My last experience with Linux on a desktop is more than 2 decades ago. I had to do some Linux work in the late ‘90 in college and did some server stuff later in my career, but nothing exciting. Recently I became interested in Linux again after playing with a Raspberry Pi. After trying some distros on demo-sticks ZorinOS looked like the best option for me. The interface is Windows like, most of the hotkeys are the same and it looked smooth and well polished. Installed ZorinOS on an old but decent laptop I use for playing media when during work outs. It was very easy to install, bluetooth, networking, etc all worked without any problem. I use it almost daily since then. I’m positively surprised by the looks, the ease of use and the supported software. The way system and software updates are managed is also very elegant. I got excited and installed ZorinOS Lite and Core on two devices that were ready to be thrown away and now they have a second life.
There is no doubt that a lot happened since the days I was struggling with VI, crashing bash scripts and all the other stuff that made Linux notorious. I think ZorinOS is an attractive distro for users who just want an accessible and easy to use all-round desktop. However, some things are still questionable: some installation procedures or system changes require old-school terminal commands and text file editing with root privileges. Not-really-too-much-to-ask advanced things like RDP or VNC solutions are a pain in the neck to get to work. Moreover: I haven't found anything (yet) that performed good enough to be useable. Wireless Display (I used Gnome Network Display, not sure if that's the same stuff you get with ZorinOS Pro) is also too slow to work with and soaking up all CPU power. On the same hardware it was never a problem with Windows. In general I get the impression that hardware acceleration is not as obvious as on Windows.
In any case: it’s a cool experience hobbying around and I’ll keep using ZorinOS on some devices.
