Top X+1 things to do after installing Zorin OS 16

Please reserve comments regarding posts in this thread to the Discussing Top X+1 things to do after installing Zorin OS 16 or Troubleshooting Top X+1 things to do after installing Zorin OS 16 if you are having issues.

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  1. Install timeshift-autosnap-apt - Timeshift auto-snapshot script which runs before any apt update|install|remove command using a DPkg::Pre-Invoke hook in APT. Works best in BTRFS mode, but RSYNC is also supported (on ext4 might be slow though, but your system is automatically snapshot before upgrade/install)

Features

  • This script is a fork of timeshift-autosnap from the AUR, but adapted for usage with the APT package manager of Debian or Ubuntu based systems.
  • Creates Timeshift snapshots with a unique (customizable) comment.
  • Keeps only a certain number of snapshots created using this script.
  • Deletes old snapshots which are created using this script.
  • Makes a copy with RSYNC of /boot and /boot/efi to /boot.backup before the call to Timeshift for more flexible restore options.
  • Can be manually executed by running sudo timeshift-autosnap-apt.
  • Autosnaphots can be temporarily skipped by setting "SKIP_AUTOSNAP" environment variable (e.g. sudo SKIP_AUTOSNAP= apt upgrade)
  • Supports grub-btrfs which automatically creates boot menu entries of all your btrfs snapshots into grub.
  • For a tutorial how to use this script in production to easily rollback your system, see System Recovery with Timeshift.

Full Article and Installation: GitHub - wmutschl/timeshift-autosnap-apt: Timeshift auto-snapshot script for Ubuntu and Debian based systems which creates snapshots of your system with timeshift before a package install, remove or upgrade using DPkg::Pre-Invoke hook in apt. Fork of timeshift-autosnap from AUR.

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  1. Install a good email client - Mailspring.

Mailspring is beautiful, user-friendly, and works how you expect it to work. It's also fast and has all sorts of features that are very useful, like the ability to cancel sending e-mails a few seconds after you send them, also:

  • Multiple accounts (IMAP & Office 365)
  • Touch and gesture support
  • Advanced shortcuts
  • Lightning-fast search
  • Undo send
  • Unified Inbox
  • Read receipts, link tracking, and more
  • Mac, Windows, and Linux support
  • Themes and layouts (including dark mode)
  • Localized into 9 languages

Install from Software app or mailspring website Mailspring - The best free email app

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  1. Install Ferdi (suggested by @Elegant_Emperor )

All your services in one place

Ferdi is a messaging browser that allows you to combine your favourite messaging services into one application.

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  1. Install Panel OSD gnome shell extension - Configuring where on the (main) screen notifications will appear, instead of just above the message tray

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  1. VLC Media Player. Best video player. TODAY'S BEST DEALS. ...
  2. Converseen. Best image editor. ...
  3. Synaptic Package Manager. Best package manager. ...
  4. Krita. Best raster graphics editor. ...
  5. digiKam. Best photo manager. ...
  6. Bitwarden. Best password manager. ...
  7. CopyQ. Best clipboard manager. ...
  8. Caffeine. Best lock-screen control utility.
    100 Best Ubuntu Apps
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@Aravisian maybe merge the topic with this one 20 things to do after installing Zorin 16 - #9 by StarTreker

About the same subject ?

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That is a good suggestion and they are very similar.
That thread is covering a particular video guide and it's suggestions, whereas this one is aimed toward user suggestions. Merging them may also get confusing as the timestamps of the postings would really spread them out through the thread.
There is a splinter thread to this one, also... on Discussing the topics of this thread, since it was getting pretty filled by non-suggestions.

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You can try out apt-fast. apt-fast is a shell script wrapper for “apt-get” that improves updated and package download speed by downloading packages from multiple connections simultaneously. If you frequently use terminal and apt-get to install and update the packages, you may want to give apt-fast a try. Install apt-fast via official PPA using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:apt-fast/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apt-fast

Then head over to here for help with configuring it.

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A post was merged into an existing topic: Discussing Top X+1 things to do after installing Zorin OS 16

Please reserve comments regarding posts in this thread to the Discussing Top X+1 things to do after installing Zorin OS 16 or Troubleshooting Top X+1 things to do after installing Zorin OS 16 if you are having issues.

