Hi! So, I decided to write a bit about my experience with Zorin, coming from Fedora and Ubuntu as my previous attempts in the Linux world. I'm just a tech enthusiast, so my basic knowledge of the terminal and extensive configurations initially led to some resistance in using Linux as my daily OS. After watching some Diolinux videos about the best operating systems, Zorin was often mentioned as a good starting point for beginners. Since my main device isn't supported by Windows 11 and I want to keep it for as long as possible (it's a 10+ year old Dell M3800 with full specs and still working like a charm!), I decided to give Zorin a try. So, here are my first impressions:
The UI is modern and optimized out of the box in comparison to the vanilla GNOME Shell. I had to install very few extensions to make it perfect for me. It's absolutely gorgeous! (Screenshots attached)
The bootloader is also modern and fast. I don't know why it was slow on Ubuntu and too small on Fedora. I had no issues here (installed with Secure Boot and TPM off, as recommended... but strangely, the OS loads faster and without lags with Secure Boot ON. Even the Dell logo started showing up beautifully alongside the Zorin logo after I turned it back on).
I've been using it as my daily OS for a week and haven't felt the need to use Windows a single time yet.
Though everything seems fine so far, the NVIDIA drivers still don't work as expected here. The only distro that managed to install them correctly was Ubuntu. I'm sticking with the open-source driver as I haven't noticed any slowdown in system or app performance (Chrome is a bit slow on the first startup and when rendering a few pages - own Google pages, lol, yeah, don't judge me! I mainly use Chrome because it's synced with my university account and it's so handy right now... but I do use Firefox for personal use).
I mainly use my device connected to the power cable, but I've noticed the battery drains impressively fast on Linux (same as other distros). Dell had an offering with Ubuntu 14 out of the box... but it was never updated since then. So, I don't know if those drivers should be used anyway.
The GNOME Store sucks, even on Zorin. I'm installing apps through the terminal as it often doesn't load or crashes while downloading apps.
Zorin Connect is so handy and works SO much better than Windows' Link to Phone.
The only thing that I'm really missing is a feature to switch keyboard languages with a dedicated key instead of clicking it in the tray, or to use accents and special letters as I'm used to with Microsoft PowerToys' Quick Accent feature (I need that so badly as I bought my device in the UK but now I live and mainly write in PT-BR).
I'm still testing it so I can recommend it to more people here in my lab, but it seems so promising! I'm keen to donate or purchase Pro if I stick with it.
Wenn Sie den Nvidia-Treiber verwenden möchten, können Sie entweder den Kernel 5.15 installieren (er ist im Repository enthalten) oder das ppa von kelebek333 hinzufügen.
I think the Problem ist the Driver Version 390. It isn't compatible with the 6.8 Kernel. So, You could install an older Kernel like @Forpli already wrote or use the Repo.
And there is one Thing in Relation: I saw on one of Your Pictures that Your System is running in Wayland. Because the Zorin Desktop has an older Gnome Version, the Wayland Implementation isn't on a Level where it would work well with Nvidia.
So, it would be good to switch to X11/Xorg instead. And that could explain, too why on the Graphics Info Your integrated Intel Graphics is shown and not Your Nvidia Graphics.
So, I added the PPA and switched to X11. Now the card is correctly loaded, I guess. I haven't noticed any notable performance changes at all, but the CPU usage is definitely lower.
I need to learn more about Xorg/Wayland to determine whether I should upgrade it or not in future Zorin updates. However, as far as I know, Ubuntu and its flavors usually implement these technologies more cautiously compared to Fedora, where I had quite a few troubles figuring out how to do some basic things.
Anymore helpful advices for a newbie Zorin user? Have a nice day to ya.
Well, Fedora goes more intense forward, that is true. But the Concept behind it is a different one in comparision to Ubuntu LTS. The Thing with Wayland in Your Case is a bit ... difficult. Because even with a more up-to-date Desktop Environment with better wayland Implementation, you could really profit from this because Your Nvidia Card is relatively old. So, staying on Xorg in Your Case your Hardware would be better.
Maybe this is the Reason why Fedora didn't worked well for You. The OS with its Components is simply too modern for Your Machine. But that is only a Guess.
Perhaps you would like to take a look at Zorin lite. I can recommend it! It runs even better on older hardware as it requires fewer resources. It made a significant difference on my laptop (Dell Latitude E6430 with Nvidia).
It can hardly be found on the homepage and is no longer advertised at all.
I might stick with core version for a while. with the few tweaks made here, seems pretty stable. I'm glad that my machine gained some extra life. From the exterior one would never tell its more than 10y old. Hope it can last at least a few more years.
I hope so for you!
Test Zorin with Gnome at your leisure. And if at some point you realize that Gnome doesn't give you the freedom you want, you can switch to another desktop environment or completely to Zorin lite. Although the Gnome extensions also make many things possible that XFCE, for example, can do out of the box, some of them can cause the system to become unstable.
