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Old Zorin Forum archive → Chat about Zorin OS

How you came to know about Zorin

rootadmin

Fri Oct 21, 2016 5:01:26 am

HI, everyone I am new to this site. I came to know about Zorin after reading a blog frrom PC world
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2458046/ ... ndows.html

This one is really amazing, Hope this kind of Open distributions can lead tech world to a better place( I hate windows and use only at my office ).
I like to know the way you guys came to know about Zorin.

Swarfendor437

Fri Oct 21, 2016 11:42:49 am

Just by chance by searching for distributions that help Windows users migrate - following the demise of Linspire/Freespire. ZorinOS 4 was the first release I dual-booted with. :D

star treker

Wed Oct 26, 2016 4:31:46 pm

My Windows 7 install became corrupt and unstable after 4 years. I had Windows 7 on a USB stick, but the stupid installation couldn't continue due to some crazy driver issue that somehow a modern day OS didn't have. And no matter how much I tried, I couldn't find the magic driver that Win7 needed to get past the error. And there was absolutely no way that I was going to install Windows 10 on my computer, so I started looking for alternatives. I started with MAC's when I was in school, but graduated at the time that system X came out. And I have been using windows ever since Win 3.1, ya I know I'm old lol. So I obviously wanted an OS that was as close to Windows 7 as possible and I found Zorin. Truth is, I've used passed distrobutions of Linux before 2010 and they were completely useless to me, hated them. So its a breath of fresh air that Zorin was created. There is room for improvement for sure in OS 9, but I feel that version 12 will have such improvements to make Zorin even better. :)

masoncartwright

Mon Nov 21, 2016 7:51:41 pm

Hi all from a newcomer,

Apart from using Mac OS at school I have really only used MS Windows OS. However when both my Windows 7 machines coincidentally developed a unrepairable windows update failure at precisely the same time as I was being hounded to install Windows 10, I decided Microsoft and I should part company.

After looking around I discovered that Zorin was recommended as a first step into the world of Linux for those who had come from the windows 7 environment. I managed to download and install Zorin 12 to my machine fairly easily although I had to replace etcher with UUI as it kept generating an unmount error at the end.

So far I am doing ok with zorin and like the feel of it and am looking forward to learning about Linux as I go.

One of the first things I am not sure about is whether you can use software that is compatible with Ubuntu 16.04 but doesn't specifically state a compatibility with Zorin, such as Comodo for Linux? I'm not brave enough to just download and hope :)

masoncartwright

Wed Nov 23, 2016 9:11:00 pm

Hi,

I am new to this forum and only recently installed Zorin 12 after reading about it online. Hopefully I will have some interesting discussions on here as I am new to Linux but am looking forward to learning as I go.

star treker

Sat Nov 26, 2016 1:43:57 am

In my experience with Zorin for over 2 months now, since Zorin is based off of the Ubuntu system, any software written for Ubuntu will generally work with Zorin. For example, I used the Synaptic Package Manager to download and install K3B which is a disk burning software, and Hard Info, which is a system information tool, and both work perfectly. Now keep in mind that in the new OS 12, Synaptic Package Manager doesn't come installed so you have to install that from the software center, just put the word Synaptic in the search box and it will find it.

In my experience, Synaptic actually has access to more software, and I think it does a better job of installing the software. I say this because some software has special prerequisites, and Synaptic knows of this and makes sure they get installed. I made the mistake of installing Hard Info using the software center the first time and it didn't install the prerequisites, which caused the app to malfunction. When I installed via Synaptic, everything went fine. Swarf is a very knowledgeable linux dude, so he can help address any issues you run into.

Swarfendor437

Sat Nov 26, 2016 10:07:21 am

star treker wrote:In my experience with Zorin for over 2 months now, since Zorin is based off of the Ubuntu system, any software written for Ubuntu will generally work with Zorin. For example, I used the Synaptic Package Manager to download and install K3B which is a disk burning software, and Hard Info, which is a system information tool, and both work perfectly. Now keep in mind that in the new OS 12, Synaptic Package Manager doesn't come installed so you have to install that from the software center, just put the word Synaptic in the search box and it will find it.

