1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18 • Hacker News Board

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#171

Post by andrekandre » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 12:55 AM UTC

wartywhoa23 wrote: post #127

I've been using Ubuntu for 3 years now, and now that I'm about to upgrade my 13 y.o. laptop, there's a dilemma for me between choosing some top(ish)-spec x86_64 laptop or macbook pro M4. The former just keeps me going with Ubuntu, but forces to still dual-boot Windows for some creative software I use that Ubuntu lacks (a certain DAW and a CAD modeller). The latter gives me an awesome (or so it seems) OS that is much…

  > I'd like to ask people who had been using both Ubuntu and MacOS, what would you advise? And MacOS users in particular, are you happy with the direction it has been evolving, and with that of Apple itself?

macos out-of-the-box experience is gonna be much better and smoother and more consistent than ubuntu for sure, and you get both unix environment and most desktop software (check first of course) that windows has too...

that being said, personally i am not so happy with apple's direction either, which is sliding (much much more slowly than windows) in the direction of buggy software updates, worse overall ux and more and more marketing driven changes...

i really like ubuntu and kde (kubuntu) and i feel like at some point the ux polish of it and the "de-polishing" of macos at some point will converge where i'd just install linux alongside macos and not miss much (but there are lots of reverse engineering issues remaining)...

so my idea is to stay on macos for while more while figuring out how to plug holes (such as smoother iphone integration) and getting more accustomed to kde/linux/ununtu before fully jumping ship...

idk if that is super helpful, but its where im at now in my thinking.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#172

Post by Nition » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 12:55 AM UTC

javier2 wrote: post #169

Someone1234 wrote: post #60

I've been a Windows user since 3.1; and I've even defended Microsoft in the past (particularly when they made unpopular choices, but for technically correct reasons, like UAC or forcing vendors to rewrite their drivers into userland or using a safer driver model). BUT, I won't defend Windows 11 and Microsoft's general direction. I feel like there has been a slow cultural shift within Microsoft, from a core of fantast…

I have mostly kept to linux and macos since 2008, so I was shocked when I could still find the old XP style control panels in windows when I tried it a little about 2 years ago

The worst part is, there are now two control panels (the other is called "Settings"). Some settings are in both, while others are only in one or the other.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#173

Post by ab_testing » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 1:06 AM UTC

Apart from the UI layer, is there anything else that differentiates Zorin from Ubuntu or even Debian.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#174

Post by yeasku » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 1:21 AM UTC

Nition wrote: post #172

javier2 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have mostly kept to linux and macos since 2008, so I was shocked when I could still find the old XP style control panels in windows when I tried it a little about 2 years ago

The worst part is, there are now two control panels (the other is called "Settings"). Some settings are in both, while others are only in one or the other.

I bet nobody knew/wanted to touch that code.

So they just wrote something worse with less features in React.

Peak web development.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#175

Post by m3kw9 » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 1:23 AM UTC

So copying apple works. OS 18 with mountains in the background. I think this is why Apple pulled a 26.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#176

Post by mixmastamyk » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 1:25 AM UTC

mathnode wrote: post #155

jackvalentine wrote: post #73

I’m looking for a replacement OS for my mother in law whose computer is aging out of Windows 10 support. I’m glad to see slick distributions like this trying to fill that gap. That said her requirements are _so_ simple that Debian with Chromium would probably satisfy 100% of her requirements which are ‘download documents from gmail and print them’.

A chromebook or an ipad with a keyboard. Don’t over complicate it for her or anyone else. Give them something that makes what they know even easier, and also open up new avenues without having to learn a lot. Ubuntu if it’s just an os replacement. She doesn’t know or care what debian or chromium is.

Snaps make Chromium worse than if on Debian or Mint.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#177

Post by larntz » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 1:27 AM UTC

Anyone remember Lycoris? https://deadlinux.fandom.com/wiki/Lycoris

I never used it and had to look it up, but this post reminds of it. I think they might've charged for it also.

Here's a review thread from 2002 slashdot... https://linux.slashdot.org/story/02/03/18/1916248/lycoris-de....

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#178

Post by nehal3m » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 1:31 AM UTC

makeitdouble wrote: post #158

Someone1234 wrote: post #60

I've been a Windows user since 3.1; and I've even defended Microsoft in the past (particularly when they made unpopular choices, but for technically correct reasons, like UAC or forcing vendors to rewrite their drivers into userland or using a safer driver model). BUT, I won't defend Windows 11 and Microsoft's general direction. I feel like there has been a slow cultural shift within Microsoft, from a core of fantast…

> from a core of fantastic engineers surrounding by marketing/sales, to the org's direction being set by marketing/sales UX be damned. > MacOS I think macos is on the same path. Apple refined the MacBook formula to a perfection and the hardware division made the best of it. But outside of the processor, what is the last significant leap forward that involved brilliant engineers that you can think of ? One could argue…

I take your point, but the audio engineering on the laptop and tablet offerings of the past 5 years is mind blowing.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#179

Post by XorNot » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 1:36 AM UTC

WD-42 wrote: post #47

XorNot wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You know what is proven effective? Not needing to reach for a mouse to interact with taskbar, start button and menus. GNOME is extremely effective as long as you aren't a clicker. If you want to stick to a 30 year old desktop metaphor that's on you but the rest of us have moved on.

Discoverable user interfaces are orthogonal to keyboard interaction efficiency.

Menus are one of the primary ways you can discover keyboard shortcuts.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#180

Post by GeekyBear » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 1:36 AM UTC

intrasight wrote: post #125

cons0le wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fired up my 10yrs old windows 7 PC for the first time in forever and was appalled at how snappy and quick the OS was compared to my same spec win10 PC. As a career primarily-microsoft-shop engineer I'm done with windows for personal use. I'll never forgive the for wasting everyones time with this garbage. Meanwhile I constantly find bugs from before 2002 that are still in windows10. Windows honestly made me slowly…

Windows 7 was peak windows

Windows 2000 was the last version where Dave Cutler ran the whole show.

There are certainly features in later versions I wouldn't want to live without, but the decay began when he was moved to other products.