My experience with Linux Mint XFCE and Zorin lite

Chat about Zorin
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Both distributions are equally recommended for beginners with older hardware. I would like to write down here what I like about both distributions in comparison:

Linux Mint XFCE:

  • Whisker menu that is more variable than Zorin menu
  • automatic maintenance
  • System recovery with timeshift can be set during the initial setup
  • Software updater (how often updates are searched, which updates, automatic or manual installation)
  • Software manager: .deb native packages are shown at first position, no snaps, unverified flatpak packages are hidden by default and there is a search option to choose when an app has multiple formats which packages shall be listed
  • Thunar: Open as admimistrator is included as default
  • more themes and icon themes than in Zorin
  • a little bit faster newer kernel versions
  • save terminal output in GUI
  • More modern audio server Pipewire instead of PulseAudio

Zorin lite:

  • less bloated, it needs a little bit less ressources than LM XFCE
  • Zorin upgrader: Upgrade to next higher version is easier than in LM
  • friendlier forum
  • simpler handling
  • Zorin Appearance desktop layouts

I think it's simply a question of personal preference. Linux Mint XFCE introduced me to some useful functions that I would otherwise not have known about as a Linux newbie.
Many of these can also be similarly configured in Zorin, e.g. by removing snaps, installing the xfce4-whisker-menu-plugin, setting custom actions in thunar for opening thunar as administrator, installing your own icons/themes and creating snapshots for recovery with Timeshift.

For me it was a bit easier to have all this by default and because of this I switched to LM XFCE.

What I miss in both is a button to reset xfce4-settings to default one (as e.g. in dconf editor for gnome can be done, but also there is no option to do this
in GUI of normal gnome settings). This is only possible by removing config folder.

And I'd really like a button to make a full system recovery as in Windows and go back to fresh install without timeshift that needs around 10GB GB for one snapshot after fresh install (because I have only little storage space).

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Nice informative post @Forpli. You could take a look at some alternatives to Timeshift. The one that came to mind was 'Back in Time' which I have heard of but never used it. There's a lengthy list here:

https://alternativeto.net/software/timeshift/?platform=linux

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Another crucial point concerns availability in the future. Zorin lite will be discontinued after Zorin 18. Although it will still be possible to install the xfce4-desktop-plugin and thus use the XFCE desktop, this DE will no longer be officially supported and therefore the special customisations for Zorin in terms of layout and user friendliness will no longer apply.

Furthermore, Linux Mint XFCE version 21.3 offers longer support (until April 2027) for kernel 5.15. On very old hardware (older than 2012), especially with Nvidia graphics, this kernel often runs better than a newer one and also offers the possibility to use the proprietary Nvidia drivers 340 and 390 without adding a ppa or installing an older, no longer officially supported kernel.
The Zorin 16 lite support where kernel 5.15 was used has ended.

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I've got Q4OS 64-bit Plasma running on an Athlon 64 single processor built in 2006 running kernel 6.1.37

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:star_struck:

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I also agree I have totally given up on the Mint forum .... I find it hard to use and a lot less friendlier but then I have been on this forum for going on 4 years and maybe a bit bias even though Mint with Cinnamon is my daily driver .... I dual boot with Zorin using the Cinnamon DE ..... dual booting with the same DE makes it much more navigable ..... for me anyway .... besides I just like Cinnamon .... LOL

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Two weeks ago i switched to Zorin Lite from Core because i needed a lighter OS. Months ago i tried Mint Xfce but i didn't like it. Zorin Lite looks better to me. By the way surely Mint is another great distro. And speaking about Xfce Mx Linux is also very good to me.

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