Disable EXT4 Journaling

If you are using an SSD or NVMe drive I recommend you turn off journaling. EXT4 is a journaling filesystem. Meaning it keeps track of changes on your system (app installs, config changes, new files of all types) in case something gets corrupt or interrupted. This doesn't sound like a bad thing, but this is done every few minutes. If you are using your system all day, it won't be long before you use a few thousand writes to the drive. This is important in SSD and NVMe drives because they are limited to a certain number of read and write operations. To reduce the number of writes the system is doing, we can disable this feature. By disabling the feature you increase the chance of corrupt files if you have to hard reset your system. I would make sure everything is working and you have no freezes prior to executing this step.

This must be done with the partition unmounted, so you will need to boot back into the live image or, take note of the /dev/ in disks before rebooting, and you can press 'c' at the grub menu to perform this operation.

Once everything is setup and working properly, reboot and press 'c' at the grub menu. You will be given a command prompt. Here you will type:

tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/<drive-n-partition-id>

What is this doing? tune2fs is a built in command that allows you to adjust features available for the partition/drive.
The -O (that is a capital O) tells the command that you want to change an option.
The ^ in front of has_journal tells the command that you are disabling/removing the feature attached to it....in this case, has_journal.
The last part is the patition/disk that you are changing.
An example for my drive, being NVMe is:

tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/nvme0n1p4

After you boot into Zorin again, you can run the terminal and the following command to ensure it is disabled:

sudo debugfs -R features /dev/<drive-n-partition-id>

You will get the following output:

As you can see, has_journal is not in the listing.

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Some folks don't recommend turning off the journaling.
Here is what they say:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=293779

They also posted:

8 posts were merged into an existing topic: Discussing Top X+1 things to do after installing Zorin OS 16

The considerable range in the lifetime of an SSD is related to different storage technologies:

  • Single-level cell SSDs (SLC) have a particularly long life, although they can only store 1 bit per memory cell. They can withstand up to 100,000 write cycles per cell and are particularly fast, durable, and fail-safe.
  • Multi-level cell SSDs (MLC) have a higher storage density and can store 2 bits per flash cell. They are more cost-effective than the SLC type but can only tolerate up to 10,000 write cycles per cell.
  • Triple-level cell SSDs (TLC) can hold 3 information bits per memory cell. However, at the same time, life expectancy can drop to 3,000 memory cycles per cell.
  • Quad-level cell SSDs (QLC) accommodate 4 information bits per cell. Reduced costs, more storage capacity, and higher storage density are also associated with a shorter service life with this type of device. Manufacturers usually only guarantee 1,000 write or erase cycles per cell.

Although the range in SSD life spans is considerable, all SSD types have a sufficiently high life expectancy with moderate use (with some limitations, including for QLC SSDs).

So in addition to what is posted above you have to consider this as well. They say 10 years is the long end of a avg user

I thought about the cost of my SSD and the breakdown over its lifetime to be fair for cost and replacement within that range fair

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Ok. I don't have idea how it works. I choice a app Line and what next? I don't know where to login. It forward me to webbrowser this app. How start this line app? Maybe because tutorial on this webbrowser talking to much but don't show how funcionally using that.

It is confusing...yes. I checked it out. I don't think it would work in Ferdi. I can't even understand where it would work. There is a chrome extension. Do you even use it?
Check wikipedia to know more about Line....

Most services work only in Eastern Asian countries.

Line can installed with wine but maybe also some another idea on websides. I remember some software in linux can run app mobile.

I saw that Pop!_OS Shell is already mentioned in this thread. But while you are at it, I can highly recommend also installing Pop_OS! Launcher. It used to be part of Pop!_OS Shell but now you need to install it separately and it works great on Zorin

If you have ever run Pop!_OS you know how powerful the launcher is. It's like search on steroids. With the launcher, you can:

  • Launch applications
  • Open specific menus in Settings
  • Perform searches on specific websites (ex. google system76)
  • Perform calculations using the prefix: = (ex. =5+7+6)
  • Search recent files using the prefix: d: (ex. d:FileName)
  • Open file folders using one of two prefixes: / or ~/ (ex. ~/FolderName)
  • Run a command using one of three prefixes: t: or : or run (ex. run top)
  • Show launcher features by typing a question mark

Follow the tutorial here to install the Launcher

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I followed the steps mentioned in the link but i am unable to find the launcher after installation .
can you help me with that please