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There is great variation in people.
Some share this common ground with you: A desire for reasonable timeliness.
And I agree with you.
Zorin OS is stable. In fact, I find it more stable than many other leading distros like Mint. In this, I refer not to release schedule, but over-all durability and stability. ZorinGroup creates a rugged and configurable distro over-all. It can take whatever I throw at it while other distros begin to bog down or even crash.
The release cadence, on the other hand, has remained steady and slow through the years.
This is the one thing addressed most across the web: Zorin OS releases lag behind.
And this is where my observations and @zenzen's observations come into effect.
From your vantage point, your point of view, with good stated reasons; you express a reasonable desire for Zorin OS pacing to improve.
There are a large number of people that are different. They express that difference, too. Unable to support why they want cutting edge. Just... that they do. They want the latest, needed or not.
This sets you apart from them: You know what you need.
Because there is such diversity, your point of view is equally valid to zenzens.
And it is important that we on this discussion board address and even criticize the FOMO.
It is advisory; not accusatory. You, having stated your case, present it well and are not being lumped into a group in which you do not fit.
And many of us agree with you. Zorin OS release cycle is a toothache for most users. As a Distro, Zorin OS brings a lot to the table, is solid, stable, secure and very well made.
Flatpak brings options to those who do need a later version of packages and we on the forum are here to remind people that FOMO is not in itself a valid need.
But Flatpak will not enable you to use the Gnome Extensions you need.
What We Can Do:
We can still be supportive of the ZorinGroup by pressuring those that are putting the bolts into us. The ZorinGroup is not involved with Gnome's deisions.
Gnomes release cycle is different; It is Fast Paced and it brings not only changes; but regressions and alterations to the code that breaks things like Gnome Extensions.
Gnome sees extensions as a "niche thing" rather than integral to the success of Gnome (Foolish) and they take no consideration for extensions into their release cycle.
The Gnome developers tell us that we should not make extensions but instead, contribute our ideas directly to Gnome. Whenever we do - they shut them out and reject them, opting to keep Gnome as minimal and droid-like as possible.
This is where our attention should be.
Gnome is the party we need to be putting pressure on. They are not listening to the end users but to IBM, themselves and their stake holders.
And... not even listening to their stakeholders (Canonical, Suse...)
The Gnome Extensions ecosphere needs to be stabilized. Gnome needs to stop trying to discourage them and drive them out and accept that the Users Want Them.
This is the root of the problem and as long as we are looking elsewhere, directing our attention elsewhere, that root will spread and fester until it is too late.
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I'll be surprised if it's a full release. More likely a beta.
It's at times like this I kinda wish I had facebook...
11:17 AM in New York, and still no idea of what the news is...
No new information yet @JeffK969
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Thanks. Maybe they spent too much time at the pub last night and got carried away with the excitement of today's news... Better that as opposed to something's wrong...lol
The Zorin brothers have succeeded in arousing the curiosity of many users. 
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Love Irish pubs.
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Hmmm. My next wallpaper.. Thanks
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Nice improvements, looks good too. I wonder how the OneDrive integration works, does it support on-demand or it’s using the popular onedrive library under the hood?
Install version 18 on my test laptop
I'm looking forward to it
I want to test with the old laptop and not on the main system.
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Remember everyone, this is a "BETA" release, expect to find bugs, or possible performance issues. Do not expect everything in this release, to be indicative, to the final stable release. But feel free to provide feedback on the BETA, in the Feedback Forum area...
Smart move, and I agree!
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Hi. Thank you for this new version.
We are planning to organize a presentation session on Zorin OS 18 for users who are new to Linux.
Could you provide an approximate release date for the final version of Zorin OS 18? Is it expected in 2026?
Thank you in advance, José from France
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While I am unable to provide you with a precise date, as it depends on how much work needs done to finalize the OS, usually the full release happens in October. Unless a bunch of new problems come up, were on track for an October release.
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I guess many improvements are based on the work of the GNOME team but I would also like to see more clearly which major changes were made as part of Zorin OS itself.
Do you know if zorin 18 will support OpenZFS with encryption. zorin 17.3 didn't behave well with ZFS+encryption because of a grub problem. So I would be interested to retry to install zorin with ZFS and full disk encryption if it works ...
Regards,
BT