star treker
Sun Dec 04, 2016 12:04:12 pm
It really takes a couple of weeks to get used to a new OS, and see what new features are available. Regarding networking file transfers, as I mentioned in my previous thread, a pie shaped icon shows up at the top of the gnome shell page, and if you click on that while a transfer is in progress, you can get a more detailed dialog popup that also shows the speed of the transfer, as well as the progress. And speaking of networking, as long as your on a gigabit network as I am, wow Zorin is really fast at file transfers! 
I have also found that Zorin is really good at monitoring life of all batteries connected to the system. Not only does Zorin accurately show the battery level of my notebook itself, but I was really surprised when I found out that Zorin also displays the battery level of a wireless mouse! I have the Logitech G700 wireless lazer mouse, it uses a tiny USB dongle that both sends and receives RF signals between it and the mouse. The mouse was designed to send battery charge level info through the connection, and Zorin's built in driver, is able to read that info!
I am also really enjoying the universal accessibility features in Zorin. Many of these features can be turned on/off by clicking on the human shaped icon at the bottom right of your screen on the panel. The main access point for these features can be accessed through the settings menu. I personally don't have perfect eye site, I wear glasses, and I am also viewing my computer on a 47" LED 1080P TV screen from 8 feet away. (2.4 Meters) And I can't see anything on my screen with default settings, text is like 8 point and its just ridiculously small.
What you can do it turn on large text mode, and that helps greatly to being able to see text on my screen. You can also adjust the font sizes in general through Zorin's appearence settings and scale some of the text as well. I can also adjust the bottom panel size which is nice too. And of course, in Firefox and Chromium, I can set the font size in the browsers themselves, and adjust the colors. Speaking of colors, I love all the multiple color choices in Zorins theme package. And I personally can see things easier with a black background, as I find white background blind my eyes with their super brightness lol.
And I've noticed that most apps on Linux seem to work well with Zorin's theme package, but some want to do their own thing. For apps where you can't adjust the font sizes, you can turn on ZOOM mode and adjust that to the amount of zoom you need so you can see what your doing. I remember back when I had Zorin OS 9, I had to use the magnifier because the GIMP editor didn't work with the OS in regards to large text mode. I am pleased to say apps like GIMP in OS 12 work well with large text mode so I don't need to zoom in on it. And if I hover over a tool in GIMP, the text that pops up to tell me what the tool does is large enough to read.
And while its true that in most cases you don't get virus's on Linux, I am still grateful that Zorin comes with a built in firewall. Its not powerful or anything, which is probably why you should rely mostly on a hardware firewall in your router, but still nice to have. And eventually I am going to purchase Eset, which is the worlds best Anti Virus software that is supposed to be able to install natively and run on Linux. But for now, as long as I am careful on the web, I feel mostly secure because again, Linux is loads more secure then Windows.
It was so easy to setup a printer on Zorin too. I have two printers and one of them is connected directly to the network, while the other is connected to a server, being shared onto a network. Zorin was able to find my directly connected to network printer easily without having to put in any IP addresses. And since that is the printer I'd rather print to since its in the same room as my notebook, I didn't bother setting up the other printer. I am also using cloud print for my phone and tablet. But that also means all you need is a chrome browser on a desktop or notebook PC, and you can also use cloud print on them as well.
Now, yes its true that I wish there were more customizable options in the mouse settings section. However, I am also aware that settings can be changed in the terminal itself. So all one would have to do is google different commands to change mouse settings that are not found in the mouse settings sections. Overall I think that Zorin OS 12 is a pretty awesome OS. Its great for newbies switching from Windows like me who can start using it right out of the box. But I do think it needs to be a little more dummy proof, as I think its far too easy to brick the OS doing special things, where as in comparison, Windows is much more robust.
However, having said that, I do find that Zorin's performance exceeds Windows. For most systems, Windows 7 and Windows 10 really do require 8GB of memory at least to run, as your going to be using up to 6GB of memory in most applications. And you will need 16GB of memory if your a heavy gamer, video production artist, photo editor, doing architectural design, or any other resource greedy application. When I was running Windows 7 on my notebook with my upgraded 16GB of memory, it was using up to 6GB of memory just running the OS itself! And it used up to 12GB of memory at all times during heavy load such as gaming for example.
In comparison, Zorin only uses about 2GB with no fancy graphics, hence OS 12 Core, 4GB with fancy graphics, hence OS 12 Ultimate, and it seems to top out at 6GB of memory used while under heavy load. With this testing I've done, I've determined that if you are running a 32-bit to 64-bit single core PC running at say 1GZ to 2GZ CPU with 1GB to 2GB RAM, you should run Zorin OS 12 Core on your computer. And if your running a 64-bit dual core or better PC with a 2GZ CPU or higher, and with at least 4GB of RAM or more, you can run Zorin OS 12 Ultimate!
