I've been pretty clear in posts I made while still a regular here that Zorin isn't the right distribution for me. It's still not, but after an attempt at switching to Debian 13 when GNOME infuriated me one time too many, I feel that it's worth complimenting Zorin on readiness for use. It's not perfect, but MAN. Between Debian 13 having a royal pain of a partition tool during install, failing to boot afterward (needed nomodeset, a problem I have not encountered with Zorin), not offering an Nvidia driver at install, not HAVING the Nvidia driver package its wiki called for installing with APT (?!), not installing relevant kernel source so the Nvidia .run installer failed, and then installing it in an unusable state (at this point I gave up) from APT, it really drove home how much more ready Zorin is to sit down and use.
Installing the Nvidia drivers has problems on Zorin as well, and there have been issues with the packages lacking a certain 32-bit compatibility library in the past (Ubuntu's fault), but the package is THERE and much of the hassle lies with Nvidia, in a broad sense. If I want to install from Nvidia's .run, I can after updating gcc. (Is 18 using a newer one? Maybe that isn't necessary now.) It's a bit of a project, but the kernel sources come installed and configured.
I didn't hop back to Zorin. I really can't tolerate GNOME anymore. But for all its faults, I'm STILL finding ways other distributions don't match it when it comes to readiness.
Do You have in the Sources no-free Software active? If not, You will not get the Driver. And on Debian is another Downside for Nvidia Drivers: then only offer to Version 550. So, when You need a newer Version, You would have to use the one from Nvidia anyway.
Did you used the normal ISO or one of the Live Versions? The Live Versions offers a - like the Name says - Live Mode and they using the Calamares Installer. Not my Favorite, too but I like it way much more than this other Debian Installer.
I feel the pain all too well. And I agree on the gnome part, which is why I had been using the XFCE version for so long. It had so much going for it that I didn't think about it every day, and it was nice and got out of my way. For years this was my go to... and since they're sunsetting it, trying to find an alternative has been... frustrating.
I've tried Linux Mint XFCE ... I don't hate it, but it isn't quite right. I can't put it into words, but it just doesn't perform like I feel it should, and is just a bit off here or there. Linux Lite seems ok sometimes, but then other times has lots of hastles.
I've tried every base under the sun (Debian, Arch, Gentoo, Void, Solus, Slackware etc). And virtually nothing comes to the readiness that I felt every time I used the XFCE version of Zorin.
That could explain it, though their wiki didn't mention a need to add a source, and there was no prompt to add a source. (As I recall, Fedora asks if you want to add non-free, and I think Ubuntu used to, years ago, but I could be misremembering.) Perhaps this is easy to do from Debian's desktop, but when it wouldn't boot without nomodeset, I very quickly added "3" to the kernel arguments to boot to TTY and work on drivers.
...550 doesn't even have support for 50 series. I realize that's still the newest and the vast majority are using older cards, but those older cards are no longer manufactured. So anyone buying a new machine with an Nvidia card needs newer than 550, and would have to use the .run... which had the issues I described above with source installation and configuration.
Normal. I had a live ISO for 13.0 but I downloaded 13.2 for this install and prefer offline installers, generally speaking. When my first attempt got me what the ISO referred to as a "netinst" version, I canceled the download to get the much larger one. Sounds like that was a mistake.
I looked at the instructions for Gentoo once and found myself on the floor, staring at the ceiling an hour later. <_< I used Slackware WAY back in the day, in my first experiments with Linux. I didn't realize anything used it as a base.
I like Plasma a lot, as I've said elsewhere. The one thing Debian really got right in my botched attempt was letting me install one or more DEs of choice at the end. I think XFCE was included.
There's not much honestly, but there's a few distros here and there that you'll find that use it. Mine that I used to use all the time was Zenwalk. Still around, but I haven't felt any desire to go back down the slackware trail in quite some time.
There's a fair few distros out there now that do that, which is a welcome addition in my eyes. Albeit probably not something a beginner distro should deal with, since they may not know what they are in the first place. But it makes experimentation with other DEs much quicker.
An "Advanced" button that keeps that out of the face of anyone just trying to get it set up would be adequate, I think. I'm more used to separate ISOs for each DE, which gets the job done, but is a hassle for experimentation, especially if you're like I am and favor the offline installer ISOs, even if they are much larger.
With the Live Images, You can install the System offline, too. But the Downside of the Live Images is, that each one comes only with one Desktop Environment. So, when You want another one, You would have to download another Image or instll the one You have and then after the Installation use the Terminal to install a different Desktop.
I agree with Debian 13 not being ready, especially with Plasma 6.x.x. Plasma 5.27 on a distro using Debian 12 bookworm is much more stable. Q4OS and PCLOS Debian.
I've wanted to like MX Linux, and I love the tools and the idea of the system. But performance wise on my hardware, for whatever reason, it just doesn't play nice. It's almost stuttery, and I've tried alterations to the system and I can never quite get rid of it.
