Hi,
I noticed that, since a couple of weeks (April) , there's a new release of Zorin OS version 17.3, would any of the Zorin OS members/devops care to share what are the changes/updates compared to the previous 17.3 release of March 2025.
Thanks in advance for sharing the info with the community!
Regards
C.Wolff
Hi and welcome! I could be wrong but perhaps it has the latest kernel updates to prevent Spectre V.2 rearing it's ugly head plus any other updates via other channels used (Ubuntu) or enhancement to Zorin apps such as Zorin Connect.
Perhaps the devs can say why 17.3 r1 has appeared for download and what has changed. Tagging @AZorin @zorink and hoping for a reply.
Hi everyone,
We recently released the newly-revised r1 ISOs of Zorin OS 17.3 to correct a regression with how NVIDIA drivers are handled. They also come with updated versions of pre-installed packages, including a newer kernel with more security patches built-in.
The full technical explanation about fixing the NVIDIA regression is quite long and detailed, but if you're interested, you can expand & read it below:
With the original release of Zorin OS 17.3, we changed how the NVIDIA driver installation worked in order to allow support for additional GPUs in future releases. With that release, the NVIDIA drivers installation option was only integrated into the installer process instead of the boot menu, which is how Ubuntu now works. As a result, the "Try or install Zorin OS (modern NVIDIA drivers)" option was no longer included.
When we tested this on our NVIDIA-equipped computers, the ISOs booted up just fine (using the integrated graphics or Nouveau drivers) and the Zorin OS installer activated the NVIDIA 570 drivers on the installed system.
However, we received a couple of support requests that revealed to us that this new driver installation method introduced regressions for some NVIDIA graphics cards, which we assume had worse compatibility with the built-in open source Nouveau drivers than the NVIDIA cards that we tested 17.3 on.
As a result, we recently created newly-revised ISOs, which now use a slightly updated version of the previous NVIDIA driver loading method.
We've now added back the "Try or install Zorin OS (modern NVIDIA drivers)" option to the USB boot menu, which installs and loads the NVIDIA 550 drivers (which are present & available in the ISO) while booting the live session only (unfortunately the NVIDIA 570 driver packages don't currently seem to be capable of loading in live mode). Loading the NVIDIA drivers in this way only affects the live system, and is mainly implemented so computers with certain NVIDIA cards can easily boot the live USB without going to a black screen (like a few users reported) or having to use the "safe graphics" option at the boot menu.
The Zorin OS installer independently installs the NVIDIA drivers onto the installed system. Because the installer automatically selects the newest NVIDIA drivers compatible with the computer's graphics card, it installs the NVIDIA 570 drivers (which are also present & available in the ISO) onto the native installation on the computer's hard drive/SSD.
It's a little confusing, but here's how it now works in brief:
Having both the NVIDIA 550 and 570 drivers on the ISO does make it a little larger. However, it's a compromise to balance being able to boot the Zorin OS USB on as many NVIDIA-equipped computers as possible (including those that may suffer from the regression introduced in the original Zorin OS 17.3 ISOs), while also having support for the latest NVIDIA RTX 5000 series cards (which are only compatible with the 570 drivers) on the installed system. Nevertheless, it shouldn't increase the footprint of Zorin OS on a fully-installed system, as only one version of the NVIDIA drivers would actually get installed on the hard drive/SSD.
In addition to releasing the newer Zorin OS 17.3 r1 ISOs, we've also updated the installation & NVIDIA activation guides (and other affiliated articles) on our Help site to reflect this change.
Thanks for sharing the info AZorin, also thanks to all others that have replied!
Happy to see that issues with NVIDIA drivers have been addressed.
Regards
C.Wolff