Things you should do after installing zorin OS

Tutorials & Guides
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Zorin 16, has stunning features, an impressive design, and a whole new world of apps that will transform how you experience your computer. This is not just one of the best desktop Linux distributions but undeniably one of the best desktop operating systems available today. No matter if you are a linux new comer or an experienced Linux user, Zorin 16 will appease you. This system provides one of the best computational experiences out there. So go ahead, soak it in and enjoy it.

Commands :

Update & Upgrade:
sudo apt update; sudo apt upgrade

Install Favorite Apps:
sudo apt install vlc gimp gparted 0ad

Install Ubuntu Restricted Extras (Media Codecs):
sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras

You'll be asked to accept the end-user agreement. Press the TAB button,then ENTER. Select YES with the arrow key and ENTER.

NOTE: These codecs are crucial not only to play local media,but for some online content as well. Ubuntu-restricted-extras are very important components,but they are not available out of the box due to legal issues. But now we have them installed.

Install Timeshift Backup Tool:
sudo apt install timeshift

NOTE: As I always say,there's no excuse for not having a backup. And timeshift backup is something that every Linux user must-have. Timeshift is a very powerful software. It has the capacity to restore your system from the worst of crashes and mess-ups. It can even restore your OS even if you completely delete your system. It's that powerful and having this enables us Linux users to tinker under the hood and play with the inner workings of Linux without having to worry about breaking the system.

You Have 2 options in the backup type, keep rsync checked and click on next. It will estimate your system size and then, you will be asked to choose the location to store your backup. You can choose any partition, even the partition you've installed the system. Totally Fine.

Buttt... I'd suggest you format a Pendrive to ext4 and backup to that. That way, even if you literally format your entire hard drive or burn it, you can get back your system to the current state with timeshift.

Install Preload:
sudo apt install preload

  • If you have 8 gigs or more ram, preload will do wonders for your app startup times.

  • This one is my favourite. Everybody has some favourite applications that they use more than other applications. Your favourite browser, the IDE you use for your development and many more.Now Preload is an intelligent daemon that observes which applications you use the most, and keeps them in memory even before you open them.

  • Let's say you use Firefox Browser a lot. When you click on the Firefox app icon, an ample amount of time is needed for the application to be read from the hard disk and loaded into memory. With Preload enabled, your computer already knows you use Firefox a lot, so it's already kept in the memory.

Improve Laptop Battery:

sudo apt install tlp

Just run the above command and you don’t need to do anything else. It’ll make your laptop battery last longer by implementing some power-saving protocols.

Firefox Tweaks:

about:config--> Click on accept

layers.acceleration.force-enabled->

toggle this from false to true. This will enable hardware acceleration on your Computer,which is set to false by default on Linux. This alone will give you much smoother animations and scrolling. Your PC will handle larger websites much easily now. You can check out the performance difference by playing some online games, or just scrolling on Youtube. But that's not all. Let's take it one more step by turning on web render.

gfx.webrender.all -->

Paste this in the about:config page and toggle the value to true just like you did the first one. You need to restart your browser to see the improvements.

Note : If you get any kind of negative effect, you can just turn them both back to false.

Change DNS:

--> Now, it's time to bump up your internet speed with an optimized DNS.
--> For example, When you type in a website URL and hit ENTER, you might have noticed that there is a short gap before the actual website starts to load.
--> During that time, the actual IP address of the website you requested will be getting resolved. This might take a short time, medium amount of time, or a long tome based on the DNS that your internet provider is using for you by default.
--> Now you might have a very high speed internet. We are not talking about the download or upload speeds here, Simply put, we're talking about the time it takes to connect to a website. And this can be improved significantly by changing the DNS. We're talking stellar noticeable improvements here. Let's get into it.

  • Click on the connected WiFi or wired connection and

  • Click on settings

  • Click on the gear icon here. In the Ipv4 section, turn off the automatic toggle and in the textbox paste the 8.8.8.8,8.8.4.4 . We are using google DNS which is really good. It's reliable and resolves IP addresses very fast.

  • I have used many custom DNS and Google and Cloudflare DNS tend to work the best. I prefer the google one.

Note: Apply the settings, turn off the wifi and turn it back ON. Enjoy a faster connection.

If you found this helpful put a :heart: to Tamil.

43 Likes
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Good it's very useful like me for beginners. Thank you.

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@anon91006645 - does this apply to 15.3 also?
If yes, could you include a screen shot, I work better from pictures than text. Sorry, no offence to you, just the weird way I am wired~ Or the wired way I am weird.

