Old Linux User - Life with Zorin 17.1 Pro - 2 Months in

Feedback
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I figured now is a good time to give my feedback, both positive and negative, about my experience with Zorin 17.1 Pro.

First off a quick bit about my background. I come from using Unix back in the mid to late 80s, starting off as a young teen as my family worked in high-tech. I started my Linux days learning about it on BBS systems and with Softlanding Linux System, then Slackware, Debian, Red Hat Linux (now Fedora), and Suse. So I am not new to Linux and have been using it for over 30 years. More recently, I mainly used Ubuntu, Fedora, and OpenSuse as my distro of choice. So the question is: Why Zorin for me? Simple, I have been there and done that as far as compiling and building my own system. I have no need for Arch or Gentoo, although they are great distros. I want to get work done, not work on my computer.

Now to the point of all this.
I really liked the idea of having both a nice looking and function desktop environment, and the Zorin team has put in significant effort on that side. I need functionality, but want a pleasant experience as well. I currently also have a newer desktop and laptop running Fedora 40 with KDE.

What I like about Zorin

  • The interface is beautiful and elegant. I can choose the layout for me, without jumping through hoops.

  • Software availability. The fact that this stupid ideological war that is going on between distro packages vs Snaps vs Flatpaks, is just dumb when all I want is access to the software I need to do my work. I like to have the choice of which I choose to use, and the fact that I did not have to go and install support for either Flatpak and/or Snaps is great in my book. Linux is about freedom and choice.

  • Reliability. I installed 17.1 Pro in June on 2 systems, both of which have Nvidia cards (1650ti and 3050) and using both the laptop monitor and a 49 inch 5120x1440 super ultrawide. I have had very little in the way of stability issues or problems.

What I don't like

  • Outdated core. The fact that 17 was released with Ubuntu 22.04 is a con to me, considering 24.04 was right around the corner at the time. While we were able to finally get to the 6.8 kernel, only very recently is an issue on newer hardware.

  • Outdated Gnome (43.9) is a major issue considering the fixes towards modern technology like Wayland, etc.

  • Both of those lead to the overall issue and that is the dev cycle of Zorin. On the one hand, stability is king, but if it doesn't run well on new hardware, then it isn't stable or useable. This has limited my use. I have two newer systems, a laptop with a 4070 and a desktop with a 4090. Both have the latest AMD processors. Zorin is much more glitchy on them, which is why I use Fedora 40 KDE on them.

Overall
I continue to use Zorin for my work laptops, as I do really enjoy it and like the UI. While Zorin, just like any other distro, has its issues and things I don't like, I find it to be an excellent system and I continue to recommend it to family and friends, both technical and not. Having the widest range of available software in the software store is important to newer Linux users. I do hope that Zorin finds a way to speed up dev cycles, which is also why I decided to purchase the Pro version. I had no need to what it gave me, but I love to support projects that are doing good work.

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I thought at first that the old base would be an issue for me as well, seeing as I run a 7800x3d and a 7900xtx, both very new tech. However, they've been running perfectly fine ever since 17 came out, and I haven't really thought about it too much since then, honestly.

I also was kind of surprised at an older Gnome version, but I think that to me it makes sense, only simply due to the sort of broken styling a lot of newer Gnome implementations suffer from. This is the single most consistent and coherent version of Gnome I think I have seen so far.

I think that your points are valid, I do wish they could speed up the process a bit too (also why I purchased the pro version, and have done so for a few versions now). But at the same time, I boot up my computer and things just work, and quite frankly, to me that's the best thing in the world. There's been so many times where things break on updates (although the recent Nvidia / 545 driver issues sort of conflict with this) with other OSs, that it's nice to not think about other things and just do work or game and then turn it off.

I do however wish they included Timeshift by default. While faults are rare, even just a short restore window would go miles in fixing problems a new person may have.

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@Clintre , a very beautiful desktop indeed!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences, I enjoyed the read.

@applecheeks37 , the second thing I installed after Nala, and doing the update/upgrades, was Timeshift! It's easy to find in the app store, and you're right - it should be included in the build.

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I am regularly known (past workplace too!) as Mr. Pedantic. Red Hat is still Red Hat (but owned by IBM). Fedora is the community spin of Red Hat. Linux is not the element of Freedom, but the OS, GNU is. Linux is the kernel that made GNU able to run. Free Software is what real freedom is all about, ethics, and the freedom to do what you want with your computer, not an application that controls the end user.

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Very well said. I have been somewhat a collector of Operating Systems, since I grew up with a terminal, whether it be some form of Dos or Unix. I have obscure operating systems installed on several old systems, which I also collect. So I have always been a fan of Operating Systems in general. However, what Apple, Microsoft, and Google are doing just goes to show how little freedom you have in their ecosystems.

I prefer my system to me my way, not theirs.

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@applecheeks37
I do agree with the consistency. Unfortunately, it is just some of the missing capabilities around fractional and Wayland on the older Gnome. It is obviously also partly my fault since I run Nvidia, but I need CUDA for some of the work we do.

@0Picass0
Indeed, NALA is what APT should be.

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I like that. Zab

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