In my experience, Synaptic actually has access to more software, and I think it does a better job of installing the software. I say this because some software has special prerequisites, and Synaptic knows of this and makes sure they get installed. I made the mistake of installing Hard Info using the software center the first time and it didn't install the prerequisites, which caused the app to malfunction. When I installed via Synaptic, everything went fine. Swarf is a very knowledgeable linux dude, so he can help address any issues you run into.


Hi, if you want to find out additional info about your system there is also 'Details' in Settings. Also look for 'Disks' which gives a wealth of info on your Hard Drive/s. As for installing packages other than from the repository via Synaptic you would do well to install Gdebi Package Manager. Just open a terminal (Ctrl+ Alt+T) and enter:

Code:
sudo apt install gdebi


Launch Gdebi and File | Open and browse or right-click the .deb package and from the options select 'Open with... Gdebi'. The great thing about Gdebi is it will report back instantly if dependencies are missing and will tell you what libraries are missing. :D

masoncartwright

Sat Nov 26, 2016 1:35:47 pm

star treker wrote:In my experience with Zorin for over 2 months now, since Zorin is based off of the Ubuntu system, any software written for Ubuntu will generally work with Zorin. For example, I used the Synaptic Package Manager to download and install K3B which is a disk burning software, and Hard Info, which is a system information tool, and both work perfectly. Now keep in mind that in the new OS 12, Synaptic Package Manager doesn't come installed so you have to install that from the software center, just put the word Synaptic in the search box and it will find it.

In my experience, Synaptic actually has access to more software, and I think it does a better job of installing the software. I say this because some software has special prerequisites, and Synaptic knows of this and makes sure they get installed. I made the mistake of installing Hard Info using the software center the first time and it didn't install the prerequisites, which caused the app to malfunction. When I installed via Synaptic, everything went fine. Swarf is a very knowledgeable linux dude, so he can help address any issues you run into.


Thanks for the info on compatibility Star treker and for pointing me towards Synaptic which I'll download this weekend hopefully. I'll have a go trying some Ubuntu compatible software I'm eyeing up and let you know how it goes :)

masoncartwright

Sat Nov 26, 2016 1:45:37 pm

Swarfendor437 wrote:
star treker wrote:In my experience with Zorin for over 2 months now, since Zorin is based off of the Ubuntu system, any software written for Ubuntu will generally work with Zorin. For example, I used the Synaptic Package Manager to download and install K3B which is a disk burning software, and Hard Info, which is a system information tool, and both work perfectly. Now keep in mind that in the new OS 12, Synaptic Package Manager doesn't come installed so you have to install that from the software center, just put the word Synaptic in the search box and it will find it.

In my experience, Synaptic actually has access to more software, and I think it does a better job of installing the software. I say this because some software has special prerequisites, and Synaptic knows of this and makes sure they get installed. I made the mistake of installing Hard Info using the software center the first time and it didn't install the prerequisites, which caused the app to malfunction. When I installed via Synaptic, everything went fine. Swarf is a very knowledgeable linux dude, so he can help address any issues you run into.


Hi, if you want to find out additional info about your system there is also 'Details' in Settings. Also look for 'Disks' which gives a wealth of info on your Hard Drive/s. As for installing packages other than from the repository via Synaptic you would do well to install Gdebi Package Manager. Just open a terminal (Ctrl+ Alt+T) and enter:

Code:
sudo apt install gdebi


Launch Gdebi and File | Open and browse or right-click the .deb package and from the options select 'Open with... Gdebi'. The great thing about Gdebi is it will report back instantly if dependencies are missing and will tell you what libraries are missing. :D


Thanks for helping with my question. I'll have a play around with Gdebi as well, as I like that it notifies in the way you described. That seems to be a pretty useful function for installing software that isn't specifically tagged as Zorin compatible. Cheers :)