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Thanks for the nice tutorial !

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Basic tutorial Mm, he need to include more @anon91006645 Keep including man.

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In Improve Laptop Battery: Instead of using TLP, autocpufreq can be used. Nice share @anon91006645 Improve battery life on Linux (better than TLP)

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set an optimization profile based on your machine needs

https://computingforgeeks.com/optimize-linux-system-performance-with-tuned-adm/

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image1405×1433 263 KB

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How is it that it's 2022 and yet all these cryptic CLI commands are required to perform basic functions? I think I've made a mistake thinking that I should try Linux. I'm not an idiot, nor a beginner, but I have zero interest in every single thing being a major effort. This is ridiculous.

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There are no cryptic CLI commands required to perform any basic functions, at all. You can use Zorin OS for years on end without ever once opening the terminal.
It's just that many of us do prefer to use the terminal due to its speed, easy-use and efficiency.
If you need some help configuring basic functions, please start a thread requesting how to find the settings you are trying to manage.

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The title of this forum post is literally "Things you must do". It then lists a bunch of CLI commands.

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You Must see this new movie...
You just have to try this dish...

It is true that in linguistic communication, sometimes our idioms leave much to be desired.

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Also, I am new to Zorin and wanted to install my favorite browser, Brave.

I've used Brave for years under Windows. To install it under Windows, you go to brave.com with whatever browser you have, download the EXE file, then run it. That's it.

With Zorin, you have to open Terminal, then run a bunch of commands:

sudo apt install apt-transport-https curl

sudo curl -fsSLo /usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main"|sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list

sudo apt update

sudo apt install brave-browser

This seems crazy to me. Absolutely insane.

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You can install Brave browser in other ways that do not require any CLI commands.
It's just that the CLI commands above are easy to paste in, hit enter and run the installer.
In Windows, you would install it as an EXE.
In Linux, you would install it as a DEB. Or, if you prefer, you have the option of installing it as a Snap or a Flatpak.
In each case, you can run the installer which opens a GUI popup window that is pretty much the same thing as you would see in Windows.

The CLI commands are one optional way to do it... Whether you are in Linux... OR WIndows.
Because, yes, you can very similarly install software on Windows using the Command Prompt and CLI commands and not only have I done so numerous times - I have needed to do since the software was not ever made available in an .exe format. It had to be compiled.
And this was recently, mind you.

What is unfamiliar to you as a method is not necessarily madness. It's just unfamiliar to you. It's not the method you use or are used to using.
You can use other methods in Linux, like the Software Store, Synaptic Package Manager and others, too.

When I first migrated to Linux from Windows, my complaints were as bitter. I was frustrated often. I felt like Windows was easier in some ways... But Windows has other problems...
Once I embraced new methods instead of rejecting them on the grounds that they were unfamiliar, I quickly began to appreciate the speed, efficiency and ease of use they offer. As well as the options you get in Linux that you just do not have available in Windows.
Now, I use the terminal for most things. I prefer it, even. It is faster; I find it much easier... It can do any command I want, unlike GUI options that are limited to what buttons that particular developer allowed them to have...
Going from Managed GUI programs to manage Programs to the CLI in terminal interface was like climbing out of the swimming pool and jumping into the Coral Reefs in full scuba gear and unlimited oxygen.
For me, i'll never go back to the way it was on Windows...

I would encourage you to explore your options and enjoy the ease that software like Gdebi or Synaptic may give you, even as you expand your learning into new grounds.

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You don't just run CLI commands on Windows and compile an application. You do that in a dev environment. I get that some people do that. OK.

So in this case, Brave does have DEB files available (on GitHub, that oh-so-user-friendly site), but they don't make that obvious. I'm guessing their Linux user base is small and hardcore enough that this approach works for them.

Thanks.

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Yes, you can compile and install. This is something we do in Linux as well. It is not required to compile to be in an exclusive Dev Environment.
It is only necessary to have the compilation tools installed.
I even do this now on Linux, compiling my own patches to the Linux Kernel, when needed. I do not switch to a another computer in a Dev Environment to use a compiler.

Any user on this forum who has used

./configure

make

sudo make install

Has compiled. On their own machine without any fuss (Zorin OS comes with GCC already installed).

