The Road to Zorin 16

ST made a mistake on a Star Trek reference. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

PS - I wanted to post a picture in response to harvey's stapler reference (Office Space my favorite movie) but I decided to err on the side of maturity. For once.

1 Like

Memories can fade over time, the older you get, appears to get worse. Also, dobble and dobo are close enough to screw up anyways. And even I forget some Star Trek facts over time.

That's the tribble with getting older. Son'a or later, it catches up to you. The more memories you try to klingon to, the less you can vind.

1 Like

And, knowing how I love puns so much, you surprised me with some of them, very good! And when those klingons are on my starboard bow, I gotta scrape them off, cause its life, but not as we know it.

And when I wake up in a bad mood cause I realize my roof is still leaking, and water is also leaking through my bathroom exhaust vent, trials and tribblizations is an understatement.

What features are new from Zorin OS 16?

Here is a full copy of what Artyom Zorin sent out:

New features and improvements

  • A brand new theme across the entire desktop with detailed touches that's also easier on the eyes
  • Vastly improved performance and smoothness with the inclusion of the latest Gnome Shell 3.38 release (newer than in Ubuntu 20.04)
  • The taskbar is vastly more customizable than before, with the ability to show it on multiple monitors, move it to the left and right sides of the screen (in addition to the top and bottom as before), change the panel opacity, click behaviour, isolate workspaces & monitors for the app icons and much more. Simply right-click on it and select "Taskbar Settings" to see them
  • Multi-touch trackpad gestures for quicker navigation around the desktop. 4 finger swipe up/down to switch between workspaces and a 3 finger pinch to open the activities overview
  • Flicker-free boot experience (on supported hardware) with a new animated Plymouth splash screen
  • A new Sound Recorder app
  • Switched to a new Photos app which lets you easily make simple edits on images like crop, rotate, colour levels, and filters without needing to open GIMP
  • Firefox now ships with more privacy-respecting settings out of the box in Zorin OS, with tracking and telemetry disabled (which were normally enabled by default in Firefox)
  • When using the Touch layout, you can now easily create app folders in the app grid by simply dragging and dropping apps on top of each other
  • The Settings app has been refreshed and re-laid out to make it even easier to navigate
  • You can now enable fractional display scaling by going to Settings > Displays and switching on the "Fractional Scaling" switch
  • If you're connected to a wired network, you can easily create a Wi-Fi hotspot and quickly connect your phone and other devices to it with a QR code in Settings > Wi-Fi
  • Improved fingerprint reader support with a new user interface for enrolling your fingerprints from Settings > Users
  • Support for lots of new hardware thanks to the updated Linux kernel
  • You can now right-click > Star files in the Files app, and they'll appear in the "Starred" section in the left sidebar
  • New visually refreshed lock screen with a nice blurred version of your desktop background
  • The Flathub repository has been enabled by default, giving Zorin OS 16 the widest app catalogue ever
  • The Software store has been improved with better search and the ability to switch between DEB, Flatpak, and Snap packages from a simple "Sources" drop-down on an app page
  • The system now detects if you haven't installed available drivers for your computer and prompts you to install these additional drivers. This should make it easier for new users to get the best experience
  • The taskbar shows unread message badges and file progress bars in app icons
  • Zorin Appearance has been redesigned for easier navigation and better customizability
  • Coming Soon: A Windows 10X-like desktop layout in Zorin Appearance (in Zorin OS Ultimate)
  • Jelly Mode is a new option that makes windows wobbly when moved or minimized/restored. You can enable it from Zorin Appearance > Interface > Jelly Mode :wink:

That's only a brief list of what's new. I'm sure you'll notice even more touches and improvements when using this build.

2 Likes

Wobbly windows are back? Yay! :smile:

But, seriously, the thing I am excited about the most is the ability to filter by source in the software store. This is a feature that I've wanted for a long time. It is so annoying to have to open the details of an application in the store just to find out if it is deb, snap, or flatpak.

1 Like

I am interested in its new features :slightly_smiling_face:. I can't wait to try it. I hope it will be released soon.

My big problem is Z16alpha does not seem to save anything to my USB persistence.
Whilst I can get sound to work and save the alsamixer settings (and other changed settings), I'm back to virgin Z16alpha next time I boot the USB.
Anyone else having this problem?.
Is it set that way on purpose for this alpha version? @AZorin @zorink

What tool are you using to create the USB OS?
MKUSB or LinuxLive are reported to do a better job with casper-rw
https://www.linuxliveusb.com/

Unetbootin. It has always been a reliable choice for me in the past. It is easy to include persistence.
I admit I used the latest version of Unetbootin this time. Maybe I will try again using the previous version, same as I last used for Z15.

