Has there been any word on when an alpha/beta will be released? And I know it was released in August, but does can remember when the first beta to Zorin 16 was available for people to test it? I am curious when we can expect the same for Zorin 17.
The alpha is usually offered to moderators and regulars. A lot of bugs are discovered and shared with the ZorinGroup. Then it is offered for beta testing by forum members, there will be an announcement for those that want to participate. Finally, after all of the fixes are implemented, the ZorinGroup issues the new version.
This is how 16 was released. Whether the ZorinGroup releases the same way this year I'm unsure, though they are not big on change when something works.
There are two goals this year, mentioned by the ZorinGroup. They want to provide direct upgrades in this release, understanding that this could be a deal breaker for many users if it isn't. The second is to provide a mostly problem free experience while implementing new features. If you know ZorinOS or the ZorinGroup at all, you know that they're releases, at any stage, are mostly bug free. They are particular about ensuring that even the alpha has little to be done. Because of this, and the limited number of developers, there are no dates provided.
They have offered that the second half of this year there will be Zorin 17. That's a potential six month release date. Not ideal, but from past releases an educated guess would be September. July would be the earliest we could possibly see word of the next release.
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Yes, Zorin is indeed very well polished. I was asking when the Z16 beta came out so that I could have an idea of how long it took between the release of the Z16 beta and the Z16 final release.
It was about a month for alpha testing and two to three weeks for beta testing. Total about two months from alpha release.
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Hello:
I love Zorin Os, both Core and Lite, in its pro version, are installed on my main computers and are the only ones I use on a daily basis.
Having said that, I have been asking the developers to improve the communication with the community for a long time now. I know that comparisons are odious but, in this sense, Linux Mint has it much better implemented. Every month they publish a newsletter with information about the project, and they even take the time to answer some questions from the community. Now, I imagine that the number of people working on Zorin Os must be small but, they could make the effort to follow a similar policy, the community would be very grateful for it.
This has been the topic of discussion even between the moderators and ZorinGroup.
What isn't considered is what all they cover currently, without any assistance. They (the two of them) handle the OS Development, updates, website, forum, administrative paperwork (taxes and documentation in multiple countries), marketing and support for all pro/ultimate installations (which covers zorin 15 & 16 currently). That's a lot for any group, especially one that is comprised of only two individuals.
A third person is supposed to be added, in what capacity is unknown... most likely administrative. This will free up some time, though direct support requests are one of their most time consuming obligations.
Considering this, not knowing what governments require what documentation on what deadlines (including business documentation, taxes, legal documents, trademark renewals and copyrights), they do rather well. Whether you hear from them or not, they consider ideas shared on the forum and implement them.
They are here often, though they may not post. It gives them feature ideas and particular hardware support that requires their attention. They hear us.
Understanding this, we are interested in communicating to what end? Satisfy curiosity, hear what they are doing or to cover issues? Majority of the members want their curiosities about the next major release and its features satisfied. This was brought to them and answered Zorin 17 insights. They could talk with us, at the cost of feature research/implementation, support requests going unanswered and their legal requirements going unfulfilled. That's asking a lot of two people that do so much to make sure all of this runs smoothly.
Hopefully the third individual will allow more interaction, but until there are more people in the company, it isn't always possible though they'd like to interact more often.
Some things for thought.
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Every company has a crucial moment when it must grow, otherwise it runs the risk of disappearing (there are many examples in the software world), it seems to me, from what I have seen, that Zorin is in this dilemma. Hopefully they will make the right decision.
The fact that so few people are working on the project is evidenced by how long it takes them to release a new version.
It would be very interesting if they left Ubuntu for Debian, which would give them many advantages, autonomy, among others (several distros have made this migration).
Thank you very much for taking care of my concern.
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What Kernel will be in Zorin 17?
Thank you for the answer. It is reasonable. However with version 17 expected in June, the idea of upgrading to version 16 annoys me tremendously. Nevertheless, this weekend I read a bit of documentation to find out what is possible to do without completely deleting the contents of the partition where my copy of Zorin 15 is currently installed. This is something I have never done, but it seems that by installing a copy of Zorin 16 on a partition with Zorin 15 in it without formatting it, it is possible to keep the home settings, even without having created a separate /home partition. Does anyone confirm that this method works? Is there any way to export all installed applications (including snaps and flatpaks) to a list?
Try to think of it this way: updating to a freshly released version may come with some unexpected bugs, so delaying that decision may actually turn out to be a good idea. Even with Ubuntu itself there's often a hot fix released shortly after every major version.
But yeah I know what you mean, if you are looking forward to use things like Gnome 40+ and such.
I'm not sure if you can directly install a new OS directly on top of an existing partition, is that documented in ZorinOS's website? I would still make a backup copy of those files either way, just to be on the safe side.
Zorin will be on Debian based new version Debian is Gnome 43 then new version Zorin 17 will be on gnome 43?
I guess Gnome 43 sounds about right. It'd be nice if they had time to integrate their own custom UI on top of Gnome 44 but it's the latest release which is fairly recent, so unlikely.
I hope will be pipewire.
I can't wait until Zorin 17 comes out. I am tired of Windows. I haven't gotten Zorin yet, but am planning on very soon.
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Gday @Leslie , Welcome to the community!
Yes we are all patiently awaiting the updated release, "Zorin OS 17".
As you have not used Zorin before, may i suggest you "TRY" Zorin first.
As to install Zorin OS, you will need to go through this process anyway, This has both "TRY" & "Install".
In the "TRY" Mode, Zorin OS will only run from the usb/cd device, & not leave a trace when you remove then device from your machine.
It's a great way to have a look,
Zorin OS is based on a user friendly interface, just like windows, ( If you didn't know you had Zorin OS or Windows, you wouldn't know the difference)
Hope you like it as i did.
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That is the cool thing about Linux. I have used Ubuntu, Fedora, and others. I just think Zorin is more of a complete package for me. It will be a couple of months before I can get another laptop, so I will wait patiently. I work from home on the computer and use Windows 11. I just don't like it at all. Looking forward in migrating to Linux.
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If you are planning on installing on a new laptop, make sure you test ZorinOS first before installing it.
Different hardware may have different requirements so it's possible that something may not work exactly right. This is especially true for newer hardware, or components that are purposefully made for a particular model.
For example some Asus trackpads have a the number rows of a physical keyboard integrated in the trackpad, and that may not work properly (I haven't tried it, it's just an example of something "unique" to some models).
Wait what? Zorin was based on ubuntu previously. Is this going to be changed with Zorin 17?
I tried upgrading zorin 15 to 16 by installing it in the same partition without formatting (tested in a VM). It mostly worked but with some quirks. Snap and flatpak apps were missing in the menu after the upgrade, and apps excluded from the default installation had to be reinstalled too with apt after the upgrade. Everything else was happily working. I wonder how this procedure compares with the alternative (standard) method: backup of the home folder (maybe with deja dup), fresh install (by nuking everything) and restore the home folder and all the apps.
Nope.