Opinions Please: Which is more stable; Zorin or Mac OS?

Money is no option, what would you prefer from a stability stand point; Zorin or Mac OS? Why? What has your stability experience been with Zorin? Anyone out there switch from Mac OS to Zorin, why?

Try Zorin OS yourself, it's your answer.

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Linux give you the power to break it and fix it. You're in full control (if you know what you're doing).

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It also depends on whether you are happy;

A. Not to be in control of your OS.
B. Whether you are happy with the fact you don't own the OS and can't adjust it to your personal preferences
and lastly,
C. You are happy to have your data scraped by Apple.

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I switched from apple to ZorinOS:

I've worked with Apple Macintosh for 25 years. The reason why I chose Apple back then was that the well-known music programs (Logic, Cubase, ProTools) did not (yet) run (properly) on Windows.
The Mac also felt a lot smarter, and I identified with Apple's 1997 "Think Different" commercial.

To this day, I still believe that Apple created a great operating system where everything works as it should.

Unfortunately, Apple is now one of the big tech companies along with Microsoft, google and Meta that thinks they own the world.

The devices have (always) been excessively expensive and a current MacOS no longer runs or runs very slowly on older hardware.

I also think the open source idea is wonderful.

I switched to Elementary OS two years ago for all of these reasons: I bought a fairly recent refurbished laptop and installed Elementary.

I installed Ubuntu on my wife's old Windows laptop. My wife and children get along wonderfully well with Ubuntu, despite initial skepticism. The system runs smoothly, in contrast to the Windows that was on it before.

I hadn't heard of ZorinOS back then.

I wasn't really dissatisfied with ElementaryOS, but I wasn't really satisfied either.

At the end of last year I read about ZorinOS while looking for alternative possibilities and I thought: This could be just the right thing for me.

My laptop now has an interface that is very similar to the usual MacOS feeling. All the applications I need are running. For hard disc recording, I use Ardor 7, which works for me just as well as ProTools, which I've been working on for many years. I installed the real-time kernel patch from Ubuntu Studio and Jack so that my audio interface can be addressed.

So far I only see advantages using ZorinOS instead of MacOS. I don't even want to talk about Windows.

I've now had a t-shirt printed with a penguin on it and the 1997 Apple advertising slogan "Think Different" ... :wink:

P.S. By the way, I like to pay for open source software and I think it's fair if the developers are paid for their work. But I can decide for myself how much the individual program is worth to me. If I use a program regularly, the developer gets more. And a program that I only need once a year, I have it there for testing.

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The way you word this is interesting. it is a direct question that specifies only Stability. It also includes the qualifier "Prefer."
MacOS is more stable.
It is a trillion dollar company with a very large and well paid development team that maintains a standardized proprietary desktop. These factors must facilitate greater stability.
I Prefer Zorin OS - money no object. When you examine that Zorin OS has many millions of downloads and that this helpdesk (forum) sees tens of help requests over the course of a few days; this is demonstrative of how easy to use, stable and reliable Zorin OS is.
Of all the millions of users, only a tiny fraction run into significant trouble.

I could say (or admit) that Carbide Steel is harder than Alloy Steel. But when needing steel for a Tooling application, I am likely to prefer Alloy Steel. Harder steel is also more brittle and hand tooling needs flexibility without shattering.

My personal experience with Zorin OS falls in with the majority of users. Installation has gone smoothly across a dozen machines. Hardware has worked out of the box without need for additional fixes. Printers, bluetooth, network and sound have all just simply worked.
The only reason I know anything about fixing any of these is from helping those few who do have these issues and come to the forum. All of it is vicarious or secondary experience.
In the years I have used Zorin OS - I only recall one instability. After a kernel upgrade, the text on my screen looked smeared and stretched. Before I had a chance to try to fix the issue on my own or to find help from Zorin on the issue, another update rolled in that immediately resolved the issue.
Across many distros of testing and distrohopping; My personal experience is that Zorin OS has been the most stable, steady and reliable; partly due to the developers logically avoiding trying to be daring, cutting edge or Latest and Greatest.

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Just to add Apple and tangentially Windows use dedicated hardware for their OS's. If stability is the criterion then purchase dedicated GNU/Linux hardware. (GNU is the OS, Linux is the kernel).

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I ran Mac and Windows pc's for my digital imaging business for many years. Both had significant stability issues, but less as time went on. I also ran linux servers which were much more stable than the desktops they served.

A lot depends on what software you run. If Linux can run the apps you need, I think you'll find Zorin to be very stable. It can depend on your hardware, so best to test before install via running of a live USB or better, an external SSD drive.

Thank you for the response! I too, simply refuse to use windows now. It’s so unstable and glitchy. I’ve used Mac for nearly 15 years now. For the most part it’s been good. I currently use an iMac with M1 as my daily driver.

About a year ago, I wanted a cheap laptop to supplement my desktop, but did not want to pay Apple price, plus was interested in Linux. I purchased one, got rid of windows, and installed Zorin Pro. I absolutely LOVE the Zorin interface! I like it even better than the interface on my Mac! So much so, that I’ve considered making Zorin my daily driver.

I made this post, as I want to see what others have experience from a stability standpoint using the OS daily. If I switch, I’d probably keep my mac (currently in the living room), and buy a Linux built machine from one of Zorin’s hardware partners listed on their website (for the bedroom). My wife has been asking me for months to move my daily work to the bedroom, as my phones calls are distracting to her TV watching. :joy:

A few things that concern about switching to Zorin on the daily for work purposes; OS stability and finding apps to mimic the apple ecosystem. I feel like my fears of stability are disappearing, but still might need help finding comparable apps that come with Apple.

