I had a different experience. I fully replaced Windows on day one.
No dual boot.
I did try out WINE a bit but in the end, cut that free too and went for native GnuLinux apps.
And I discovered that the vast majority of gnuLinux apps worked better.
Yes, there are some apps that only will work on Windows and cannot function or function well with WINE; I am most fortunate that I do not use or need these.
There is one diagnostic and analysis tool (That cost quite a few hundred dollars) I need on one computer that only runs in Windows - But it works perfectly well in WINE.
My main reason for considering dual booting was to take it slow, save any important things in Windows and then copy them to Zorin. But I'm not sure there is all that much to really worry about & reading about potential dual booting problems I'm thinking I can probably just live with live booting Zorin until Oct. I'll just take my my time and see how it goes.
Whatever you do, remember to make backup copies of your personal files, no matter the OS! I always say that when installing fresh gives you the perfect excuse to do some cleanup, keep your files in order, remove unused programs, etc.
I'm late to this discussion, but I've used both Mint with Cinnamon and Zorin as my daily drivers for about a year and half now. Here are some of my takeaways:
Zorin:
Much prettier and cleaner feeling desktop out of the box.
Dark and light themes that adjust according to the time of the day are a huge plus for me with my blue light sensitivity.
I don't know what it's called, but the "controls" that I can easily tap that has a bunch of buttons like Wifi, bluetooth, settings, power off, restart, screen brightness, etc is an awesome feature.
Some keyboard shortcuts set up for Windows users
WINE already installed - though admittedly it works with such few Windows programs it's not a huge plus for me.
Mint Cinnamon
Out of all the distros I've tried, "It just works" seems to be Mint's strongest point when it comes to system stability and getting it to work with hardware accessories. This can't be overstated and is the main reason that Mint with Cinnamon is presently on my work computer.
Speed: not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, but my 1st gen i7 ran almost as fast with Mint Cinnamon as my 10th gen i5 gaming system did with standard Ubuntu. Gnome is just a heavier DE. It's a lot prettier, but the good looks come with a small price in performance.
I don't foresee it ever happening, but I would love to see Zorin come out with a Plasma desktop. It's by far the most Windows 10-like Linux OS out there. If people want something with a much more Win10 feel, I usually point them to Kubuntu. If they're a bit more open, I usually recommend Zorin or Mint with Cinnamon.
Yes, I see you are correct now. I did 17.3 Pro with a minimal install on my kid's tablet the other day and I saw the icon for Windows Apps in the list of apps. Turns out it's just a shortcut to install Wine and Bottles.
Terrific, thanks so much for the comparison, very helpful!
As I stated at the beginning I have Zorin & Cinnamon on live boot usb w/ persistence so I can slowly play with them and do a few simple things like email, internet, etc. So far I like both but Zorin has the look & as you said Cinnamon "just works", but it looks ok too & I could live with it.
The only problems I've run into with Zorin so far is I couldn't get Evolution to sync with outlook.com, so I'm using Thunderbird. I'm not at all familiar with the Wine/Bottles thing and find it a bit confusing, but I'm also not sure it's installed correctly. I'll get back to that later after more reading & videos on how to use it.
As for Cinnamon the only real issue so far was trying to install dropbox and discovering that Rufus formatted the casper-rw partition to ext3 where dropbox requires ext4, at least I think that's it. I'll play with that later.
But now I've got another OS to research, Plasma! Thanks for mentioning that! Seriously, thank you. I've read some positive stuff on it so I'll probably make another live boot usb and play around with it as well.
Just one more Zorin vs Cinnamon question then I promise I'll move on to something else.
I see that Zorin is currently based on an older version of Ubuntu, 22.04, and Cinnamon is based the more current 24.04. I don't really know what that might mean to a basic user like me but some articles I've run across seem to suggest that Zorin might not be as frequently updated or receive as much future development and support as Mint/Cinnamon. Seems like Mint/Cinnamon has a larger presence, more development, support, etc. (i.e., Zorin long term support is into 2027 and Cinnamon is into 2029)
I'm just curious if any current Zorin users have any concerns for it's long term support and development. Will Zoren move up to Ubuntu 24.04, does it really matter or not?
Any comments or questions are appreciated. Thanks.
Linux Mint is a bit newer on the Base - both use Ubuntu as a base.
Mint is using a newer base, but Zorin OS 18 will be using the same Ubuntu 24.04 base once it is released.
Zorin OS is updated as frequently, including any security updates or system performance updates (For example, Zorin OS is using as high a kernel as Ubuntu 24.04 base is.)
None of the above suggests a lack of Future Support. Direct statements from the ZorinGroup clearly outline their future goals and plans as well as saying that they will continue to put forth Zorin OS.
Long term support is supplied by Canonical through Ubuntu LTS. The base determines this length and that length is going to be determined by the base used. Currently, that is until '29, which will change to a later date with each LTS release.
How this can affect the end user: If you need to use packages that demand being updated to a later dependency like python or glibc, this earlier release may be an issue. For the vast majority it is not.
The different Support Time is because of the different Base. Ubuntu 22 gets Support until 2027 and Ubuntu 24 (because it is newer) gets Support until 2029.
And Linux Mint goes a different Way than Zorin with the Desktop. You can install cinnamon on Zotin, too. but this is the LTS supported Version - and so an older Cinnamon Version. Linux Mint directly uses an up-to-date Cinnamon Desktop because the Developers of Linux Mint are the Developer of the Cinnamon Desktop, too. So, they can combine that.
Something similar, you can find from KDE (the developer of the Plasma Desktop). they have a Distro called KDE Neon. Ubuntu LTS Base with an up-to-date Plasma Desktop.
Thanks so much to everyone, Aravisian, Ponce-De-Leon, ditchingwin, zenzen & too many others to mention here. I don't know much about the "kernel vs base" thing, and not sure I need too, other than those are what the os's are based on and they have something to do with when and how updates and revisions are done. But I do think any concerns I might have had about Zorin's capability, future development & support have been pretty much answered, so not much too worry about!
I'm just trying to do as much foot work as I can to pick an OS that's reasonably stable, reliable, supported, works and looks some what like windows to replace W10 on this old laptop. I don't want to go down the OS rabbit hole and burn up a lot of time trying a lot of different os's that I'll never use! So, for the near term I'll stick with Zorin and Cinnamon, Zorin for looks and windows like functionality and Cinnamon because I'm familiar with it and it works. Plasma Neon, maybe later.
Seriously, thank you. I've read some positive stuff on it so I'll probably make another live boot usb and play around with it as well.