Yes and since Linux is more secure, they do go a bit above and beyond with the keyring, eh? :stuck_out_tongue:
Windows does Dominate the Market. By far. Linux has maybe 5%. Mac OS is around 9%.
Windows controls the rest.
It is quite true that many developers lean toward Windows.
In spite of this stark contrast in market share, most any program a user needs is available on Linux. It is often easy to install - perhaps a .deb you just double click to run.
But if you run into trouble with a tricky installation, please start a thread on this forum. We are here to try to help with such things and every experience can be a learning experience.
Even the hair-pulling ones.

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Thanks! Y'know, some of these steps still work today!

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I have two things to add: one a different opinion to the original post, and the second a new suggestion.

DNS

Changing your default DNS is a great idea and I fully recommend it. However, while they are certainly quick due to both being Internet behemoths, I wouldn't say Cloudflare are a great choice and I would specifically recommend against Google, because they're both Internet behemoths with much-documented scummy behaviour.

Also, OP only mentions IPv4 DNS and only standard (see: plain text) DNS which is trivial for anyone to monitor what you're doing. There are DNS technologies which encrypt your requests like HTTPS does - DoT, DoH, DNSCrypt, etc. - to make it that extra bit harder for your ISP and various Internet behemoths to collect data on what websites you're visiting. If at all possible use an encrypted DNS, but at the very least configure both IPv4 and IPv6 DNS.

funnily enough, while Android lets you set a system-wide encrypted (labelled "private") DNS, it doesn't let you set system-wide plain text DNS addresses, and usually doesn't give you the option for IPv6 on individual wifi connections either

Personally, I use AdGuard. They provide most flavours of DNS encryption as well as standard DNS, with and without backed-in adblock and malware protection. They also have various other tools and products which I use such as an Android app, managed DNS dashboard, a VPN service, etc.

Also also, changing the DNS on your device only changes it for that device - and has to be configured manually for each network - ethernet, each individual wifi you connect to, etc. At home, you may be able to set the default DNS on your router so that all connected devices are told to use your preferred DNS provider instead of the one set by your ISP. Unfortunately some ISPs do lock down the routers they provide to customers so that you can't change the DNS, but it's worth checking.

For your phone, or if you regularly use your laptop out of the house, things are a bit trickier. Your best bet will be using a trusted VPN, or other similar software (such as what AdGuard provide) so that you can route all connections through your DNS of choice.

Packaging Formats in gnome Software

If you're limited on space, Flatpak (and Snap and AppImage) are not the way to go, as their entire reason for existing is to pre-bundle dependencies for the software so that they run on as many linux systems as possible - but this bundling results in eating a lot of your storage. It's not even possible to tell beforehand a lot of the time, as the sizes shown in gnome Software and KDE's equivalent are just for that app itself, not the supporting runtimes and other bits that will also be downloaded if you don't already have them from other Flatpaks you installed previously.

In gnome Software, a lot of apps will have a little drop-down menu near the install button where you can pick which packaging format to use. The gnome devs are famously anti-user and so not only do they prioritise anything and everything over native packages, they don't actually expose the setting to change it in the GUI.

You can, however, tell it to prioritise native packages via terminal commands if you want:

First, get the current order of preference:

gsettings get org.gnome.software packaging-format-preference

Using the "Try Zorin" option of the ISO, the default confguration is ['flatpak:flathub', 'flatpak', 'deb', 'snap']

Then rearrange your output and plug it back in using set, probably something like:

gsettings set org.gnome.software packaging-format-preference "['deb', 'flatpak:flathub', 'flatpak', 'snap']"

Source: Issue #187: gnome-software should allow configuring which software source takes precedence when installing software - fedora-workstation - Pagure.io

This won't affect the apt command, though, and I'm not even sure if it will bypass Canonical's scummy and fraudulent fake apt installers that just silently trick you into using their garbage snaps when you had explicitly asked for the native release in the Software store as they first started doing with Chrome. They're already intentionally, wilfully, and maliciously circumventing user choice with apt so I would be shocked if they aren't also doing it in gnome Software somehow, but it's worth trying.

2 Likes
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Oh, that with the Package Format Order is a good One! I have directly copied that in a .txt File to save it.

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surprised no1 is mentioning the firewall that's off by default ?
turn it on by searching settings for UFW
personally i don't configure it , i just turn it on

1 Like
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Is adding the "Preload" still relevant in 17.2 core?

It sounds similar to windows prefetch. The PC I'm running Zorin on has 32GB and it's just used for playing media so there's an abundancy of unused ram.