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1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

blog.zorin.com

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Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#21

Post by GaryBluto »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #18
bee_rider wrote: post #5

They have a very slick and professional looking webpage. Is it weird that that makes me wary? I’m used to the best distros having webpages that look like a wiki or a professor’s website.

You can so easily vibe code a landing page that these days still having a bad landing page suggests you really don’t care about the details, and that’s a bad sign. It’s a brochure website.

Who decides what a "bad" landing page is?

I'd argue many older and more simplistic landing pages look way better than their current equivalents.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#22

Post by gregoryl »

XorNot wrote: post #19
sph wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably like MX Linux, which has, for some reason, topped the Distrowatch popularity list for years in front of Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, Debian. Strangely enough, CachyOS seems to have adopted the same strategy and it's now first place on that site. I've been using Linux since 2001, and I honestly I find it funny how these niche flashy distros are popular with the new generations. Probably because newbies follow…

The problem is Gnome have really committed themselves to screwing up UI paradigms. I'd be much less happy with Linux if Cinnamon DE didn't exist because that's essentially a Windows like experience without the BS. Conversely the default Gnome desktop is awful IMO. Taskbar, start button and menus all have decades of proven effectiveness, no one needed to mess with them just get the details right (e.g. fonts and intera…

It took me a week or so to get used to Gnome, and now I find Windows 11 (and KDE) frustrating!

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#23

Post by JoshTriplett »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #18
bee_rider wrote: post #5

They have a very slick and professional looking webpage. Is it weird that that makes me wary? I’m used to the best distros having webpages that look like a wiki or a professor’s website.

You can so easily vibe code a landing page that these days still having a bad landing page suggests you really don’t care about the details, and that’s a bad sign. It’s a brochure website.

> You can so easily vibe code a landing page that these days still having a bad landing page suggests you really don’t care about the details, and that’s a bad sign.

"Looks like a wiki or a professors web page" is not "bad landing page", it's "aesthetic that is not the mainstream aesthetic". We're not talking about "things don't line up", we're talking about functional.

And frankly, if I see that someone pointedly doesn't vibe-code their landing page, that's a good sign that they're not phoning in the rest of the work, too.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#24

Post by constantcrying »

If people stopped creating weird spinoff distros, which offer zero value except for a preconfigured Desktop, the entire Linux Desktop ecosystem would be in a far better place.

These distros focus on aesthetics choice, but underneath they are always plagued by the same things, tiny maintainer teams completely overwhelmed with the task of managing a distribution. Leading to a great first impression, but an inevitable breakdown in usability.

Every single person would be better served by Kubuntu than Zorin. Simply because Kubuntu has far superior backing behind it.

There are hundreds of these weird distros, targeting different audiences and they are all terrible, because none of them have the actual capabilities of maintaining their distro.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#25

Post by more_corn »

bee_rider wrote: post #5

They have a very slick and professional looking webpage. Is it weird that that makes me wary? I’m used to the best distros having webpages that look like a wiki or a professor’s website.

I’m used to Linux having a user experience that looks like a wiki or a professor’s website.

At this point Linux is stable and works and is reliable. It just usually looks jankey.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the zorin desktop experience reminded me of a professional OS.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#26

Post by baal80spam »

sph wrote: post #12
christophilus wrote: post #4

Why Zorin? It’s always struck me as a weird distro. I can’t put my finger on why, but it feels off. I wonder how much of a bump other distros have seen in the same period.

Probably like MX Linux, which has, for some reason, topped the Distrowatch popularity list for years in front of Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, Debian. Strangely enough, CachyOS seems to have adopted the same strategy and it's now first place on that site. I've been using Linux since 2001, and I honestly I find it funny how these niche flashy distros are popular with the new generations. Probably because newbies follow…

> Rock-solid distros like Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora don't have that "cool" factor so noobs don't even consider them

Isn't Ubuntu the first thing a "noob" thinks of when they hear the word "Linux"?

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#27

Post by arzig »

tormeh wrote: post #17
cosmic_cheese wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Distros like Debian and Ubuntu also suffer from issues with compatibility with newer hardware due to their older kernels. This is part of why distros based on Fedora and Fedora Atomic (such as Nobara and Bazzite, respectively) have seen popularity.

Also, gamers at least want the latest drivers. Not the ones from three weeks ago. The latest ones. That's why everyone is recommending Arch-based distros for that purpose. I'm currently on Pop, and waiting months for Mesa updates is no fun.

I find Fedora hits a nice sweet spot between compatibility/updates and random breakage, especially since they backport KDE versions along with kernels.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#28

Post by shevy-java »

It seems as if Microsoft really put the gun to many people. Many things they don't want in Win11 yet Microsoft does not listen.

Hopefully that will last - Microsoft has caused more than enough damage at this point in time. Quality-wise I feel the new Win-releases are progressively getting worse, less and less caring what users may want.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#29

Post by more_corn »

netsharc wrote: post #9
christophilus wrote: post #4

Why Zorin? It’s always struck me as a weird distro. I can’t put my finger on why, but it feels off. I wonder how much of a bump other distros have seen in the same period.

The marketing of it as "looks and feels like Windows 11!" is probably the biggest hook, if one can assume the majority of the 780k are non-powerusers who are wary about the end of Windows 10's support, and getting pwned on the Internet...

Microsoft is forcing win 11 updates with a bunch of AI features nobody asks for or wants.

The new features render millions of windows machines unable to run the new version leaving them ripe for for an upgrade to Linux.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#30

Post by shevy-java »

bee_rider wrote: post #5

They have a very slick and professional looking webpage. Is it weird that that makes me wary? I’m used to the best distros having webpages that look like a wiki or a professor’s website.

May be an age problem. Slackware has a homepage stuck in the 1990s.
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