1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18 • Hacker News Board

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#211

Post by WD-42 » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 3:20 AM UTC

cons0le wrote: post #113

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 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…

I feel this even in the edutainment system of my car. It’s one year old. Actual 1-2 second delays per key just to type in an address in the map. wtf is wrong with the industry now.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#212

Post by 7thaccount » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 3:24 AM UTC

rmunn wrote: post #194

FridayoLeary wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going to paste a recent rant of mine about windows ux. The thread sank so i don't think anyone saw it and i don't want to write a new comment discussing things i hate about windows. >It's worth pointing out what a hideous cludge lots of Win10 ui is. I remember some ui expert complaining how there are half a dozen (maybe more, i don't remember) completely different ui interfaces. The most prominent ones of course is t…

The start menu is one of the first things I used to fix on a brand-new Win10 install: start removing all those useless/annoying tiles until I have nothing left but a list of programs. (On Win11, the first thing I fix is to move the toolbar back to left-justified instead of centered; then I fix the start menu tiles). But I do wish graphics designers would learn to leave well enough alone. People don't want their UI to…

The Windows 95 left tile was basically perfect. A lot of Linux distros have something similar. It allows you to quickly survey the useful programs. There is no further perfection.

A close second in my book was the PlayStation 3 User Interface. Gloriously intuitive. PlayStation 4 and the new XBox are god awful. I can't wait to buy a Steam Machine and never have to search for my freaking game again like on the XBox monstrosity that has all kinds of crapware on it. Is frustrating your users good for business?

Windows 8 and the Ubuntu of around that time both had absolutely bonkers interfaces. Is it better for a phone? Sure....but I'm not using a phone. Windows 8 was so bad I honestly can't believe it wasn't blocked by upper management. It made all the previous customer/user knowledge worthless. I literally had to memorize all these Window Key + letter commands just to shut down the computer and find the My Documents.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#213

Post by rmunn » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 3:43 AM UTC

FridayoLeary wrote: post #201

rmunn wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The start menu is one of the first things I used to fix on a brand-new Win10 install: start removing all those useless/annoying tiles until I have nothing left but a list of programs. (On Win11, the first thing I fix is to move the toolbar back to left-justified instead of centered; then I fix the start menu tiles). But I do wish graphics designers would learn to leave well enough alone. People don't want their UI to…

I hung onto win7 till the last possible moment. I don't really miss it but it was a lot more cohesive then 10. Thinking about it i'm increasingly convinced the guys in charge of the taskbar were not on speaking terms with anyone else at Windows and the control panel team all retired or left 6 months before the people designing the settings app arrived. Just so that you don't accuse me of looking through rose tinted l…

I remember it being called "Windows FP" where FP stood for Fischer-Price (maker of colorful plastic toys for babies and toddlers) at the time. Lots of people hated the design of XP after using Win98/2000. I got used to it, but much preferred 7 when it came out. There's a reason why Linux Mint's UI is modeled more or less after the style of Windows 7, not XP or 10.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#214

Post by thot_experiment » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 4:54 AM UTC

javier2 wrote: post #161

makeitdouble wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Secure Enclave is actually a real dedicated innovation and everything Apple built around this secure box. And the real innovation is not even the technology, but being focused over a decade to design all products to work without making a backdoor. That cant have been easy over so many years

I don't consider work done to prevent me having complete control of my own hardware to be a positive development. In fact it's one of the worst things they could spend their time on (from a long term global optimum perspective).

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#215

Post by AlotOfReading » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 5:09 AM UTC

makeitdouble wrote: post #209

fragmede wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in which specific industry, for which specific product feature? Google Workspace has largely taken over my bubble, I know there's a world outside my bubble, but for me, Google docs > whatever Microsoft Word is now. O365?

I assume you're responding to the commercial alternatives to Microsoft ? I was thinking about the OS layer. My understanding is that hardware makers want to discharge responsibility of the OS on other entities, and ideally wouldn't even want to write drivers if they could avoid it. Having a partner you can enter a contract to provide an OS and maintain it for however long is needed is IMHO a huge deal they don't get…

There's a boatload of Linux contractors who will do the technical work for you and maintain it for as long as you want, at the right price. That includes fairly large names like Suse. As far as I'm aware, all of those contractors focus on the embedded Linux market because consumer OEMs simply aren't asking for those services. The major OEMs don't have either the margin or the consumer demand for it, and they're not willing to commit the resources to escape that local minimum.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#216

Post by oarsinsync » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 5:59 AM UTC

oAlbe wrote: post #89

oarsinsync wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out the Debian website. Slicker than it used to be. Still not slick.

I mean, ignoring the fact that it's one example versus a list of examples I posted, I still don't think Debian website is that bad. I remember how it used to be, when it had a link to get the CDs with the distro and the option of getting all the packages in the package manager repository. Debian evolved like everybody else. To me, and of course this is personal, Debian website looks pretty professional in an enterpri…

> ignoring the fact that it's one example versus a list of examples I posted

It’s the root example, of which many of the examples of your list are derived from. Debian is the daddy.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#217

Post by globular-toast » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 6:46 AM UTC

As someone who refused to "upgrade" to Vista 15+ years ago and has been using GNU/Linux ever since I'm absolutely amazed by people's tolerance. What took you people so long? I've had 15 years of freedom and joy. But I'm glad more people are finally seeing the light.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#218

Post by DANmode » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 6:47 AM UTC

mips_avatar wrote: post #88

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 think the toughest thing for me has been watching my former coworkers on Windows transform from technology loving builders into depressed cynics. Like these were some of the most brilliant people I knew and now they struggle to get out of bed.

This may be reversed correlation.

People I’ve known with deteriorating health lost their interest in tech beyond familiar point A to point B.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#219

Post by pacifika » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 7:20 AM UTC

nehal3m wrote: post #76

casey2 wrote: post #66

One thing that's important but rarely mentioned in discussions like these is how many Windows users even have experience working on unix systems these days? I feel like they are in for a rude awakening if they assume every OS is like windows

If all you do is start a browser and maybe an e-mail client then for the majority of users it will be like Windows.

Sad if that is really the outcome of decades of computing.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#220

Post by netsharc » Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 7:26 AM UTC

more_corn wrote: post #29

netsharc wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ironic.. Stay on Windows 10 and risk getting your data stolen through unpatched exploits, or throw away your perfectly good computer and contribute to the climate disaster, get Windows 11, and lose sovereignty over your data to Microsoft...