I myself use Linux for almost 20 years and I overcome distro-hopping and extrem DE customization addiction.. finally. It was Ubuntu that suck me into Linux world.
And I was always considered to be "the black sheep" in the family, not just because I became sort of family personal IT issues-fixer but also because everyone else use Windows. Well, not anymore.
And people behind Zorin OS are directly responsible for this rather radical change in my family regarding quality of PC usage.
I just came home for summer holiday for 3 weeks and spend almost entire holiday sitting behind the desk on various machines practically every day. Why? Well...
Short story: I just managed to switch my entire family on Zorin OS 17.3 Pro.
Long story:
Family members have 3 elderly laptops from 2008-2015 that now run on Zorin Pro Lite.
3 fresh new (one year old) laptops runs full fledged Zorin Pro. And one poor old dinosaur from ancient history of computing era: model HP Compaq dc7900 Convertible Minitower with Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 @ 3.16 GHz and just 3GB RAM that runs on Zorin Pro Lite now.
My parents and siblings used Windows like forever, since the beginning of computer era that became available for consumers mass. So why such radical changes? And why now?
Well, it all started last summer with my father complaining on performance of his old desktop PC HP dinosaur that used to run on Win10. So I bought 2 brand new laptops for him and mom for Christmas.
Half a year later I came home again for summer holiday and I asked how happy they are with new laptops performance? Father says he never turned on old dinosaur since he received his new laptop.
But they couldn't figure out printer connection which is acceptable for 70 years old pensioners. When I wanted to fix the printer connection issue on his new laptop I loudly ranted on lagging of his new machine under Win11, which I considered unacceptable in such modern machine.
But hey we are talking about Windows, right. So what should I expect?!
I stated that Windows is a cancer for any machine. It slowly but surely kills the machine and only way to cure it is to treate it with Linux.
It caught my fathers interest because of he's nostalgia attachment to old dino PC that he is so reluctant to throw away finally. So he offered me to reinstall his, since Xmas never powered on old HP dinosaur.
When I presented Zorin OS Pro Lite on super vintage dino HP Compaq with ancient Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 and just 3GB RAM, the entire family was blown away. Literally! Everyone!
Before the PC was powering on for almost 8 minutes. Ridiculous right?! Now with Zorin Lite it takes less the 1 minute. Dramatic overturn. The old machine is again enjoyable to use.
I spend time with each family member and individually, at their own learning pace, I explained basic interactions with Zorin OS on old dino desktop PC.
But this presentation of Linux power with user friendly aesthetic graphical interface didn't end there.
It led my entire family to jump in waiting queue for reinstalling everyone's laptop with Zorin OS.
I wanted to be fair to other Linux distros and I offered the availability of other distributions demonstrating Linux user-first philosophy such as freedom of choice and full control management over system.
Something that members of my family never even heard of and certainly never experienced until now giving theirs surprised reactions.
They all choose to stick with Zorin and I respect that.
I have dual boot with Arch Hyprlad and believe or not with Ubuntu (Gnome X11) on my Tuxedo high-end premium laptop.
To these days I use Ubuntu as my primarily system just because it once opened the door to Linux world for me. It's a kind of special thing for me. Like the first love that you'll never forget.
Now I envy, so envy my family because I already experienced all that euphoric first joy of freedom, fast performance and unique explorations of the various distros that comes with Linux and practically don't exists on Windows.
They're just on the beginning of their journeys.
And I can't wait to see how far they're willing to go because with Linux there is no limits. You could from beginner became developer. Now it's entirely their choice.
I have to say it was amazing to observe their genuine reaction. Especially the euphoric feeling of Windows prison escape from bloatware, spying, money spending on peace of software they're never needed or never used, Microsoft marketing harassment and just basic lack of right to freedom of choice.
I also have to say that I don't consider Mint beginners friendly distro at all - my opinion and I stand by it for a hell of a good reason.
Until Zorin there were no beginners friendly distro at all. And please don't let me start on shady Winux (Wubuntu, LinuxFX).
Zorin is the way to go for newbies and I have 5 newbies to guide and help now.
But I got to say I feel bit guilty.
Because I purchased one copy of Pro version (that comes along with Lite Pro version as well) but I use it on 7 machines.
I could use entire free version, but I wanted to have the most smooth transition for my family, so I went for paid version for extra options that I could install for free separately anyway.
But it might not run as natively and it would cost me more time I desperately didn't have, considering my holiday was only 3 weeks and each machine takes so much time to configurate.
Specially towards end with DE tweaks to individual needs of particular user.
So paid Pro version was right choice and I don't regret that.
But I feel bit off. These guys behind Zorin OS truly sweat off their keyboards. I know! I explored the system ins and outs sever time on 7 machines. Trust me. It's stunning, stable and extremely beginner friendly system. Mint don't even come close to that.
And Zorin Lite version literally revive old zombie dinosaur PC back to live.
So I decided to give them extra donation because they deserve it. They surely do! For honourable missions they do, such as providing escape door for those, who finally gain their courage and decided to step out of their comfort zone and find their freedom in Linux eco systems.
To Zorin developers, you have no idea what kind of positive impact your product have on my family. Zorin OS is indeed the escape door to freedom from Windows prison.
Finally my family is free to do whatever they want and use it as they wish. And they all love it so much. It's funny to watch they excitement.
Especially my brother who is already asking quite interesting questions and I could see he already started to dive in.
So thanks Zorin developers! Keep up with such great work. You just earn 5 new happy Zorin users and I no longer need to listening my parents and siblings ranting on Microsoft marketing harassment.
Now there is only one downside issue, that by my opinion should be sorted in beginners friendly distro right from default.
There is no maintenance graphical friendly app. Yes, there is Update app but no maintenance app in terms of cleaning caches and all sort of junk.
My mother, proper OCD lady, raised this issue as she loves to clean and clean and clean...
I satisfied her love for cleaning with good old trusty and notoriously known Ubuntu Cleaner app.
But to get this app you required to go on internet, find the repo ( sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gerardpuig/ppa ) , then copy/paste repo in terminal and then you can run install command sudo nala install ubuntu-cleaner or sudo apt install ubuntu-cleaner.
I maintain my system via terminal only. But I have 20 years Linux experience so for me it's no big deal to find pretty much any app in any version and if it doesn't exist, well I'll create it.
But for elderly lady in her 70s it's something absolutely unacceptable. So Zorin developers should keep that on their mind.
Devs should ship their OS by default with some sort of user friendly Cleaner app and place it right on desktop alongside with Update app.
I was surprised there is no alternative in beginners friendly software manager such as Gnome-Software. Either I'm blind or there is non.
Not to mention absolute need for such app. For sake of curiosity I run Ubuntu Cleaner after I run my own automated post-install script and believe or not, Ubuntu Cleaner app deleted more than 700MB of APT cache only.
Not to mention other junk. All together the app save almost 1.5 GB of space.
So such app has it's purpose and right to be shipped with OS by default, as it's absolute must have if you want to have healthy, stable and fast performing system and you are panically scared of terminal, which I consider to be Post-traumatic stress syndrome caused by Microsoft bullying after escaping Windows prison.
Let's make transition for those poor escapees easier as much as possible. Let's help them and guide them. Once they will take over and help&guide others.
And just remember updating is one thing, cleaning another.
It more likely looks like I'll go for one of the Arch distros.
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).
