The changeover from Zorin OS 12 to 15 had a few initial bugs as did the release of Zorin OS 16, mostly found with the .iso installer. They were swiftly resolved.
Over-all, the changeover to 15 and to 16 were both nowhere near as hectic or busy as the change to 17. They were pleasant and smooth.
Zorin OS 17 brought along with it:
- Wayland as default
- New version of Gnome (43), which needs special attention with extensions. Gnome 45 notoriously breaks extensions to the Gnome developers delight about maintaining the Gnome Way that persists in forcing that extensions should be on the out and that users should contribute directly to Gnome Shell Code in order to affect changes.
- LibAdwaita...
- Having the Zorin Upgrader available
- It carried along with it a lot of the concerns about Ubuntu 22.04.
There is a lot going on with Zorin OS 17 that is new and different.
I am still on Zorin OS 16.3. It's running like a champ, as it did from day one.
Rant follows:
Summary
Folks, newer does not automatically equate to better.
The ZorinGroup has been under constant pressure from users demanding new for the sake of new. I have seen few feature requests; few bug reports requesting new for valid reasons. The majority just say they want new because it is new and new=good.
When Zorin OS 15 was released, a week went by from initial release to users posting asking when Zorin OS 16 would come out.
When Zorin OS 17 was released, users posted demanding that it be based on Ubuntu 24.04. Ubuntu 24.04 has not even been released, yet!
And how often in the last year have users posted calling Zorin OS "outdated" at every turn and excuse, however speciously? (Way too often, that's how much).
"Like... omg... that software was first like released like 9 months ago... seriously? Zorin is like, omg soooo outdated... it's like burning up my vocal fry."
Ok... so, the users got what they wanted and begged and pleaded for: Sacrifice stability for the sake of New Latest and Greatest. At least the developers know and have the ZorinGroups back, right?
Nope.
Gnome has been pushing hard for LibAdwaita in order to seize control of the desktop. Gnome has been pushing hard for the Wayland protocol in order to advance "new at all costs whether its working or not". Gnome has pushed hard for Flatpak because it is their pet project.
Canonical has pushed hard for Snapd, to the point of violating the user agreement and applying force, replacing APT with Snap without user confirmation or consent.
Canonical and Gnome have been brawling and feuding about which package management system is better, if only to replace APT for no particularly viable reason except to elevate themselves to the top of the pile, then feuding some more because Gnome wants to dominate the desktop environment with locked in shells and Canonical protested...
The very reason so many people want to leave Microsofts Windows is because the human nature involved wants to control the users and dominate the landscape. Well, GnuLinux is just as infected with that mentality, now.
Bewteen the user base demanding something new and the outside developers demanding something new, we got something new.
Not stable. Not reliable. Not time tested. New. This is what Shiny and New and Latest looks like.
Learn from it.