Zorin OS Core 15.3 revisited

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crosscourt
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Zorin OS Core 15.3 revisited

Post by crosscourt »

I reinstalled Zorin last night versus my previous installs that were upgrades from Zorin 15. The upgrades worked well but had a few minor issues but that wasnt the case with the fresh install of !5.3. Its still based on Ubuntu 18.04(5.4 kernel) with Zorin 16 on the way this year.
Its still a very polished OS that is very suitable for Windows users looking to move to Linux. It has the ability to mimic a number of Windows versions if you so desire but its default look is already pretty close.
Didnt have to install too many apps as it already included a decent assortment. Had no issues with hardware at all, wifi/printer were fine and auto detected. Firefox is included and Evolution is used for email but I opted for Thunderbird and added Chromium. I also added psensor,htop,hardinfo,bleachbit and synaptic. Synaptic isnt installed by default but the software store is pretty good and does a nice job of adding apps, so synaptic was added up front. Great selection of wallpapers and all settings are easy to find and use. Your favorite apps are set in the quick launch panel at the bottom left.
Resource usage with default settings after reboot was 1.17gb which for a custom Gnome desktop is actually good. I installed it on my Dell E6420 14inch laptop with i5 2.3ghz, 8gb ram, 128gb SSD and it flew, very fast feel to it, no loading issues at all. It uses Calamares for the install so no issues and I added codecs, updates and third party drivers while installing. It took about 10 minutes and syetm then added some additional updates at GUI. I switched to a dark theme, adjusted the size of the panel,set up my favorite apps, adjusted the resolution as Ive got older eyes and that was it.
It supports touch features and is very laptop friendly as it works great with my dock and doesnt require me to open the laptop to reset to the external monitor, it does it by itself.
They also offer a Lite version based on XFCE which you may want to look at if you need a lighter OS for your hardware. I have not tested the most recent version but I have used the 15 version and there were very few issues.
For the average everyday user this is an excellent distro that offers a smooth experience allowing for an efficient work flow.
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crosscourt
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Re: Zorin OS Core 15.3 revisited

Post by crosscourt »

I decided to retest Zorin OS 15.3 after a number of my non-profit clients had requested using it and seem to really enjoy it. My experience has been pretty much the same, particularly with hardware support as its the most spot on of any distro Ive used this year.
I added Gnome tweaks but ended up not using it as the overall setup of Zorin frankly is fine the way it is.
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Re: Zorin OS Core 15.3 revisited

Post by crosscourt »

As much as I like Feren OS KDE Ive begun using Zorin as my everyday Linux distro on my alternate hardware. Most of what I do requires Win10 but for everything else Zorin has been the best choice.
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