?
I can (and will) alert the Zoringroup to this feedback as a matter of priority.
Even as I point out other views for you to consider: I understand exactly where you are coming from, too.
The best would be having both (and both less powerfull to prevent increased price) so even if something go wrong (in US or EU) they can simply increase power in the zone where it works.
And this would allow company ans user like me to select the EU manually.
Well a 'European' alternative to ZorinOS is Q4OS, originally from Germany, now from Praque, Czech Republic. They have been very clever in making the OS look and feel even more like that other OS:
Artyom Zorin has replied to this question with the following information.
Launchpad is used as the primary place to host the Zorin OS package repositories (for infrastructure reasons), however, they also host backup repositories on servers they control in case something happens to Launchpad.
They are hoping to relocate their packages.zorinos.com servers to the EU soon.
It is based off of Debian. It uses Debian official mirrors so I searched in Brave and it just came back with "you can use the mirrors where you downloaded it from". I will investigate further.
I don't like mirrors, they are always getting dirty, & is so much work to clean them. I have OCD, & my bathroom mirror is literally a nightmare. I try to pretend its not even there, only way I'll survive.
Oh yeah.......... I use Main Server, at least I don't have to see it, so thats a plus. Thanks Zorin team!
yup but it's always better to have mirror to reduce the number of people on the main server so people who want them have them and the one like you who want the main server have more power as less user are on it.
hope their repo are also in EU ^^ (if they have some of their own)