Very disappointed. First, it's the unexpected session logouts that started happening after 17.1 came out. I lost progress on something I'd worked on. Now it's my printer that won't work. In version 17, the printer was correctly recognized.
After 17.1 and a recent system update that had to do with printers, my printer isn't working anymore, and even after I deleted it from Zorin (so Zorin could recognize it), the OS doesn't recognize it as the correct one and now nothing works.
Am frustrated with this spate of bugs. Considering going back to Linux Mint.
EDIT # 1: This is indefensible. Not OK. Am willing to wait a bit, but ... yeah.
EDIT # 2: Don't get me wrong. I mean, I love Zorin OS because it's an underdog and has achieved success. I identify with the story behind Zorin OS on a personal and professional level.That's a big reason why I've stuck with Zorin. It helps that the developers have been responsive and added features. But at the end of the day, I need something that works and is stable. Linux Mint, at this time, offers that. I have to mull this over. Switching is something I personally do not want to do.
I'm not sure about the printer issue (I've always had issues with them everywhere) but I just wanted to say that I completely agree that you should use whatever works for you.
It's great that you decide to stick around and give <insert_technology_here> a fair chance, but if after a while things don't improve then it's probably for the best to try something else.
I myself have had very bad experiences with Linux Mint, but lately I've been meaning to amend things and give it another try as well.
Right, yeah. And it's not just the printer. It's also the absence of quite a few features that other Linux OSes have, like the "Inhibit" applet with Linux Mint. I've sunk around $300 into Zorin OS Pro (including for an AMD video card after Zorin just wouldn't register the NVIDIA drivers I kept picking for my GTX 1060 card). It's one thing to stick with something out of trust and hope and faith that things will continue to get better, but it's entirely another when inexplicable regressions appear and disrupt your workflow or productivity. The sound wasn't working for my wife, too, after the recent update and it took some fiddling around on my part to get it going again. So there's that, too. Leaning more and more towards Mint at this point, unfortunately.
X.org sessions has this visual bug where programs minimize and maximize into windows through this weird, messed-up animation where the window disappears to the left going upwards while leaving a trace. Why release an OS with such a glaring bug? That's not to sound spiteful, but it's a legitimate question. Thank goodness Zorin's implementation of Wayland hasn't been bad. It's quite good.
VLC no longer works correctly. It cannot play DVDs. After the 17.1 update, DVD playback is messed up. Cannot either play videos or view them correctly when and if DVDs finally play. VLC functioned perfectly (or at least the .DEB version did). But after 17.1? Nope. Not sure why. I tried reinstalling the restricted Ubuntu codecs, but no go.
Your diligence in finding and reporting these issues is helpful.
Many members of this forum use more than one distro, or are on a different distro than Zorin OS.
I use Zorin OS Lite, which actually leaves me at a disadvantage for tackling Zorin OS Core issues. And not even all the moderators actively use Zorin OS as their daily driver.
What matters is that here, the members share knowledge and experiences. These uplift the GnuLinux community as a whole.
I would follow the steps outlined in the first response here:
This may be frustrating; but part of the trouble is that this is a Printers thing... It has happened to me on Mac, Windows and a variety of GnuLinux distros.
Printers are finicky, balky, testy and temperamental. And the unfortunate reality is that there is no escaping this.
Printers are actually computers in their own right. They are complex, have a motherboard and an operating system. They must compute, calculate and make preset "decisions" and then communicate all of this with your computer and operating system through drivers and its point of connection (wifi or cable). There is a lot that can go wrong, there.
An update to this would have been put out by the maintainer (In this case, CUPS), not ZorinGroup who have no involvement in the CUPS code. So, you would have experienced troubles on whichever distro that you were using that received the update (assuming that the update itself has an issue).
As you said, there are other things you would like to have: Features of other GnuLinux distros that go beyond the printer. It is for this reason that I use Zorin OS Lite, not Core.
I prefer a modular approach that allows me to fine-tune and customize my distro to be specific to my needs and Core (Gnome) relies on the user conforming to it, rather than the distro being flexible to the user.
Using a more modular distro means that I can add the repo of the distro I wish to borrow from, like Mint or MX or POP_OS and then install the application I prefer, like Popsicle or packagemanager or even an entire desktop like Cinnamon - then use the addons provided by the maintainer.
And yes, Cinnamon runs like a champion on Zorin OS, without that strange bogging down that it does on Mint after it has been running for a while.
I am a bit embarrassed. I came back here to say that I discovered the printer cable had been partially pulled out (I blame one of our kids - ha), which is why the printer was not being found. It had nothing to do with Zorin OS. I apologize. Excuse me while I go and eat a slice of humble pie. You are correct, too, for everything else you said, especially about CUPS and distros in general. I came to realize that shortly after my last post, but am glad to see you said the same thing. Yeah. Correct.
In any case, everything else I said still stands. The bugs with VLC, X.org, and so on and on (e.g., lacking certain features that other OSes have, like better power management with games and such). Alas, I have switched to Linux Mint. I will revisit using Zorin OS when version 17.2 comes out. Hopefully that iteration will at least contain a built-in option for better power management (like the "Inhibit" applet in Linux Mint). That alone would make me return as an user; no problem (and would attract a fair number of new users, I think). It would align with Zorin OS' goal of having things "just work" much like how they would in Windows. For sure.
That's a classic! In my experience is always good to check in from time to time. Things change constantly, sometimes for the better, sometimes not so much... it's a bit unfortunate but this is also one of the good things about Linux and open source i general: if something doesn't work, try something else.
I'm back. Reinstalled Zorin. After having used Mint, I can say that Zorin has the edge over Mint. It helps that Mint had issues with CrossOver, too, and kept going to sleep even though I had the "Inhibit" applet on. There were other minor issues that kept eating at me a bit (none of which I was bothered by when on Zorin OS), too. And the printer works on Zorin, too. I jumped the gun on that one. But all of this doesn't change my stance on the Zorin Group needing to fix bugs and working towards doing more "built-in" features. Version 17.2 should be interesting. Moving on ...
We all do this. Every single one of us.
Even those of us that try to help others on this forum do it often - looking for that cause to try to find a fix.
But accepting personal accountability: I can say I see that less often.
You deserve high credit for integrity.
I would not say that Zorin OS is the Best Distro. Arguably, I could not even define what would make the Best Distro.
I have tried many and I recommend many. In trying many, I have found that Zorin OS tends to be the most stable, the quickest with fixes and the most unadulterated distro I ever tried. Many distros build in ways of making their unique style unchangeable.
Zorin OS not only does not put such locks into place, the ZorinGroup has openly stated that they will not put such locks into place. Few developers ever make such a statement; which leads to another party deserving high credit for integrity.
The vast majority of problems I see on Zorin OS, I see spoken about on this forum. I do not experience most of them. From drivers to Graphics to Printers - sound, backlighting, network; Everything has always just worked.
I do not always agree with the ZorinGroup. Nor with their direction. But what makes Zorin OS so great for me, is that they unlock the doors that I may find my own direction, unbound by their ideas and beliefs of how to do things. They let Zorin OS be my own; where I can change, modify and adapt however I want. No locks, no proprietary code and no hidden code. And that is high praise.
Even Mint has some locks, the most tricky to pick being the "mintsources" application which takes command of the packaging from a discrete location in Root.
Removing it requires dehooking it and removing software-properties-gtk software-properties-common python3-software-properties, then removing the mintsources app, then reinstalling gir1.2-appstreamglib-1.0 gnome-software-common libappstream-glib8 python3-pycurl gnome-software python3-software-properties software-properties-common software-properties-gtk zorin-os-default-settings - just to fix One Package.
I guess I'm glad you're back to ZorinOS, but also a little disappointed that you had issues with Mint. Personally I like ZorinOS for the look and feel: it's simple, intuitive and feels well polished, something that Mint doesn't have. This is why it has become my go-to distribution when I need to install it for other people wanting to try Linux for the first time.
But the thing is: all distributions have some flaw here or there. Sometimes it's a minor annoyance, some other times it's a complete deal breaker. Most of the time it's highly subjective what makes a particular piece of software "unusable". Dual panes on the file manager, for example, is something I've seen a lot of people complain about lately.
Anyway, I'm glad you're comfortable with ZorinOS but I also encourage you to keep trying other distributions; it's a great learning experience, if nothing else.
@Aravisian - Thanks. Appreciate the kudos re: integrity. (I am the same way in real life; my broad line of work requires high integrity - will leave it at that.) Everything has just "worked" with Zorin, yes. Except for NVIDIA cards. I gotta respectfully take exception with you there. I had issues with my old GTX 1060 card, and I know many other people have had issues with their NVIDIA cards (and not just on Zorin OS; it's been on other OSes, too). Matter of fact, I was on Reddit recently and I saw quite a few people saying to others for them just to go with AMD for Linux going forward. But yes. Apart from the video card stuff, everything does "just work" with Zorin OS. Didn't know that about Linux Mint, too, by the way. Interesting. I suppose it makes sense, because they're a bigger OS than Zorin is, and are more liable to take on proprietary stuff that way. Then again, that'd go against the philosophy of Linux. If and when Zorin OS ever becomes bigger than it is today, I likely would understand if the Zorin Group developed proprietary code for Zorin OS, but only if it served a greater good and was indisputably necessary to protect the functional integrity of the OS (and if they were totally open about it, which I know they would be). Dunno. We'll all cross that bridge when and if we come to it.
@zabadabadoo and @zenzen - Yep. I'm back. The brothers Zorin probably had a light chuckle at my expense, too (assuming they saw this thread earlier), but that's OK. All in good humor. At least they know where my loyalty lies. And as for the "polish" of Zorin OS, I completely agree. That is a big reason why I have stuck with Zorin. They nailed the "look" 100%. No question about it. Mint isn't ugly by any means, but the default look is outdated. Plus, yes, Mint has more "built-in" stuff than Zorin OS like Timeshift, but at the same time, if I were still using Windows, I'd have to download and install supplementary software to add functions to the OS, so fair is fair. I suppose it's the very nature of Linux distributions that's led me to this mentality of needing "built-in" stuff. So many of them have a lot of software packed in, and that's intentionally by design, which I can understand and actually do agree with. I support it because Linux is Linux, and the platform needs to be as user-friendly as possible, which Zorin is, but there's no reason why the Zorin Group can't make more ... what's the word ... "curated" choices as to what else they can include by default in the name of improving the user experience and ease of use (e.g., like including the extension manager and maybe a few useful extensions, like Espresso, or even streamlining the entire code into the OS itself like how the brothers Zorin did with centering windows and all that from Gnome Tweaks).
Let's be honest... the 1060 is notorious as a card.
More people have trouble with that one card than most others. The quadro is a close second...
And the Nvidia developers are also notorious. Just a couple days ago, an update for the 550 driver broke everything on my machine. And it was not a simple matter of just rolling it back - instead I had to roll up my sleeves and go in and patch it. I was gritting teeth that day. But that is on the Nvidia devs, not Zorin.
I wouldn't.
But again, they have clearly stated that this is a path they will not take.
I would hedge my bets that they alternate between rolling on the floor with my antics and having a dart board with my picture on it.
In my experience is always good to check in from time to time. Things change constantly, sometimes for the better, sometimes not so much... it's a bit unfortunate but this is also one of the good things about Linux and open source i general: if something doesn't work, try something else.
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