I wanted to write this post to tell my story in hopes of maybe helping someone else out in the future.
About 3 years ago I tried switching from Windows to Linux, specifically Zorin OS and it was a total disaster. I was so frustrated and angry I was literally shaking and in tears because I couldn't get the simplest things to work. I had gone in thinking it was going to be a total GUI experience with having to not even open the Terminal, I was wrong.
My Missus actually forbid me from trying anything Linux after that. Fast forward to about a month ago and I started doing research on Linux Distros and as a native Windows user my whole life I came back to Zorin OS. This time though I decided to try a virtual machine doing one thing at a time and very specifically documenting how I got something to work as expected. I found that I prefer using the terminal to install software even if it is available in the GUI software package manager. I also found that most commands I found in my online research I could just copy and paste saving time and effort.
This went well but eventually I had to install Zorin OS alongside Windows 11 for further testing. I got everything working except the photo editing software I use called Photoscape X is only available for Windows and only through the Microsoft Store. I didn't even want to go down the ridiculously steep learning curve of GIMP either.
So, I put Windows 11 on a virtual machine with Photoscape X and then I found out that video capturing using OBS Studio didn't work in Zorin OS. As it turns out my video card isn't strong enough or something (Intel UHD 620) I went ahead and tested this in Windows because I had never tried doing it since I switched to this laptop. This worked fine in Windows.
So, I started from scratch installing Windows first with the software that didn't work on Zorin OS and then installed Zorin OS with everything else. I created an image of the entire disk using Clonezilla and tested. At first I thought Grub got messed up during the image restore process but as it turns out I just needed to make that partition my first boot device in my BIOS.
I ended up with 6 pages of documentation on how I did this (9 if you include the reference and version control pages) I'm really not doing anything more than using an Office suite, I have a Plex Server and I edit self made videos but again nothing too crazy
I'm happy to report I'm using Zorin OS as my primary operating system 99% of the time. I hope this might help others trying to make the switch from Windows 11 to Zorin OS.
Always love to hear peoples stories, and the realities of actually using another OS as a daily driver. The good and the bad parts. Makes people see that not everything is sunshine and rainbows, regardless of where you go. Just differences and things to learn.
That being said, OBS should have worked for you. I have a system with a similar spec for gpu and it does work, but you have to change some encoder options before it gets happy.
Oh another PhotoScape user! I used it years ago and later continued when it changed to PhotoScape X. I wanted to try running PS X with Wine but decided against it when I managed to get the older version working. I preferred it anyways because I used it for so long as a young teen and got used to it :3
Hi, it seemed like it had worked at first using the recommended settings from the configuration wizard but the resulting video was very choppy and bad.
I couldn't get Photoscape 3.7 to work in WINE for some reason and was actually advised to stay away from the Windows compatibility layer if at all possible.
I'm not sure, I'll see if I can find the post on this forum and link it here. I tried using Wine but it did not go very well, but that could have just been the software I was trying.
I would recommend simplescreenrecorder over OBS. As for WINE, I have just discovered that the i386 32-bit elements I cannot install on my PCLOS Debian rig to see if I could run Brailleblaster as the *nix version would not run. That is to say 32-bit win was stating it depended on systemd. Why? Needs systemd! I'd rather be systemd free, but will try on Q40S instead. I do remember once trying out SolydX that when you looked at installing WINE it advised against it as it potentially could be a security vector for viruses/malware.
Thanks for the recommendation! Simplescreenrecorder worked beautifully for what I need. I also looked into Pinta and if I can learn how to get it to do what I need then I'll be completely off Windows.
Thank you for sharing your story. This is a perfect example of how Linux is better and proffered most of the time. But that 1 time out of 10, you can't run Windows software in a Wine bottle, you use Windows for that.
I admit, its true, GIMP is a learning curve, and its not as powerful as Adobe Photoshop. But, if you ever find the time to learn it, you'd be surprised at what you can do, even if its not perfect.
I deliberately opted for Zorin OS and am very satisfied.
Zorin OS is careful with ubdates which I like because my machine has to run without me always having to fix something.
I'm already looking forward to version 18 and I'm curious to see what further development will look like in the future.
Zorin OS 17 Pro has completely replaced my Windows 11 and is my daily operating system.
