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1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

blog.zorin.com

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Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#41

Post by constantcrying »

more_corn wrote: post #35
constantcrying wrote: post #24

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 b…

This opinion is what’s holding Linux back. Having a clean and pleasant user experience on top of a stable Debian based distributed is the goal.

Exactly, you do that by installing Debian with KDE. Not by creating a new distro, which you do not have the resources to properly maintain, which is then perpetually broken in weird ways, which no user can figure out since the base distribution does not have the problems the completely understaffed maintainers introduced.

What all of these distros want to be is a basic configuration script. What they are is a nightmare for every user, since the user is now in the hands of a few people, who as a hobby are maintaining his OS and occasionally will break it.

It is so bizarre that so many people want to make distros, when they are completely unequipped up do so.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#42

Post by omnimus »

GaryBluto wrote: post #20
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 think a project's web page design conveys a lot about the philosophies of the project itself. My first thought when the page loaded was "Chinese knockoff of Windows 11" - it looks like a product. Update: It is a product. To get themes/configurations more palatable to former Windows and Mac users, you need to pay $48 https://zorin.com/os/pro/

Unfortunately for microsoft it looks better than windows.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#43

Post by ac29 »

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.

Zorin OS' main pitch is the design work they put into it to make it look like Windows or macOS. As far as I can tell they wrote zero new software (the taskbar is a forked GNOME extension, and the Zorin Connect app is a forked KDE Connect).

So, its not surprising they made an effort to make a nice looking webpage, design work is basically the only thing they are doing.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#44

Post by constantcrying »

garganzol wrote: post #40
constantcrying wrote: post #24

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 b…

A distro working out-of-the-box for a certain user group is not a weird spinoff. Some people love to economize time; a distro that takes care of exactly that is a good deal.

None of these distros economize time. This is not Debian/Arch/Ubuntu with some preconfiguration. Every single user of these distros is in the hands of a tiny number of developers who mostly work on this as a hobby. Things are going to break and they will break in ways nobody will know why, since the base distro does not have these problems.

There is a very good reason why the Arch forums do want reports from arch derivatives, because they are all inevitably broken by their tiny maintainer teams.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#45

Post by aniviacat »

constantcrying wrote: post #24

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 b…

I don't get why major distros like Kubuntu don't just add a nice looking default theme.

("nice looking" by the standards of the vast majority of people, not some small group of hackers to whom Windows 95 was the pinnacle of design.)

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#46

Post by GaryBluto »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #8
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.

More than other distros, Zorin markets (and has marketed) itself as Windows-like, which probably elevates it in search rankings and LLM queries for people looking for a distro that more closely mirrors what they’re familiar with. People really, really want a “Windows, but just the good parts” with as little deviation and required learning as possible in terms of desktop experience. A distro with a DE that nearly perf…

> A distro with a DE that nearly perfectly replicates “greatest hits” Windows versions (2K/XP/7/10) would probably be doing serious numbers right now if it existed.

Funnily enough Zorin used to offer this.

http://web.archive.org/web/2012fw_/zorin-os.com

"Zorin Look Changer" used to "let you select from Windows 7, XP, Vista, Ubuntu Unity, Mac OS X or GNOME 2" themes, whilst newer versions want you to pay nearly $50 for the privilege (although they have significantly reduced their offerings, with their "Windows Classic" theme just being their "Windows-list like" theme with a slightly different start menu).

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#47

Post by WD-42 »

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…

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.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#49

Post by trelane »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #8
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.

More than other distros, Zorin markets (and has marketed) itself as Windows-like, which probably elevates it in search rankings and LLM queries for people looking for a distro that more closely mirrors what they’re familiar with. People really, really want a “Windows, but just the good parts” with as little deviation and required learning as possible in terms of desktop experience. A distro with a DE that nearly perf…

So... modern Lindows?

Hopefully it goes better for them than it went for Lindows. Though at least the name isn't lawsuit bait.

Re: 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18

#50

Post by tvb12 »

constantcrying wrote: post #41
more_corn wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This opinion is what’s holding Linux back. Having a clean and pleasant user experience on top of a stable Debian based distributed is the goal.

Exactly, you do that by installing Debian with KDE. Not by creating a new distro, which you do not have the resources to properly maintain, which is then perpetually broken in weird ways, which no user can figure out since the base distribution does not have the problems the completely understaffed maintainers introduced. What all of these distros want to be is a basic configuration script. What they are is a nightma…

It would be a really huge advantage if there were a really clean way to browse, apply, and (extremely importantly) reverse and remove such a configuration script. I've tried using KDE's customization options to tweak my desktop, and what I found is that I'm very capable of creating the worst desktop I've ever used.
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