I always use Unetbootin, as well. I also have never run into the problem you describe. It's a shot in the dark...

I tried the old version and it failed to complete. So tried latest version but reduced persistence to 2048MB. Same result on USB boot. No saved settings.

So each time I try Z16alpha, I have to setup wifi, sound, panel etc. Without persistence to save settings it is no fun.

Does anyone know what the difference is between "Try Zorin" and "Try Zorin - class zorin" on the USB boot menu?

I am sure it has something to do with OS16 being in Alpha state. When OS16 graduates to Beta state, I am sure persistence will function.

I used rufus and set a 5gb persistent, but couldn't get it to save anything either. While in the live cd added persistent flag to grub, updated, rebooted, entered grub there, it was saved, booted and made a lot of changes. After reboot was disappointed to see nothing saved. Had worked for popOS. Hence my choice to install.

On that note though, i found this alpha build with less problems than windows, mostly cosmetic or missing something i could add... codecs and such. The drivers recognized all of my hardware, and has been stable and FAST. Might actually enjoy it if you did a full install... best benefits as well as best way to test.

Ah. I am now reassured from your posts that USB persistence support in Z16alpha is not a thing confined to me.
I expect that may be for a reason or just not yet included by the devs.
Anyhow, I expect it to be there when we get Z16beta. I am sure Z15beta had it, as I gave that a thorough workout on Live USB whilst running Z12.4 Core as my install.

1 Like

Devs FYI, Z16alpha and Conky issue is reported here:

1 Like

@zabadabadoo It turns out that the previous version of conky manager won't work for the alpha. I had to use conky-manager2. I guess the first was only supported through 18.04, because I had it on my 15.3 build. Maybe they dropped 32bit support, or reduced it in favor of the now very prominent 64bit architecture....I'm not sure and am only guessing. This is not an issue with zorin16 alpha though, it was that I was attempting to install a software that I didn't have the libraries for because you have to install 32bit support if you want it/need it. Zorin16 will not be for 32bit machines natively unless the devs choose to include the support for older hardware in the release.

I can see why they are moving in this direction, more why ubuntu is. In order to stay in the game, a contender for alternatives to win os's they have to either continue patching, or in order to stay with the times and keep images small, drop support for older hardware. Win did the same thing, phased out 32bit support, with minimal libraries to support software.

Thing is, 32-bit architecture is dead, nobody should be using a 32 computers anymore, they are slow, inneficcent, and don't support 4GB of RAM utilization or more.

Yes, I understand, you just don't want to throw away that old computer, especially if you bought it brand new over 20-years ago. But the reality is, technology goes obsolete.

Thing is, 64-bit archecture is where its at, and has been for 20-years at least. And CPU's just keep getting better and better. Used to be you only had a single core.

Now the gold standard for office computer's has reached about 4-cores in modern day. And in gaming machine, the gold standard is 8-cores.

It is in my opinion, Zorin team supporting 32-bit in 2021 makes no logical sense at all. 64-bit is where its at, people just need to get used to it.

What I am curious to know is, when will computer's move to 128-bit CPU's. People keep talking about quantum computing like its Star Trek or something.

I wonder if Quantum computing is just a fancy code for 128-bit CPU's or something?

Not... At... All...
Quantum Computing is just as it sounds. It uses qubits instead of bits.

The problem with miniaturization in computing is that the smaller you get, the more you begin to run into the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
Eventually, if you get small enough, something as simple as a Gate will no longer work. An electron has a Statistical Probability of being on one side of the gate or the other... Or quantum tunneling right to the other side of a closed gate.
For classical binary computing which requires On / Off, this will not work. You end up with a Wave Function of off - on / on -off. Instead of being clearly defined as one or the other, it is a probability of maybe being one or maybe the other. That is superposition.

Quantum Computing seeks to rectify this by using superposition as an advantage, by listing each probable position as an outcome. This is way you can achieve such blazing fast speeds in Quantum Computing, as each probability can then be used as a computing factor.

Quantum tunneling is statistically negligible in classical binary computers because at this larger scale, the amount of tunneled electrons is very small. Though it may account for the ghost in the machine, it is not enough to render binary useless.
But when your paths are small enough to only allow a few electrons to pass at a time, a much larger number of electrons will tunnel, bypassing your logic gate.

1 Like