Here are the Apple Apps I currently use and need to find a comparable replacement, that will sync with my iPhone. If I switch to something different, it needs to have a native iPhone app. Reminders, Notes, Photos, iCloud files, and (yes this one will be difficult) HomeKit!

I’ve been sucked into the apple ecosystem! We have the family version of apple one, my smart home runs on HomeKit, we have home pods in every room, Apple TV in every room, iPads, Apple Watches, and iPhones.

Everything in my home syncs and talks. Looking at something on the computer and want to share with everyone else, screen mirror to Apple TV. Just took a photo on your phone and need it on the computer, within minutes it’s there. Just got a new device, just restore from iCloud. These things I like!

I hate that Apple has is acting like all the other big tech companies. You know they are spying on you and taking your data. Since the death of Steve Jobs it’s been a slow down hill slope with the technology. What used to just work, doesn’t seem to anymore. Sometimes when trying to screen mirror to Apple TV, it crashes or lags. I find more often my Mac is glitching out like a PC and just acting sluggish. My new Apple TV freezes sometimes and the remote randomly disconnects. Apps crash more often on my iPhone. I’ve been unimpressed with apples performance these last few years, but seem stuck in the ecosystem.

Hoping for alternative ideas here. Maybe what I’m really looking for doesn’t yet exist with open source YET, but one can dream. Maybe someone will come along with a solution to all of my wants. :sunglasses:

At the moment I still have an Apple iphone and use the calendar and the address book.
To be able to access the contacts and addresses from ZorinOS I simply use the web interface from Apple:

But there are also apps that access this service
Quick search:
https://www.addictivetips.com/ubuntu-linux-tips/use-icloud-on-linux/

I would like to say that my next cell phone will certainly no longer be an Apple device. I will then, for example, use a Samsung or similar refurbished and LineageOS or /e/OS.

And while we're on the subject of data protection: I discovered the Brave browser for myself today!

Another alternative would be Vivaldi.

However, even as it blocks Google from doing this, it provides its own under the banner of Brave Rewards. Some members opine that this is equal to what Google is doing and upon my own review, I reached the same conclusion.
Contacting the Brave Developers to discuss this issue resulted in the door being firmly shut in my face.

Vivaldi contains some proprietary software. We have also discussed Vivaldi across many threads on this forum. While I am generally supportive of Vivaldi and like the idea behind it, in practice much falls short.

@swarfendor437 probably can give some of the strongest recommendations on Browser Privacy as it is an area he is knowledgeable on.

Trust: is something that must always be earned. When you open yourself up to a browser, then you have opened yourself up. There is no other way around it. With Browsers, tread with caution - always. Never just Trust the Words and the Claims and the assertions.
They are often vaporous.

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As I understand it, I have the choice to use Brave Rewards or not.

But maybe I'll start a separate thread before we get any further off topic here.

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Yes. :wink:

You understand correctly. You can Opt Out of Brave Rewards. You cannot, however, get rid of the annoying icon that wants to keep advertising it at you.

PearOS was released 2023 on arch or ibuntu are near macos design on ubuntu.
https://ibuntuos.com/

Me, too. That's why I use SRWare Iron... it's basically Google Chrome with all the corporate spyware stripped out. No ads, no corporate spying.

You can still use the Chrome Web Store or whatever it's called to install extensions... I use TabActivate and uBlock Origin. I used a browser string changer on the Windows version of this same browser back when I ran Windows, but I've not installed it yet on this Linux version.

[EDIT]
Ok, I got the browser string changer installed now, too. Same exact setup, same exact browser as I had under Windows, now spoofing the browser string to appear to be Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/110.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 under Windows 10.

They've even got 32 bit versions of the browser for those running on really, really old hardware that can't do 64 bit OSs.

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A bit off topic but just to let you know: REAPER is a commercial (but inexpensive) DAW much more feature-rich than Ardour and runs natively under Linux. Just in case you ever get to your limits with Ardour...

I haven't looked in privacy browsing for a while. I seem trying to install SRW Iron in the past and never got it to work or it wasn't available for GNU/Linux. In the past I have use Icecat, but think it is now iceweasel. For accessing my protonmail I use TOR browser. Interestingly on eOS (ungoogled android) it only gets a privacy rating of 5/10. Icecat allows you total privacy by being able to disable java content. When I first started using Devuan I posted a screenshot to pCloud and a major contributor said they did not want javascript all over their machine so for screenshots I now only use imgBB.com. (Swarfendor437 (swarfendor437) — ImgBB — Page 2)
I will need to do some updated research.

UPDATE: Having just done a quick browse most advise TOR for security purposes. I only use it for accessing my Proton mail account and nothing else. Interestingly NordVPN also gives TOR the number one slot with Firefox second. (On Devuan I use Firefox ESR, and TOR for Proton mail.)
I don't use any VPN because you are trusting a third party with your online activity. And like a lot of good Linux videos point out about Cloud services it isn't a Cloud but someone else's computer. Whilst I don't use any VPN they do have some good privacy tips on browsing safely:

For true security IceCat was Ice Weasel, crafted version of Firefox for GNU and is platform agnostic:

Yes, I understood every single word of this statement.

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I am on the starwars side power to break. :rofl: