Sunsetting Zorin Lite a Crying Shame in Face of "RAMpocolypse"

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I am sitting here feeling rather dejected and quite disillusioned, with Zorin OS 18 Lite ISO ready to be installed on my HP laptop. Why? Well, it ran Zorin 17.3 with no problems; it was fine when I upgraded to Zorin 18 initially, but then suddenly it was not fine anymore. No, it was just like being dragged back in time to (trying to) use Windows 10 before I discovered how to neuter it. The fan ramps up, starts screaming. It gets hot to the touch, and the battery is fading fast. Even trying to type a word or open a browser tab is like wading through treacle…. I finally get online, eventually log into the forum, and I get booted out as the laptop crashes and restarts. I had been really hopeful; version 18 was good, and I had avoided the kernel panic by waiting to update. :face_exhaling:

Time and again, I have seen people questioning the claims that 2 GB of RAM is enough to install and run Zorin OS. I have argued that 4 GB is absolutely sufficient, because, hey, that is what my laptop has, and I am using it now! Suddenly, it is not enough. My laptop has become virtually unusable; but wait! There is a solution! I was advised, like so many others, to install Zorin OS 18 Lite.

So, off I toddle to download the ISO. It is not available on the same page as Pro, Education, and Core, no. When you follow the link, there is an article explaining why it will no longer be developed. Then comes the lie, and that is what it is, it is a lie: “Thanks to recent optimisations to the standard desktop environment, the non-Lite editions of Zorin OS (Core, Pro, and Education) are able to provide a fast and resource-efficient computing experience on older computers. It’s now possible to run the non-Lite editions of Zorin OS on computers with as little as 2 GB of RAM and on machines as old as 15 years… ….” No, it is not. :expressionless_face:

I cannot afford to buy some more RAM; even if I could, the RAMpocolypse has made it very scarce. Anyone who did not see it coming, and bought up some spare RAM, is feeling the pain in their pocket, or they are heading to LINUX to save the day!

I am not Linux-literate; I read a lot, and I watch a lot of YouTube channels about Linux too. Enough to tell me that Wayland and GNOME cause “a bit of an issue”: GNOME hogs resources, and Wayland is not ready; that is the message I am getting loud and clear. According to OpenSourceFeed, “GNOME is more resource-intensive than lightweight alternatives like Xfce…”, and an article on fsck.sh goes into great detail about the woes of the resource-hungry GNOME DE. The Linux Experiment, Nick, laments how “The Philosophy of 'Opinionated Design' is fundamental to GNOME.”

So, here I am, with my supposedly adequate laptop unable to cope with Zorin 18.1 Core (Xorg) and being forced to install LITE, which will be obsolete soon. Why??? Because the Zorin brothers believe that Core can run on machines with as little as 2 GB of RAM! @AZorin, please continue to give us a real alternative in the face of the RAMpocolypse, forced on us by the voracious and unstoppable race to shove AI into everything possible, regardless of the overwhelming consequences to society. Please, in light of these unprecedented changes, continue to develop and support LITE, and give us refugees a Zorin OS we can rely on. :folded_hands: This crisis is predicted to go on for years to come.

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Absolutely!

A relative of mine has a Dell Venue 11 Pro 5130 with a teeny lil' Intel Atom CPU and 2GB RAM. It can't be upgraded even if I fancied taking out a mortgage for some more RAM because it's soldered.

Even Zorin 17.x Core could not run on it. It idled at over 1.5GB memory usage and launching any program ground it to a halt. LMDE Cinnamon similarly was useless.

Lite, on the other hand, is totally usable. Not snappy and it will chug if you open too many browser tabs but for this relative who just casually browses Facebook, eBay, and YouTube along with checking their emails occasionally it's absolutely perfect.

I have not tried Zorin 18.x Core on it, though.

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Hi @0Picass0 I would be curious as to how Q4OS Plasma runs on your rig. Old Stable (5.9) on Sourceforge.net is the alternative OS I use when not running PCLOScDebian.

I have stated elsewhere that I have this running on a rig I built in 2006, Single Athlon 64 processor 2.2 GHz on an MSI Board, 2 Gb RAM (the maximum the board can hold) at 400 MHz, and an EVGA nVidia 512 Mb 8x AGP card, themed with LookSwitcher's Windows 10 theme:

1000019338
10000193381280Ă—960 222 KB

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Maybe miniOs could be something with these Specs.

