Are you thinking of paying for Zorin Ultimate ...?

Having tried several Ubuntu-based distros over the past 10 years I eventually tried Zorin 9 Core and loved it. It seemed to avoid all the glitches I'd had with other distros, and had a desktop that I really like. After using it for a while, and reading about the Zorin brothers, I decided that I'd be willing to make a donation to help keep Zorin maintained and alive. I emailed Artyom Zorin telling him this, and got a nice reply within an hour.

Rather than just send a cash donation, I decided to buy Zorin 9 Ultimate, as I was also interested in what the extra benefits would be. I emailed Artyom again with a couple of questions, but got no response. (e.g. If I pay for Zorin 9 Ultimate now, will I have to pay again to get Zorin 11 Ultimate when it is released later this year?)

According to the Download page, the difference between Core, and the paid-for versions is:
Zorin Business: "Our exclusive Premium software as well as Zorin Premium Installation Support is also included."
Zorin Ultimate: "Our exclusive Premium software as well as Zorin Premium Installation Support is also included."

Not very helpful, but apparently you get "Premium Installation Support" and "exclusive Premium software". I paid for the software, downloaded it, and then used the "Premium Installation Support" page (http://zorinos.com/installationsupport.html) to ask a question about installation: I wanted to know if/how I could keep my existing settings, of if I would have to lose them all in a clean install.

I got no immediate response, so I went ahead and did a clean install, losing all my settings etc.

Over the next few days I spent quite a lot of time not only getting my settings back how I like them, but also uninstalling LOTS of unnecessary extra software that comes with Ultimate, e.g. several different audio players (I only need Rhythmbox), several different video players (I only need VCL), several different CD/DVD rippers and burners (Brasero is just fine for my rare needs), and so on.

I still hadn't had a response to my "Premium Installation Support" question, so I emailed Artyom Zorin again on his personal email address, and this time got a response.

The bottom line:
DON'T expect to get support by paying for "Premium Installation Support"
DO expect to get lots of unwanted Open Source software, all of which is easily and freely available anyway.

When it comes time to upgrade, I'll go for the Core edition.

Hi, I appreciate you have not enjoyed your experience - that is why the forum is here to help. True you can get a lot of the softwares that comes with Ultimate/Premium versions of Zorin, but for a newb it can be difficult to explore and not everything is necessarily available via the Software Centre. Basically, Zorin tailors the distribution to different needs - they no longer provide a gaming version, concentrating on Business and Ultimate as to the two premium versions. Bear in mind that it is easier to uninstall unwanted/needed software than it is to search and install so a Premium version offers stuff that you would not otherwise receive and you also help keep the project alive. As to a lack of response I cannot comment on that, but usually premium support (as offered by other paid for distributions, such as Open SuSE Professional) usually pertains to installation of the distribution and issues pertaining to getting peripheral devices to work and normally lasts for 90 days from date of purchase and is limited to the principal machine it is installed to - the big advantage is that you are not limited to the one machine to install it to - you can install it on as many machines as you like under your control - you just won't get the paid support for 2nd, 3rd and 4th machines etc - that is where the Zorin forum comes in to its own. All the mods have varying degrees of experience and some have specialist knowledge such as madvinegar on wireless and network issues in general.

Software that you won't find in any other distribution are:
Zorin Browser Chooser Manager - choose which Browser you want to install/uninstall
Zorin Background Plus - have a moving backdrop on your desktop using any video file - something similar does exist on Netrunner but it uses the Konqueror DE (Desktop Environment) instead of Gnome which can be a pain to use!
6 different 'looks' available in the 'Look Changer' - again whilst this can be achieved with different applications, to a newb they may break the system they have just installed.

As I have said earlier I cannot speak for Team Zorin, but I am not aware of any paid for GNU/Linux OS that offers support on migration to the next release - that would (potentially?) come at point of purchase of the latest release - but you would need to check with Team Zorin on that point.

This is just where I am coming from - so don't things too much to heart and hope you will stay with Zorin (and the forum).

[UPDATE] When I first responded to this thread I was in my lunch break at work. Just to say that Wolfman has covered the issue of saving settings and how to update to a new version in his Post-installation Guide:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9785

For me I just back up my '/home' folder, remembering to press 'Ctrl+ H' whilst in there to ensure all hidden files are shown which store application settings (all files with '.' prefix). If you want to ensure a full backup of your system then I highly recommend 'redobackup' - it is superb - and free - this creates an image of your entire installation to external drive or other media:

http://redobackup.org

I paid for Zorin 9 LTS not for the support but out of respect for the project, I'd been using windows since the mid 90's but one day my PSU blew and took my hard drive with it, i have friends who are Linux geeks and one of them recommended I try Zorin so I figured I'd give I'd give it a go, i think I started using it (and Linux) around June 2014, the first couple of months I was re-installing what felt like every week In Aug 2014 I bought the Premium version and now I can't wait till Zorin 12 comes out Ubuntu 16.04 ETA is 21st April and to be honest I can't wait I'll happily shell out 10 Euros for only the second OS I've ever paid (Sorry Bill ) for.

