Zorin 18 Beta feedback/discussion thread

[Ponce-De-Leon]

@marko94

Worth - is it good as Ubuntu/Debian ? no need to be stable as them, as I like to have my system up to date with customizations, new kernel etc

''as I like to have my system up to date with customizations, new kernel etc'': If you want that, then I would say no. Debian and Ubuntu LTS are LTS Distro's. LTS stands for Long Term Support. So, there is a (more or less) solid Software Stack. So, it isn't up-to-date.

If You want an up-to-date System, You should stay in my Opinion on Fedora. You could use some Gnome Extensions to get a similar Look for Fedora Gnome there. And for the Theme ... You could start Zorin on a USB Stick in Live Mode and copy the Themes out of /usr/share/themes

[Omnimaxus]

Does anyone on the moderation team know when Zorin 18 will be actually released? I mean, you're part of the "inner circle," so the Zorin brothers must've said something, right? If you don't know, OK. Can Artyom or Kyrill jump in and comment? Thanks.

[marko94]

Thanks. Even when i used Debian , I was on SID. But i dont have problems staying with Zorin how it is. Customization and features what is cool there

[Ponce-De-Leon]

I already wrote that as Feedback to them. You could do the same. Maybe they will add it then when enough People ask for it. Should be worth a Try.

@Omnimaxus

I just added the single command. I didn't read the instructions. Still ...

Okay, let's go Step by Step:

1. Add the Signing Key with:

wget -q https://packages.mozilla.org/apt/repo-signing-key.gpg -O- | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc > /dev/null

and press Enter and type in Your Password.

2. Verifiy the Fingerprint:

gpg -n -q --import --import-options import-show /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc | awk '/pub/{getline; gsub(/^ +| +$/,""); if($0 == "35BAA0B33E9EB396F59CA838C0BA5CE6DC6315A3") print "\nThe key fingerprint matches ("$0").\n"; else print "\nVerification failed: the fingerprint ("$0") does not match the expected one.\n"}'

3. Add the Repo:

echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc] https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mozilla.list > /dev/null

4. Add the Priority File:

echo '
Package: *
Pin: origin packages.mozilla.org
Pin-Priority: 1000
' | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/mozilla

5. Update the Sources and install Firefox:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install firefox

@Omnimaxus

Does anyone on the moderation team know when Zorin 18 will be actually released? I mean, you're part of the "inner circle," so the Zorin brothers must've said something, right?

Even if we would know, do You think we have the Permission to tell You?

[Cars10]

Any information on the release date of the 18.0 (not beta)?
Between 16.beta and 16.0 was four long months
Between 17.beta and 17.0 was just 16 days

I am asking for my wife, as during the weekend she wanted to see my Zorin more in detail. I guess she received some OS threatening emails from Redmond and starts to get worried ...

[littlekun]

@zenzen

AppImages need to be updated as well from time to time, although they don't do so on their own (unless the installer itself explicitly includes this functionality, which is rare).

Hello zenzen

The VLC you are testing is 3.0.11 which is even older than ones available in noble apt repository (3.0.20).

So I tried a to get a newer version (3.0.21) from here: Releases · ivan-hc/VLC-appimage · GitHub

To my surprise launching this appimage from terminal also throws the same error but when I try to launch it from file manager by double clicking on it then it launches fine. And then I tried to play a .mkv video but then VLC throws this error can't decode MPEG (Something like that).

The same .mkv video plays well with the default totem video player. And I also have installed the ubuntu-restricted-extra package. Can you make a short test again from the VLC appimage I linked here?

Another strange issue happening, system is not generating the thumbnails for the mkv file present inside home. And Nautilus preference is set to always. There are some logs showing Denied for the totem-thumbnailer, but I got fed up and shut down the laptop. I will try to get them next time.

[Omnimaxus]

@Ponce-De-Leon

Even if we would know, do You think we have the Permission to tell You?

[Omnimaxus]

@Cars10

Between 16.beta and 16.0 was four long months

Whoa. Four months? Wow; OK.

[Cars10]

What about minimum system requirements and recommended ones?
My guess is it will be similar to Ubuntu 24.04?

• 2 GHz dual-core processor
• 4096 MiB RAM (system memory) for physical installs.
• 2048 MiB RAM for virtualised installs.
• 25 GB (8.6 GB for minimal) of hard-drive space
• 3D acceleration-capable GPU with at least 256 MB of VRAM
• 1024x768 or higher resolution display

As I want to buy a new laptop?

[Cars10]

I would love something similar to the Windows Snipping Tool as I still not have found something decent to make easy screen shots. Shutter is it not.

Edit: OK, I admit I still have to try

• Deepin Screenshot
• ScreenCloud
• Flameshot

[Nourpon]

hello, just a simple question : does 18 beta will be upgradable to 18 release ?

[Topaz]

@Cars10

I would love something similar to the Windows Snipping Tool as I still not have found something decent to make easy screen shots. Shutter is it not.

No idea what Snipping Tool can do, but look at Gnome Screenshot; I like it because it has a timer to delay the schreenshot while the default screenshot tool does not.

Another one you did not list is ksnip, which includes an editor to annotate the screenshot with text, arrows, etc.

[Aravisian]

@Nourpon

hello, just a simple question : does 18 beta will be upgradable to 18 release ?

Yes, Beta will upgrade with full release and with the point releases with the Zorin regular updates/upgrades.
End users will not need to reinstall nor use the Zorin Upgrader Tool in order to transition from Beta to Full Release.

[Salomon]

The honor is all mine! Being able to contribute to a beta test is always very rewarding.

[MidnightRose]

Flameshot is amazing. I also have Gradia for some use-cases. It's a very beautiful GTK app with many options☺️

[Salomon]

@Platan I can try running the command that @zenzen posted, but it will take a while and I will post the answer tomorrow.

[Nourpon]

Thank you

[zenzen]

So, it looks like Ubuntu 23.10 introduced stricter security measures for a Linux kernel feature called namespaces:

Restricted unprivileged user namespaces are coming to Ubuntu 23.10 | Ubuntu

Namespaces are used for isolating resources, and is often used for containerized formats like AppImages. You can control this through an AppArmor profile which is Ubuntu's security module.

I found an excellent website that explains this issue in detail, with additional methods to work around this restriction...

Unfortunately, it seems like a tough one to crack. At least for VLC in particular but I haven't tried other AppImages yet.
Installing from the default repositories works fine but the AppImage simply can't decode the video files. I've tried a few tricks but nothing has worked for me so far

Any chance that the AppImage itself is buggy? Can you try with another one?

[noob2]

Even on Ubuntu, I am aware that this is a problem. However, I hope Zorin 18 resolves the discrepancy in the UI theme between snap and deb.

[Dexxa]

@Omnimaxus

The blue theme for Zorin OS is a tad too blue. Suggest toning it down. Make it the same as in Zorin 17.

I hope the Zorin team changes the color back to version 17.
It's too blue in version 18; it was perfect in version 17.