Recent interview with one of the Zorin brothers.
5 Likes
Enlightening. Thanks for sharing!
Even as a new user, I've written a couple of articles on Linkedin about Zorin! I don't have a big following but both articles got a lot of "impressions" and were well received.
Obviously, as a newbie, I was writing from the perspective of migrating from Windows to Linux, and the easier transition when picking an OS like Zorin, over Mint, for example.
The familiarity and comparability of Zorin OS makes it a very attractive alternative, especially as support for WX ends in October '25, and many people do not like the way Windows 11 is heading. Well, Microsoft as a whole.
As I'm in the education field, I also plugged Zorin Education edition, which could be a real alternative for some schools and other institutions, as MS make them pay through the nose for limited licenses, and keeping the hardware up to date is extremely costly indeed.
I hope I've been able to influence at least a few people to make the switch, and I would encourage everyone who uses Zorin to mention it to friends and colleagues - maybe demonstrate the desktop environment.
I'm still a little nervous of quitting Windows entirely, and I think the next 12 months are absolutely vital, i.e. we can't have our systems break down due to a new kernel update - and compatibility with core course materials is necessary (it seems a lot are already). Issues with Gnome and Wayland have got to be ironed out too. I really hope that Zorin can present itself as a viable and attractive alternative for Windows refugees.
Honestly I completely agree with the gnome and wayland issues needing to be ironed out in order to consider it safe enough for mass use in a business such as you describe.
And while I still think switching to Wayland this early was possibly a mistake, the benefit to this is that it makes the flaws way more visible to people that wouldn't have gone out to find them in the first place. So in a way, this is getting Wayland more prepared than ever for the prime time in regards to on Zorin.
That being said, I haven't really had any issues with Wayland, but I know I'm in the minority there 
.
1 Like
The problem with Linux for business in general is support. Sure, you have a few commercial endeavors like Canonical and Red Hat but the amount of about $251 million from Canonical is paltry compared to Microsoft. I don't know the numbers for Red Hat. For Enterprises, you need reliable support which Linux does not have right now. Maybe in the future it will change. But for now, regardless of your feelings, MS is king.
On the desktop, yes. On servers — and just about everywhere else — the story is quite the opposite.
I think it's a mistake for Zorin, or any other non-Rolling release distro, to use Wayland as the default.
Many can be caught between a problem that may occur and a solution that will take time to arrive.
4 Likes
@anon50265909. Of course you're right, MS is the king, however, if you listen to the interview, from 10 minutes they talk about corporate / business use. it states clearly that government bodies in Germany used Zorin, until MS moved some business there and kind of demanded that MS OS was used in government (14 min's).
Don’t think for a moment that a large organization or Government will not leverage Linux as a bargaining chip in order to get a better deal from a supplier like MS. Perhaps Germany wanted MS to move into Germany to get more jobs. MS might have capitulated by giving better pricing which is what Germany really wanted all along. Support is what any organization wants in order to effectively manage all their IT resources efficiently. I am a big Zorin and Mint fan but they have their limitations.
There comes a time when security and transparency in the use of data take precedence over any economic agreement they can make behind the scenes. At some point this becomes unsustainable.
1 Like
There is also the cost of migrating to new versions of Windows. As M$ increases specifications, these hardwares becomes obsolete.
I find this very funny: "Windows XX is 2 times faster than the previous one. (but it needs 4 times more powerful hardware to run)"
2 Likes
For clarity, Zorin was not used in Germany. German Linux engineers wrote the desktop for Munich. What actually happened is Microsoft did not use leverage about the HQ. LXF or one of the other magazines reported a change in Mayor who was pro-Microsoft and ordered that Windows be reinstated. Artyom also did not mention that the change in Vicenza started with the High School there that could not afford to pay for the new licences they would need to pay, nor could they afford to buy new equipment for the IT Suite. This is where Italian forum member albano stepped in to save the day and he too was instrumental in getting the local government of Vicenza to move all their desktops to Zorin.
1 Like
As I have stated in another post, it was a change of Mayor in Munich who was pro-MS and anti-Linux. The change to Linux was in 2004:
This is from 2024:
3 Likes
I think using Thunderbird is a mistake as it is too tied up to Google. Evolution would be a much better mail client.
1 Like
Then you should correct Artyom Zorin, because that's not how he tells the story... but anyway, I guess a lot of people / official bodies will think about switching to Linux after the Crowdstrike debacle. Especially with MS making the excuse it was all the EU's fault!
1 Like
We will see if this will stand or not; should be interesting.
2 Likes
I think they should really look at their home grown proprietary software, SoftMaker Office, which includes dedicated German spell checker. Whilst LibreOffice has a lot more going for it, SoftMaker Office is an easier transition from MS Office than LibreOffice.
There are not good at this.
I doubt it since these companies contractually agreed to let Crowdstrike go deep into kernel for the affected machines. They allowed Crowstrike to manipulate MS settings in the respective machines. That is Crowstrike's claim to fame. And, Yes - MS was forced by the EU to grant that kind of access. Linux too has been affected in the past to a much lesser extent since Linux is used less.
I agree with you, for the most part, and I know the EU forced Microsoft to comply with their restrictions, however, that should have been only within the EU, not all over the world! That's when it becomes an excuse - laziness! EU policy should not affect India, the US, Canada - and the rest of the world. MS have different policies and agreements with different corporations and countries. A lot of people suffered, some people lost their lives, and all because MS is too big a company, with it's greedy fingers all over the world.
(But, yes... obviously, I have the same new kernel in Zorin as I do in Mint, but at least we have the power to "hold" updates, and to roll back, if necessary).
Linux will be used more, I just hope as there are so many distros, and bases (Debian,, Ubuntu) to choose from that not all computers and OSs will be affected en masse. Lessons must be learned, and strategies must be formulated to mitigate total chaos as much as possible.