For anyone just starting with Zorin (or any Ubuntu/Linux) these little things saved me multiple times:-

1, You have a problem? you need support? so for me I learned that Zorin 9 is based on Ubuntu 14.04 so I simply search my issue in relation to Ubuntu and not Zorin, 99.9% of my issues have been directly resolved with the resulting Ubuntu fixes.

2, Configure Backup in System settings and read up on it it's not that complicated and it's saved my a** a good few times.

3, Install and configure Timeshift this lil beauty restores system files, I've suffered a sweet lil NVidia bug where I get tearing in video playback and I'm constantly fiddling with it trying to resolve it and occasionally it goes horribly wrong, the last time was last week and I'd read about un-installing and reinstalling X-Org, all well and good as long as you don't get missing dependencies on the reinstall, so I really was screwed, so imagine my surprise when I managed to run Timeshift from the command line and restore all my system settings from the day before.

4, Install RSyslog (and add a few other logs from /var/log) to it as well -

I'm still a complete Linux n00b, I don't understand a quarter of what I'm doing (and I can do windows standing on my head blindfolded) but I haven't had to reinstall from around December 2014 and I sure as hell won't be going back to windows any time soon.

Hello, I'm probably in the wrong section as this is my very first hour using Zorin and if I impose, I'm sorry...
Today, I came into work and found all of our Windows computers were frozen.... Again!! Now, We're a small company that I started with nothing more than the 2 grand that I had in the bank. I found that finding a job was hard because I'm pushing 50 and everyone out there wanted a young person to work so they could work them part time and not have to pay benefits so, I emptied the bank and took a chance and opened my small business. Luckily, We're pushing our 5th year and even though things are still month to month we're going to make it.

We really don't have a lot of spare money however I realized that we needed some good computers. I saved and bought a couple for our office. Since then, We've invested in all the spyware and antivirus that was needed. Then, not to long ago we got a annoying popup to upgrade to Windows 10. We did it and let me tell you, What a mistake. Since then, We've had nothing but problems.
My wife called Best Buy and had the Geek Squad come out, We've replaced hard drives, Ram Processors, a motherboard and this time he said it has to be the cables or power supply. I'll tell you, This guy just milked me dry! Luckily, I saved all the parts and I bought a new case from Fry's Electronics. Amazing! I now have another computer that I wanted to put in our little office. ( My Garage)

This morning I came in and the computers all updated and we're froze with a phone number to call. I got on my laptop and Googled it and it's a thing called Ransomware. Pathetic!! So, I called and woke up one of the guys who works with us and he told me to go to Linux Mint. I took a look at it and I just wasn't quite happy with it. I had my wife try it one one of the computers and she said it was going to be a task but, She thought she could learn it. I then, had her try Zorin and she took right to it!! Only a few minutes and everything's coming together smoothly.

As of this morning, I'm transferring my entire little business over to Zorin. Currently, I'm on Zorin OS 9 lite but, I'm REALLY interested in the business edition. I sure wish I knew what was in it. I saw the Ultimate Edition review from Mathew Moore on YouTube and I think it just has more than we need.

Not including the 2 main computers, we have a Dell Dimension 8300, a Dell Dimension e521 both are stock with the exception of hard drive and ram upgrades. ( these are the computers that the guys who work with us use at the office) We also use a Dell Latitude Cp, C610 and a c840 for out in the field. ( We use these because for some reason, no one will steal them)

Once I return to the office later this afternoon, I will be trying to install Zorin to them. I'm thinking OS9 Lite for the field, OS 9 Core for the guys' computers and like I said before, If I could find out more about the business edition, I would like to put that on the main computers. Then, I'm going to start in on my kids computers.... Think that will work??

I'm tired of the Windows c***!! My wife will have to spend hours replacing all of the information that we have on our customers. Luckily, The company that built our software told me that all of our programs will work with any Linux Distro. so, we're still really familiar with what we use.

Hello Zorin!!!
If someone could tell me about the Business edition, I would appreciate it! I'm ready to purchase it now.
[email address removed to prevent spam]

Hi many apologies for late acceptance of your first post - I have been having issues spotting new posts which normally show up independently of the Mod Control Panel. I cannot comment on the Business Edition - you need to PM AZorin or zorink for that information or email them via the main Zorin website: http://zorinos.com/contacts.html

Please be advised that you only need to buy one copy of Zorin Business Edition but bear in mind that you only get support for the first machine you install it on - Basically I would give it a whirl and then if things look OK, run wit it!

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