Just some general positive vibes. When I started exploring Zorin OS this year in May, I couldn't have anticipated how rapidly I was convinced to leave Windows behind entirely. A finer onboarding experience I couldn't have imagined, for all of my use cases, including gaming and even music production.
Even though I've left now for the (also excellent) Tuxedo OS since I prefer KDE/Plasma and the rolling updates, I'll always cherish Zorin as the OS that made Linux "click" for me, and I feel satisfied supporting it through the Pro license.
I'll continue to recommend Zorin for anyone I know who's fed up with Windows or Mac. There's no finer Linux starting experience I know of.
My thoughts exactly! I haven't used ZorinOS on my machines in quite a while, but it's still my go-to for installing it for friends and family. Very recommended.
To start with Linux there are for me 2 Distro's that for Starter's are the Best:
Zorin OS
Linux Mint
I started with Linux Mint but wasn't directly a Friend of the Cinnamon Desktop but it was functional. So, I used it. What I really liked (and still like) is the Software Updater from Mint. I never saw a better one.
And after some Weeks for first using, Christmas was near and a german Linux Channel on Youtube made an Advent Calendar where they presented Linux Distro's. That was a really nice Action. And there I saw Zorin the first Time. And my first Thought was ''This is Gnome?'', hahaha! So, I dowloaded it (was Zorin 16.1 or .2 I guess) and tested it. And there began my Time with Zorin. I tested other Distro's, too. But still came back to Zorin.
I put Zorin os on my dad’s laptop that kept nagging him to upgrade to windows 11. I set it up for a dual boot with Zorin as the default. He’s Not super computer literate and he hasn’t complained yet.
Since I really started to get into Linux is the first time that I haven't had the need to change to anything else. I still want to experiment with other distributions but it's getting harder and harder for me to justify dropping my little zone of comfort.
Here I left some screenshots of how it looked with Gnome and my current setup:
I've thinking of what could I try next and most likely I'd like it to be something close to Debian, like Linux Mint Debian Edition, Devuan or PCLinuxOS as @swarfendor437 has suggested many times (or was it Q4OS)?
Haha, makes sense! I thought it was just your way of showing some love for Debian, the same way some folks use the penguin picture as their avatar.
I haven't had a Linux distro on any of my computers for a long time. My daily driver is a Mac, and a Windows is for very occasional gaming and some weird software that I need sometimes.
These days, after the dual-boot, Zorin is my second daily driver. Like, I'm not working right now, so I'm just browsing and watching videos while booted into Zorin. I boot into Windows only if I absolutely need to.
I think Zorin will be my new "home" for a while, so I don't see myself switching away to anything else. Out of curiosity, I was testing Pop_OS and Tuxedo OS earlier today, and none of them spoke to me. Linux Mint also just feels very bland. But that's quite personal opinion, of course.
Completely unrelated, but this forum is also the most beautiful forum I've ever visited in a long time. I visit a lot of websites (and forums), and nothing comes close to the pleasant user experience here. I even went to the Discouse website to check out some of the other forums built with it. And nope, Zorin tops them all. You can tell how much I love this space by my constant badgering on various threads.
Q4OS is based on Debian 12 (bookworm), but I have compromised myself in using it as it has systemd. If the latest Debian release of PCLinuxOS allows me to install virt-manager I may swap. I do however like the Look Switcher that comes with Q4OS. I did a screen capture on installing it as a VM plus LookSwitcher, plus installation of software and its removal but I think I screwed up my vokoscreen settings making the rendered version unwatchable after uploading it to my vimeo.com account. I am aware the founder of Debian Ian Murdock is dead (the O.S. got its name when he met his estranged wife Deb(bie) in a coffee shop where she worked. I never realised he had separated from his wife, threw out his girlfriend, drank heavily and became a disturbance to his neighbours. I only discovered recently he committed suicide. I got involved with Zorin as I wanted to support a GNU/Linux distribution that made it easier for Windows users to migrate to, following the demise of Freespire, the community edition of Linspire. It used a KDE desktop and was just becoming a polished distro, especialky with its implementation of a software installer, Click'N'Run, when its founder Michael Robertson sold off Linspire without consulting with the board of directors to Xandros, now also defunct, which was a remnant of Corel Linux. Ironically, Freespire is still around, now owned by BlackLab, using xfce.
Another option for me is to stick to Debian but switch things around a little bit. Maybe install BTRFS for quick snapshots, update to the testing branch for more up to date packages... or even install another package manager like Guix (eventually I'd like to try the full Guix distribution as well, but that is a bit more advanced) for some experimentation, without leaving the comfort of good old Debian.
You could take SpiralLinux for this. There are the Testing and Unstable Sources included if I remember right. Of Course they are not active by default but You could activate them. You could run it on a 2nd Partition. so, you wouldn't have to worried about Your Stable Debian.
I'm not too worried about that, if I do use it it's because I want to experiment a bit. It was fine when I used it with Fedora and OpenSUSE, so I'd say that it's up for at least regular use cases. But I do understand the risks, thanks for pointing that out!
I think I'll wait until the new Debian release and update from my current Stable to the new one. After that, I'll have to decide whether I want to update manually to testing or re-install from scratch using another distribution or what. I only tried SpiralLinux briefly on a VM, so this may be a good excuse to try it again.
So, experimenting but not too wildly as you can see
Let me just start with, I really love your avatar. I love everything outerspace, and I like the way you represent!
Its funny how your story echo's mine. When I first started using Linux, its because I was forced to, on the account that my Windows7 installation was so badly corrupted, it became completely unusable. With Windows 10 over the horizon, looming its ugly head like a bulbus zit, I knew I had to do something, and quick.
I didn't want to go with Windows 10, because even back in those days, I heard that Windows was entering the spying against their users game. But I was scared of Linux at first, because I thought it was still like Linux back in the early 2000's. The first time I tried Linux was technically early 2000's, with Suse linux, which I could never get to work for me. The thing wouldn't even get on the internet out of box first thing, which is a no no!
No matter where I went in the OS, I couldn't figure out how to get the OS to connect to my internet adapter, and just connect to the net already, it was a nightmare, and with no support back in those days, I just gave up. It wasn't till years later, that I would join Linux, with Zorin OS 9.
Now, OS 9 wasn't as great as OS 12 or 16, so there was still learning involved from me being a Linux newbie, but at least I was able to get somewhere on that OS, and get on the internet, which in comparison to early 2000's Suse, was a huge success! Gaming on Linux was still in its infancy back in those days though, and Linux relied heavily on Wine back then.
It really wasn't till Zorin OS 16 came out, and Steam began using PROTON, that Linux really took off for me, in regards to gaming specifically. We couldn't be in better times, then we are now, for gaming on Linux.
I wonder how much marketshare linux has in december 2024. Seeing alot of posts from people switching to linux because they can’t outstand windows anymore. I hope we get pass 5%
We'll have to wait a little bit until we know the December stats, but as of November this number was set at...
4.03%
This may not sound like much but it's steadily increasing. The number is also not 100% accurate since people using Linux tend to be more tech-savvy and many are very privacy conscious who try to blend in.