If that weren't the case I would definitely stay there. But if I need to tool around with an os , then the readiness (for me) isn't there.
I am happy to hear that Zorin OS 18 is ready out of the box, provided you tick the checkbox, include Nvidia drivers with install. I wasn't aware that some other distro's, weren't ready out of the box, and that means not only can you not game using your GPU, but you also can't use your GPU for workload tasks either.
While its true that modern CPU's can do most of it these days, they can't do everything. For example, correct me if I am wrong, but I believe you need an Nvidia GPU to cuda for example, I don't believe CPU's come with cuda cores. And I think Tensor cores is another one I heard of, that I think is only found in GPU's as well.
While Zorin OS 18 is certainly not perfect by any means, I ma happy to know, that you've achieved a more positive result in using Zorin OS, then other distro's, that were not ready out of the box. Thank you for your valued posts & feedback!
Unfortunately, I wasn't referring to stability or readiness to ship, but readiness for use. Once the installer is finished, it's my opinion that other than making adjustments for personal preference, the user should be ready to install applications and get going, or at least be ready for me to do other installs to get it there. For reasons I gave above, Debian 13 didn't provide that for me. If it's a specialized distro like Tails or a particular use case like running a live USB with persistence, that's different. I was trying to set up a standard desktop on a machine I've used a number of distributions on before.
In that case don't use pure Debian, I never do, but forks which I have already referred to. I suggest you give Devuan a try, this is where the majority of Debian developers moved to after they (Debian) insisted on implementing systemd.
You could try SpiralLinux. I wouldn't call this a Distro; it is more like a configured Debian with preinstalled Extensions and Configurations. And: It uses only Debian-own Repo's (except the Flatpak Integration).
I actually considered it before trying Debian this time, but my VPN relies on systemd sadly and that's not changing in the short term. Might give it a try just for fun on my mini-PC. It's not in active use at the moment.
...huh. I wish I'd known about that one when Debian ticked me off this morning. It seems not to be up to date with Debian 13 yet, but the home page reads like a one man project, so that's understandable. Still, kills a couple of the benefits of moving to Debian for now (Plasma 6 and APT 3). It really sounds like what I wanted Debian to be though, so that may also get tried on the mini-PC.
For the moment, I'm back to Nobara. Being a Fedora based distribution, it would ruffle the feathers of many here, but it saves me quite a bit of trouble by having up to date Nvidia drivers and an extremely new kernel (6.18.2 as of now), and implemented surface kernel patches--basically CachyOS's kernel with extras. That made putting Linux on my Microsoft Surface Book 3 a lot easier... and making that thing run Linux instead of Windows 11 was uniquely satisfying.
(For anyone who didn't see me mention Nobara when I was still a regular, it's a gaming oriented distribution that isn't immutable like Bazzite. Polish has been its biggest problem, but that keeps slowly improving. It is highly opinionated and not for everyone, but most of its decisions make my life easier, even when they do make choice a bit more difficult.)
Just had a quick look and the put off is Pipewire and Pulse Audio. I still prefer ALSA even if it does take time to set up.
@Locklear93 going back to installing Apps then PCLOS Debian might be for you as it does not come with LibreOffice in the .iso but a LibreOffice installer. You can only tick one check box, so the entire suite, or you can choose which specific apps you want to install.
Then there is the Browser Installer written by Upgreyed. More browser choice than you can shake a stick at but I would stick with the bookworm .iso's as I don't feel trixie is stable when it comes to Plasma.
Like SpiralLinux they almost have the same number of DE's but not LXQt; they also have Plasma-mini, so expect smaller installation. Again Plasma 5.27 is still the best there is.
When it comes to any distro with any Plasma, Pling are making a real mess of Themes not installing as that is where all Plasma themes are pulled from.
Q4OS does not come with Flatpak but it can be installed from the Application Installer via the Welcome screen.
Additionally, their OSI (OS Installer) provides a familiar look and feel for older Windows users. And thankfully their Look Switcher (equivalent of Zorin Appearance) pulls in favourite Global Themes that they have scripted, numerous Windows themes, their own Debonnaire theme, and a MacOS style theme 'FutureOS' in both light and dark themes. Again based on Debian 12 which is good until mid-2028.
This really highlights an important point about “ready to use” versus “technically flexible.” Many distributions advertise stability or freedom, but the actual out-of-box experience especially with Nvidia hardware can make or break usability. Zorin clearly focuses on reducing that friction.
It does. It's not impossible to be both, either. Many distributions still won't make it easy to install Nvidia drivers and make you hunt down media codecs yourself. All it takes is a dialog during install to ask if the user wants to install third party software, and a very brief explanation of what that means. ("Proprietary software that runs your video, enables playback of media, supports wifi adapters, and other purposes cannot be included in XXX distribution for legal reasons, but with your permission, we can download and install it for you now.")
Completing my Debian install and then having to figure out I needed to add nomodeset in GRUB to boot due to a lack of Nvidia drivers was a rotten experience, and unnecessary.
Could do with a few CR LF added. Zab