I posed a few questions to the ZorinGroup in regards to some basic information about Zorin 17. These questions were mentioned throughout the forum in several threads. Those questions are as follows:
The ZorinGroup responded:
While this revelation may not be exactly what we want to hear, it gives an idea of what to expect in Zorin 17. Hopefully, this will not dishearten members, rather embolden them that development continues, improvements and features we may have not considered, are and we can look forward to another dependable OS from the ZorinGroup.
Yes. Lite, Core and Education are the three flavors (versions) of the Zorin OS that are offered as a standard.
There was speculation of whether the ZorinGroup is staying with Gnome in the Core version. This doesn't effect Lite at all. XFCE is Lite's DE, which they don't plan on moving away from.
There was discussion of possibly adding other flavors, but as you see, that will not occur so as not to cause confusion.
This is my first post to the Zorin forum. As a long-time Linux enthusiast I have tried all the popular distros and have always found Zorin elegant in design and presentation. I prefer the XFCE desktop as it aligns with my desire to keep old tech out of the landfill.
Please confirm you will be staying with the Firefox browser, and keeping it out of Snap and Flatpak despite efforts to enforce those sources.
My only current reservation with Zorin is that I am seemingly unable to rearrange the menu to my liking as I can easily do in standard XFCE distros. Will menu editor work?
Am I missing something or can it be improved in Zorin 17? Thank you
Based on AZorin's response, they are trying to maintain what is currently offered at the quality they require of themselves. I expect deb packages will continue to be the main method of deploying preinstalled software.
I like suggestions others make, so I tried installing Rofi in order to try it out.
I was surprised to learn that Rofi is already installed. I know I did not install it manually before...
Zorin OS seems to be focused on gaming, but this is better a Pro-only feature. Gaming on a PC requires money for hardware, so not many users will benefit from the gaming features.
That may not be true at all. I purchased an Asus Tuf Gaming laptop and the first thing I did was partition the drives and add Zorin. I dual boot with Windows and game in there. While I can also do the same in Zorin, it isn't lost on me. I choose not to introduce gaming to my development environment (and some of the games I play are not Linux compatible, so may cause me to be banned for using Linux with Battle Eye, or whatever it's called).
That power is useful for multiple reasons, and Zorin is a perfect host to implement all of them. I'm sure many are rescuing old laptops and PCs this way, but not everyone is doing that. We would not have near as many requests for help with lutris, wine and GOG as we do. Many people use Zorin on their gaming machines, for gaming.
The ZorinGroup has never limited the free version. They may not prepackage software in those ISOs, but everything is just as available. While you may have to find alternatives to get the same layouts, it doesn't mean you can't or they are not available to the free versions. Exclusion is the furthest thing from their brand and business policy. They implement inclusion in everything they offer, while giving you full control of your pc.
Looks like we can look forward to Zorin 17 with eagerness rather than trepidation! Will be trying Whisker menu and Rofi as menu alternatives.
Best wishes to all In ZorinGroup and all active community members.
That's asking a lot of two people. Even if you were doing this full time, do you think you could put out an updated OS every year, support the LTS releases (5 years), assist users with installs (pro licenses), research and develop new features, fix bugs, improve stability and user experience and ensure all the legal documentation, copyrights and taxes for multiple nations are complete and in on time,
while maintain a website, forum and blog? Have at it.
The Zorin brothers are focus in my opinion what is best for stable and fast version Zorin without many software what is bugged or not compatibility or not tested ion 100%.
We cannot compare 2 people with a corporation Canonical it is a madness.
They choose for us what is best option not what we want. They have many years experience with linux.
They cannot put things in them distribution what is not compatibility with them DE and they ideas. I respect them what they doing.
Don't forget about update kernel panic and security.
Some people writing many years operating system.
It taken a lot of time - they need also live for family,holidays and relax time for heal.