If you have an ancient computer however that dates back to the 90's, that would be Pentium III machines for example, and your planning on re purposing it for some project. More then likely its running less then 1000MHZ, and more then likely it only has 512MB of RAM or less, in that case I would not recommend Zorin OS 12 as the requirements are too high for that. However, Zorin OS 9 or earlier OS might work ok on it. Alright, those are my opinions of this OS and you are welcome to add more to it. Cause I believe that when knowledge is shared, everyone benefits.
I have also found that Zorin is really good at monitoring life of all batteries connected to the system. Not only does Zorin accurately show the battery level of my notebook itself, but I was really surprised when I found out that Zorin also displays the battery level of a wireless mouse! I have the Logitech G700 wireless lazer mouse, it uses a tiny USB dongle that both sends and receives RF signals between it and the mouse. The mouse was designed to send battery charge level info through the connection, and Zorin's built in driver, is able to read that info!
I am also really enjoying the universal accessibility features in Zorin. Many of these features can be turned on/off by clicking on the human shaped icon at the bottom right of your screen on the panel. The main access point for these features can be accessed through the settings menu. I personally don't have perfect eye site, I wear glasses, and I am also viewing my computer on a 47" LED 1080P TV screen from 8 feet away. (2.4 Meters) And I can't see anything on my screen with default settings, text is like 8 point and its just ridiculously small.
What you can do it turn on large text mode, and that helps greatly to being able to see text on my screen. You can also adjust the font sizes in general through Zorin's appearence settings and scale some of the text as well. I can also adjust the bottom panel size which is nice too. And of course, in Firefox and Chromium, I can set the font size in the browsers themselves, and adjust the colors. Speaking of colors, I love all the multiple color choices in Zorins theme package. And I personally can see things easier with a black background, as I find white background blind my eyes with their super brightness lol.
And I've noticed that most apps on Linux seem to work well with Zorin's theme package, but some want to do their own thing. For apps where you can't adjust the font sizes, you can turn on ZOOM mode and adjust that to the amount of zoom you need so you can see what your doing. I remember back when I had Zorin OS 9, I had to use the magnifier because the GIMP editor didn't work with the OS in regards to large text mode. I am pleased to say apps like GIMP in OS 12 work well with large text mode so I don't need to zoom in on it. And if I hover over a tool in GIMP, the text that pops up to tell me what the tool does is large enough to read.
And while its true that in most cases you don't get virus's on Linux, I am still grateful that Zorin comes with a built in firewall. Its not powerful or anything, which is probably why you should rely mostly on a hardware firewall in your router, but still nice to have. And eventually I am going to purchase Eset, which is the worlds best Anti Virus software that is supposed to be able to install natively and run on Linux. But for now, as long as I am careful on the web, I feel mostly secure because again, Linux is loads more secure then Windows.
It was so easy to setup a printer on Zorin too. I have two printers and one of them is connected directly to the network, while the other is connected to a server, being shared onto a network. Zorin was able to find my directly connected to network printer easily without having to put in any IP addresses. And since that is the printer I'd rather print to since its in the same room as my notebook, I didn't bother setting up the other printer. I am also using cloud print for my phone and tablet. But that also means all you need is a chrome browser on a desktop or notebook PC, and you can also use cloud print on them as well.
Now, yes its true that I wish there were more customizable options in the mouse settings section. However, I am also aware that settings can be changed in the terminal itself. So all one would have to do is google different commands to change mouse settings that are not found in the mouse settings sections. Overall I think that Zorin OS 12 is a pretty awesome OS. Its great for newbies switching from Windows like me who can start using it right out of the box. But I do think it needs to be a little more dummy proof, as I think its far too easy to brick the OS doing special things, where as in comparison, Windows is much more robust.
However, having said that, I do find that Zorin's performance exceeds Windows. For most systems, Windows 7 and Windows 10 really do require 8GB of memory at least to run, as your going to be using up to 6GB of memory in most applications. And you will need 16GB of memory if your a heavy gamer, video production artist, photo editor, doing architectural design, or any other resource greedy application. When I was running Windows 7 on my notebook with my upgraded 16GB of memory, it was using up to 6GB of memory just running the OS itself! And it used up to 12GB of memory at all times during heavy load such as gaming for example.
In comparison, Zorin only uses about 2GB with no fancy graphics, hence OS 12 Core, 4GB with fancy graphics, hence OS 12 Ultimate, and it seems to top out at 6GB of memory used while under heavy load. With this testing I've done, I've determined that if you are running a 32-bit to 64-bit single core PC running at say 1GZ to 2GZ CPU with 1GB to 2GB RAM, you should run Zorin OS 12 Core on your computer. And if your running a 64-bit dual core or better PC with a 2GZ CPU or higher, and with at least 4GB of RAM or more, you can run Zorin OS 12 Ultimate!
If you have an ancient computer however that dates back to the 90's, that would be Pentium III machines for example, and your planning on re purposing it for some project. More then likely its running less then 1000MHZ, and more then likely it only has 512MB of RAM or less, in that case I would not recommend Zorin OS 12 as the requirements are too high for that. However, Zorin OS 9 or earlier OS might work ok on it. Alright, those are my opinions of this OS and you are welcome to add more to it. Cause I believe that when knowledge is shared, everyone benefits.