@0Picass0: Only to have mentioned this Option. When Zorin Lite is gone, You would be able to install the xfce Desktop from the Repos. It would be the default xfce Destop without any of the Zorin Customizations and Adjustments but You would have it.

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This is the thing: the Zorin UI is really great, especially for non-techie users. That's a big part of why I went with Zorin for this particular relative.

Eventually I probably will have to look at minios or Q4OS to replace Zorin for them, and hope I can find a theme that works well enough.

Or, you know, the Zorin brothers could stop lying about the system requirements of Core / gnome and continue developing Lite.

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At this time the zorin 18 lite version will be supported till 2029.. so there would be time yet to use it then maybe do some of the above suggestions at that time

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@swarfendor437, and @Ponce-De-Leon, thanks for the suggestions and advice, I do appreciate both, but I really would like to stick with Zorin_OS, if possible. I'll give Zorin_18 lite a try and hopefully, it will run well. 17.3 was a dream, and it was good on 18 for a while too.

I really am thinking about the future and just how many people will be struggling. Linux can be the answer for very many of them, and Zorin is one of the most intuitive distros there is. There will be a need, I think past 2029, for Zorin Lite. To stop its development could be a grave error, but also a lost opportunity, given recent events.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and input, much appreciated.

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Zorin OS 18 is the current and supported distro. And despite this; people post seeking answers to the fact that the software they want or need complains that Zorin OS 18 is too old.

Is that Zorin OS Lite will be technically supported until 2029 accurate in Practical Application?

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No, it's not, Zorin Lite is XFCE based. Core is GNOME based

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You misread @Ponce-De-Leon 's post. What he was inferring is that when Zorin Lite is sunset with the release of Zorin 19, only Core which is Gnome based, you would need to install xfce to accomplish lower resources.

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Actually, that confused the heck out of me too... maybe you could edit it, @Ponce-De-Leon, so it's clear?

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That is the problem with the English language to be fair.

Just been looking at this:

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Yes, Sorry. Was a Typo. I replaced it with the ''gone'' that it should be.

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Do you know if the sudden drop in performance can be attributed to a particular Software Update e.g. linux kernel update. Have you tried an older kernel?

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Yes, I know that Zorin 19 will no longer have a Lite version, but that's exactly why it's no longer Zorin Lite, just Core or just plain Zorin OS 19. Sure, you can install it on "pure XFCE" but that still doesn't make it the same as Zorin Lite 19.

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I know, I was just clarifying.

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Well, yes there was an update at the moment it really had problems and crashed. Here is what I wrote 3 days ago:

Then @Forpli suggested I try Zorin Lite.

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FYI. I am running Z17.3 Core on an ancient but solid Centrino Duo laptop, with 4GB RAM (inclusive of video RAM). I have not upgraded to any edition of Z18 (yet), as Z17.3 Core just works well for me. I would expect Z18.n Core to run OK on your laptop as well, as long as you don't run resource intensive apps.

If Z18 Core worked fine, then suddenly failed on your laptop, then I would have first rolled back the kernel to a previous version, to see if that was the culprit.
Also something could have been corrupted and a fresh install of Z18 Core could maybe resolve that.

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Yes, I'm also still running Z17.3 on the other laptop I use for my entertainment system. I experimented on the one mentioned above, because "if it ain't broke don't fix it". I considered going back to that but it's being abandoned next June.

I didn't notice anything go wrong after the upgrade to the new kernel. I did wait a few days for things to settle down though as a bad experience with Cinnamon Mint taught me a valuable lesson, so I never jump for a new kernel.

I've yet to install Zorin 18 Lite, I've been busy, then I read that there could be issues as it's not being looked after as it should be anymore. I'm mulling over what to do. I did read instructions about how to roll back the kernel but I don't really find the instructions easy to follow. That's me, not the instructions! I prefer video tutorials, or screenshots.

I still feel that Zorin Lite has a place for the forseeable future and deserves to be maintained correctly. I don't want to install it then have a whole new bunch of problems. I don't know what to do. At this precise moment I'm using my old Asus running Windows 11, WinUtil style and it's pretty much perfect. Completely clean!

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These are speculation only, as some users assume that if it is to be Sunset, that the ZorinGroup won't pay much attention to Zorin OS 18 Lite.

There is no real factual basis to this.

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