Graphical issues with Zorin Appearance. The Beta 'Take a screenshot' application does not have a timer, so I have installed Shutter. I am just in the middle of going through Zorin Appearance for the unofficial manual for Zorin 17 Beta when I discovered some glitches. The glitches can be pinned down to the Compiz elements (having Spatial desktop active, plus cube etc.) This morning whilst looking at Layouts in Zorin Appearance I got this screenshot:
The window behind Zorin Appearance appears to be an amalgam of different applications open at the time. A similar thing happened whilst taking a screenshot of the Pantheonesque Layout with the Applications Grid (not taken a screenshot of that as it was just garbled - to take a stable image I had to turn off all animations.
The last Layout I found unworkable, as it is supposed to be a Gnome layout. The Dash at the bottom of screen ony appears if the Activities Overview
button is selected and the only menu option is to select the Grid that appears on the Dash to view the Grid Menu which is going back to the Pantheon style desktop.
Basically, (personally) I find this layout unworkable and confusing, but each to their own! It appears to inherit the previouis layout in a strange way.
Having checked what is running it is using proprietary nvidia driver. In earlier versions of Zorin, the graphics driver could be chosen separately from restricted codecs - you don't get the option to not select proprietary drivers or able to select restricted extras (codecs) separately like in earlier versions - that is the only reason proprietary drivers got installed. Have reverted to Nouveau drivers, still to test. Notice that the 'Cube' software is getting an update today in Updates.
Update: Using Nouveau resolved the multiple screen tearing! Oh nvidia, how I hate thee now!
This is what happens when choosing the 'Gnome' Desktop. Only Activities button showing (No menus like 'Applications', 'System' menu headers like in traditional Gnome and you sort of get a repeat of the Bottom left DE with the Grid of Applications to the right of the Dash - certainly not a Desktop I could work with, period! Also when this Layout is chosen, only the close button is seen on anhy open Apps - no Minimise or Maximise buttons - they disappear.
Here are some answers to our questions as supplied by the ZorinGroup.
In regards to Firefox as a Flatpak, I will crosslink here:
In regards to Snapd not being available right away:
Has Snapd been eliminated in Zorin OS 17?
We're still shipping Snapd in Zorin OS 17. In the Beta we removed the Snap GNOME Software plugin as we found that it was causing performance issues, especially with search. During Beta testing we have found that GNOME Software 42.4 still has significant performance issues for many users, although it is definitely better than previous versions.
To resolve these issues, we recently tested and backported GNOME Software 45.2 which is the latest release that came out around 2 weeks ago. We have also backported a newer version of libadwaita (and patched it to support 3rd party themes) as it was a dependency for the new GNOME Software.
The new GNOME Software is significantly faster and we have found that the Snap plugin no longer noticeably affects performance so we are enabling it again to expand the default app selection.
I think it is very helpful to note in the above that subtle reminder that the Zorin OS 17 Beta is a Beta testing version. Thanks to the feedback received, further developments and testing; the Final Release of Zorin OS 17 may hold a more familiar look.
Speaking of the "Wow" factor; it appears we have one. In Zorin OS 17, users will be in control of and able to set their preferred application format in the Software Store.
As many of us have noted in using other distros, we can feel a bit discouraged when a software install is redirected to a format we did not wish for. Or that the format is selected for you.
With Zorin OS 17, you can re-take control over this.
The summary contains the background information which users can read. Below the summary is the Meat of the Issue that you can jump right to.
Summary
We don't explicitly prioritize one packaging format over another. Instead we want to provide our users with the widest and latest selection of apps available. One of the main reasons why we include containerized formats like Flatpak and Snap is that they provide the latest versions of apps which many users have come to expect. As APT packaging tends to provide only one version of a dependency, it's often not possible to backport the latest version of an app without breaking lots of other software in the repositories. This is also why we are quite selective with which software we backport in order to avoid system breakages. We usually only backport software if it provides significant advantages (such as performance improvements or major features) with minimal to no risk of breakages.
For example we backported GNOME Shell 43 as it had significant performance and feature improvements but only required a small number of new dependencies to be backported. Subsequent versions of GNOME Shell did not have any major advantages but required many additional dependencies that could have resulted in breakages and would have created a significant maintenance overhead.
As a result of the difficulty in backporting APT packages, many users complain about outdated APT packages for their favorite apps.
In Zorin OS we give users who want the latest versions of software the option to install it using containerized formats. Users who prefer the familiarity of APT packages will continue to have the option to do so. The preferred source can be selected in the dropdown on the app's listing page in GNOME Software.
BTW it's now possible to set the default package source priority in the new Software store for all app listings, so you can set APT/DEB to be preferred over Flatpak and Snap if that's what you wish to behavior to be. Simply enter this Terminal command, changing the order in the array value as you please: gsettings set org.gnome.software packaging-format-preference "['deb', 'flatpak:flathub', 'flatpak', 'snap']"
Has anyone been able to install extensions through the Extension Manager? I also tried through Epiphany browser, but doesn't seem to do anything either way. Although I only tested with this one extension:
That is exciting news. Now, I'm curious about how Debian handle(d) the Firefox .deb issue. I can't remember how they shipped their Firefox when I was testing the latest Debian.
Being able to set the package source priority is really cool.
Debian provides Firefox ESR from their own repositories. For the latest version, I installed it manually following the instructions from Mozilla. If what the Zorin devs say about that PPA is true, I'd much rather go this route as it's quite straight forward:
It's really nice to be able to specify the source priority on the Software Store, and it looks like it's offering .deb packages by default already which is great.
Installed this on a dual boot system with win11 and Pop OS making it a triple boot system and it worked well and updated the boot menu with no issues. The only real issue has been Firefox is just slow bringing up any site. Also authenticating to a NAS server is very slow, but once authenticated it works properly. The Firefox issue is very frustrating. Steam games seem to run as usual.
The new screenshot UI is extremely slick, however I'd like a shortcut and/or something on the taskbar to activate it, like v16. It doesn't help that searching for "screen" shows Screen Lock first.
It doesn't look like I can change the folder color anymore, and clicking "star" doesn't do anything visually.
The file explorer loads image/video previews one-by-one, causing noticeable slowness when presumably they could just run all at the same time.
I'll update this topic if I find anything else. Apart from that, though, very nice.
A shortcut to screenshots would be either the print key or the screenshot button in the quick settings menu on the right side of the taskbar. Unfortunately, there is no way to add it directly to the taskbar as an application, if that is what you're asking. I'd like that, too, honestly, but I think that is a Gnome issue. Maybe they can find a way around it at some point, if you send feedback.
By folder color, do you mean the theme? You can change the theme from the appearance app, just as in 16. The folder color should change then.
Yeah, as mentioned above, this is a Gnome issue as they've moved on to a new utility that for some reason is not easily available even through a terminal command. However, you can use keyboard shortcuts and even customize them. Go to Settings -> Keyboard -> View And Customize Shortcuts -> Screenshots.
As for the search results, try to adjust your query a bit. Adding a single letter seems to work fine:
You can get a shortcut on the taskbar by installing the previous screenshot utility and pin in there. The looks are not as slick but the functionality is nearly the same: it doesn't have screen record functionality, but you can delay screenshots as needed (useful for taking screenshots of dropdown menus):
(Some of) the promised background wallpapers came per update. Although they are pretty nice, I'd like it, if they added some of the wallpapers that come with default Gnome. I like abstract wallpapers better as backgrounds rather than real photographs.
Thanks!