Thinking about making a permanent transition

Chat about Zorin
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Haven't posted in a long time, apologies. Wish me a welcome back or something.

I am thinking about making a permanent transition to Linux (more specifically, transitioning to Zorin OS Core) on my Victus, after I eventually get an M4 (or M5?) Mac Mini. I wanted to do this transition mainly because I wanted a long, long, long break from Microsoft's shenanigans, which include all this AI/telemetry stuff people keep mentioning about, not to mention Windows being more resource intensive with the transition to a web-based interface entirely. All of this is making me personally ANNOYED, and I wanted to transition all my work, all my files over to Zorin, which I have been trusting the most since I tested the OS 17 beta.

I am a little concerned about the switch to Zorin though, namely because of support for Adobe apps, and if you know anything like me, Adobe apps barely have any chance of survival on Linux. However, I heard that Winboat could run Windows programs better than WINE or (no offence to the devs) Windows App Support. I may test this out, and if this turns out to be the case for me, I may actually make a transition for good. I am an Adobe Animate/After Effects user, after all, so I'm hoping it does well.

Besides Adobe apps, everything I used to use on Windows does perform well with Linux on the native side of things (e.g. Zen Browser for browsing, Steam and Prism Launcher for gaming, Discord for chatting, and Amberol (I think it's called that) for music). Furthermore, Zorin holds up super well on my PC, since it consumed significantly less resources.

I wanna ask, above all: Is this transition worth it for me? Do I need to test the apps out again before deciding? Thank you.

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Hi and welcome back.
(Just to add I no longer use Zorin as my daily driver.)

There have been a number of issues to say the least with Zorin 18. Zorin 17 having been out longer is more stable, but will reach end of life in April 2027.
If you intend to install to a Mac device and intend to use a USB for installation purposes you will have to use the much maligned Balena Etcher as it is the only USB installer that works with Macs.

Unless you are able to purchase a compatible USB DVD/RW which is always more reliable than USB installations when faced with a failed 'can't find CD message' as experienced with some distributions.

With regards to WinBoat this is still in development and is not yet ready to cater fully for Windows Apps. It is a shame that Winedoors is no longer a thing as it was capable of installing Corel Draw on Sabayon Linux years ago.

The other thing to mention is that there is what appears to be a long-term move to Wayland and Wine 9.0 has a Wayland driver but it is nowhere near ready.

Gnome which is moving away from xorg entirely in upcoming releases, intend to drop mutter which is needed for xorg to work. The other issues are that some Gnome Extensions have been causing issues with Zorin 18. If you look at what Extensions exist in Zorin 18, you will find a lot of what makes Zorin are the Zorin Extensions.

Personally I wish Zorin would move from Ubuntu to Debian as Linux Mint has done, which means you are not limited to just one Desktop Environment.

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Doing a Brave A.I. search via Mojeek there is a dedicated Linux for M range of Macs, Asahi Linux:

"For Mac Mini M4/M5 (Apple Silicon), the best Linux distribution is Asahi Linux . It is specifically designed for Apple Silicon Macs, including M1, M2, M3, and M4 chips, and offers the most complete hardware support for these newer models.

  • Asahi Linux :
    • Based on Fedora , with a KDE Plasma desktop environment.
    • Actively developed to support Apple Silicon hardware, including full UEFI boot, GPU acceleration, and trackpad gestures.
    • M4 support is still under active development ; while functional, some features may be incomplete or unstable.
    • Recommended for enthusiasts and users comfortable with experimental software.

For stable, reliable performance and maximum compatibility , virtualization is currently the best alternative:

  • Use VMware Fusion (now free) to run Linux inside macOS.
  • Recommended distributions for virtual machines:
    • Ubuntu ARM64 (desktop version with GNOME).
    • Arch Linux ARM (for advanced users).
    • Fedora Workstation ARM64 .

:warning: Note : Native dual-booting on M4/M5 Mac Minis is not yet fully stable. Asahi Linux remains the primary option, but expect some hardware limitations and ongoing development. Always back up your macOS installation before attempting any changes.

AI-generated answer. Please verify critical facts."

You would need to check to see if Asahi Linux is moving to Wayland as WINE is not ready.

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Hey there,
No. I don't plan on installing it on my Mac. I was referring to me installing it on my Victus, though I wish I could make that clearer (I'll edit it to be more specific).

I am fully aware it is still in it's development phase, though I know what I am doing with this kind of software, since I have been using beta software most of the time. I only plan on using WinBoat for Adobe apps, for other apps I use either the native versions (or alternatives if there is one). Gaming is still gonna be native for me though.

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Doing more searching I found this nugget:

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Will try that out when I get home from school (I am at school as I am typing this)

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This can no other answer than You.

When You already use the Apps on Linux and they run, they run. The WinBoat Thing and the Adobe Apps is a seperate Thing what You have to test.

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