Perhaps you'd be more interested in a free and open-source version of VSCode, identical in just about every way sans Microsoft's telemetry:
If you've heard of Atom, which was originally created by GitHub, there's now a fork called Pulsar. Atom used to be my favorite editor until Microsoft pulled the plug on the project. You can think of it as a much lighter version of VSCodium for sure, the only time I ever experienced problems with it was with TypeScript.
You can take things further in the road of lightweight text editors with Lite. It's written in C and Lua, no Electron wrappers, so it runs very nicely. It's also feature complete to there's a bit of features that some people were missing from it and decided to extend it a bit with Lite XL. For simple things, those are pretty neat.
And last but definitely not least there's Neovim. I assume given your background that you've at least heard of Vim and Neovim at this point. Neovim made the ecosystem much more prolific and there are plenty of customization options that can make it a fully-fledged IDE.
It's a pain to setup but also very satisfactory to fully understand how things work, and have it configured exactly how you want it. However, the main advantage for me is that it runs incredibly fast. I can run it no problem even on a low-end Chromebook, with all sorts of background processes like watchers, development servers, test runners and Docker.
Here's a great video going through some of the most popular Neovim "distributions" which really are premade configurations that you can use if you don't want to go through the entire process yourself:
And a screenshot of a project of mine with Laravel, Vue.js + TypeScript, Docker and Nginx.
I don't code and the monologue speak is a turn off on that video. I just want to use an OS on the Desktop and enjoy what it has to offer..
Computer history for moi:
ZX Spectrum 128 (with heatsink)
Amiga 1500 (which I still have)
Windows 95 on a Pentium 120 with 16 Mb RAM, 1 Mb VGA card, Cheap sound card - upgraded processor with an Evergreen AMD 400 MHz processor. Needed to install a floppy file for Windows 95 to work as Win'95 could not cope with 400 MHz! Oh and a 1 Gb Fujitsu Hard Drive.
Windows 98 SE on AMD 400 MHz Processor with 128 Mb RAM, Sound Blaster 32 PnP with 12 Mb add-on RAM, some nvidia card, I can't remember. Has had differing ones inside it over time.
Windows XP Pro on an Asus Motherboard with Athlon 64 Processor (1.8 GHz), nVidia Grapics Card 256 Mb (died), 1.5 Gb RAM max - first motherboard I managed to fry by incorrectly fitting the (ironically) firewire the wrong-way round - when I first started off, connections created a closed connection, this one I should have placed it in the same orientation as what was on the mobo! Got a replacement under warranty.
Around 2002/3 I was introduced to my first flavour of GNU/Linux (GNU is the OS, Linux is the kernel), Knoppix 2.8 (I think) that ran live and identified Windows as (Other OS! ) and even in live mode announced at the login, "All Systems Operational" by Borg 1 of 9.
Windows 7 - My good lady had started a course in Higher Education and was entitled to an Educational license of the Pro version. Similarly, my offspring also got Windows 7 Educational license.
Windows 8.1 Pro 32-bit - not for me - passed it on to my eldest - got this as an OS through Work at reduced price.
Windows 10 - insider versions only and stopped using it - the only thing I miss about Windows 10 was the highly addictive Shadow Fighter 2!
Then it was time to build the offspring new computers, with Intel Kirbylake Processors and EVGA graphics cards. Because these machines I built were 64-bit I purchased Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit for the eldest and Windows 7 64-bit for the youngest, and a copy also for me, just as it was about to come end of life.
I have to disagree on XP not being spyware, as I purchased the (in)famous XP PowerPack.
Windows 11 Pro - I only tried the OS once as I was under the misinterpretation that KDE can run on Windows - not so, only certain KDE apps can run on Windows, such as KDE Connect etc. Had to install this on my eldest's machine following EOL of Windows 8.1 Pro as needs it for work.
So Windows or GNU/LInux? No! Amiga Forever!
[I know the thread said Windows or Zorin, but I think it is limiting! Also BSD should get a look in.]
Thank you, interesting tips here. Yes: Vim was my favorite editor for a long time, I started writing sourcecode for websites in the simple notepad until I picked up PHP.
I don't like automated stuff like spell-checking and pop-ups while you code, all annoying stuff that interferes with what you're doing. That's why I quit Wordpress too and now Windows.
Looks like nobody wants to learn anymore and jump right into things.
I will have a look at each and every tip you gave here, I love to develop things using all kinds of different techniques and programs and that's why it's so important for me to have an editor that feels right, I use it 6-10 hours a day. So thanks again: I'll dive into them right away!
Nice list there, just about every Windows-release available to the large public.
I understand the Amiga-thing yes, in the time that I was deep into MSX (by Philips, the Netherlands) Commodore came with the Amiga and I would have loved to have one but didn't have the financial means for it and I already bricked two other "machines" so I guess I used all my credits and stuck to MSX for a couple of years.
As you mentioned BSD and Amiga, wasn't it so that core-Amiga fans ended up developing Haiku? I could be mistaking here, but I think it's a very interesting project...
Haiku was a spin-off but has never really developed. Amiga Forever is a better option apart from the fact it can only run on Windows. I also have the world's first 32-bit gaming console, the CD32. I also have a Communicator device which allows me to connect CD32 to the Amiga and software to communicate between Amiga and PC, that came with the Communicator. There is another project too but because of scanlines the desktop flickers and only half the screen is usable, AROS.
The problem with the Amiga is great if you have good vision but does not have good accessibility options if any apart from being able to create your own mouse pointer.
Very interesting... I have two free partitions for other OS's and I am already looking around for the future when I have Zorin exactly as I want it and be able to kick out Windows completely. One I guess will be an (Ugh...) non-spying old Windows (do they even exist?) for playing my favorite games like M1TankPlatoon and Need4Speed2 etc. and I might go mad on the other one, but I need to take care because I want a triple boot-pc and it's not so difficult to mess it all up...
It should be easy enough to do. Internet Archive have some old versions of Windows (I am lucky as I have Windows 7 64-bit, Windows XP Pro 32-bit, Windows 2000 32-bit and Windows 98 SE. If you are going to triple boot, and say it is two Windows versions and 1 GNU/Linux, or whatever permutation, be sure to install Windows first - preferably with MBR and then use NeoSmart's EasyBCD so you can boot into Linux from Windows BCD without messing up Windows. I always promised myself to play all the Wing Commander Games at my disposal upon retirement, but never got round to doing it - PS4 Pro is a big distraction!
Thank you, I have a lot of great tips here now and I am getting on my feet having installed all the major applications that I need using only the applications from the software-section, which I believe is the best thing to do to keep the system run smooth. Nice to know that I can find these OS's on the internet Archive, better than some shady website... Lots of stuff to find out still but it's fun ánd this forum is a good resource. Very happy to have taken the plunge into Zorin, exactly what I was hoping for as a first experience!
I just got fed up of preinstalled apps, lagging, my pc not wanting to turn on and the like.
I then jumped to eOS, then to bodhi Linux, then to trisquel, which broke down on my pc, back to bodhi Linux, fresh install bc of network issues, the fresh install then had the same network issues, puppy Linux broke down, tiny core wouldn't boot.
Then I found zorin. I love it =]
It boots quickly, has an app store, is pretty, and sorta is helping me to transition to Linux from win11.
) and even in live mode announced at the login, "All Systems Operational" by Borg 1 of 9.
