Zorin as a destination for Windows XP users

Hi All:
I just posted the message below to the IT World online newsletter as a comment on their recommendation of some Linux distro for XP displaced persons. I plugged Zorin and think welcoming XP users might be useful to our community. I'm curious what other group members think. Did I overstate things, or understate them, or leave stuff out?
Thanks
Jojo

My posting.

I've been using Zorin for nearly two years now. It is based on Ubuntu but without all the experimenting with new "universal" GUI's for computers, phones, tablets and who knows what else. I prefer Zorin to Ubuntu because it uses the same repositories and has one or two of its' own, and has a clean, PC friendly interface and outstanding forum support.

Users who switch to Linux will be pleasantly surprised. Linux software has caught up with Windows software in capabilities (exceptions, enterprise capabilities and industrial software for design and production), has much fewer security problems,updates the entire set of packages in one click (you don't have to check with two dozen software vendors) and, for total no hassle, non geek, users, has a program called CrossoverOffice that costs $50 that allows you to run a large swath of Office (2010, 2007 etc) Game, Adobe and other software directly on Linux). For individuals and small groups Linux is actually better and more predictable. My Zorin 6 Ultimate (running on a four year old machine), with Crossover and some high level open source software, boots and shuts down faster than my Windows 7 Ultimate running on an Intel Core I7 with 8Gb Ram.
Check it out, you can always go back, but I doubt you will.

Hi jojothehobo, not over the top when you report facts!

Interestingly, I had some scathing remarks about LTS only being 3 years - when I pointed out that 6 which is based on ubuntu 12.04, the guy ate his words and ... installed Zorin 6 - because he likes it so much of it reminding him of Windows 7!

To be a seriously taken destination for Windows xp users a new operating system should work perfectly
"out of the box" installed. This is a hard requirement, but it is also a fact that you can accept some
shortcomings with your old os., but a new one is always under a strict review before acceptance.

As a new Zorin user I experienced some inconvenience to get started with Zorin 8 Core and Ultimate.
First thing was that installation crashed due to language selection. Then internal WiFi did not work after
installation. Brightness control do not keep its setting over shut down and system crashes when making
the adjustment. From Awn panel apps and items disappear or stop working. "Suspend" crashes the os.

As can be seen from my red blinking face, these problems might be severe reasons why some newcomer
wants to stay away from Linux. To get a better quality image, this kind of system crashes during installation
and first hours of use should be avoided. Some device drivers can be missing and accepted to be installed later,
but the operating system's basic things should work during and after installation.

Some of these problems I got help from Zorin but some of these are not solved yet, may be to next distro .

Zorin 8/8.1 Core and Ultimate 32 Bit, Ubunbtu 13.10 32 Bit, Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit, Asus AMD Athlon 64 Bit X2 Dual core 4000+, HP 530 Intel Celeron M 32 Bit

Hi henriolavi, I think part of your issue might be that your install was created whilst NOT connected to the internet - whilst it is not essential, to ensure a good install you should have internet connectivity to avoid some of the issues you have experienced. Notebooks (or laptops) are peculiar machines for any flavour of GNU/Linux due to hardware configurations. Information as to what make and model are a starting point (No distribution has the resources to buy every make and model out there to see whether it will run or not - this responsibility lies at the door of the manufacturer providing hardware that will run under GNU/Linux - as far as I know the only distributors to do this are the Chinese manufacturer that Richard Stallman uses or an American based, custom GNU/Linux builder whose name escapes my failing memory! (Gizmuntu help me out here!).
In terms of window manufacturers, only HP and Dell are GNU/Linux friendly as far as I am aware - am happy to stand corrected!

Thank you of the valuable information. To get a better result when next time installing, I can try to connect to internet.

I made at the same time an installation of Ubuntu 13.10 to the same HP 530 laptop without net connection and it
succeeded without any complications. No crashes during installation and WiFi started to work without any driver
changes. Both installations were full installations made from downloaded .iso files, so there was not any difference.

Ubuntu worked however better in my case. There are still some instability issues with Zorin even if I have made
all available updates. The brightness control crashes some times the system in my laptop. Awn applications
don't load always correctly to the panel and might disappear during use. The "suspend" mode crashes the desktop when
using the os. from USB Drive but it works ok. in the laptop, using just the same USB. So, there is some hardware
incompatibility issue with my desktop. There are a ASUS motherboard with AMD 64 bit dual core 4000+ processor
machine with 2Gb RAM. I have made a problem report of these and the Awn problems are already known issues
also from other users.

I looked from "Awn About" the detailed information of reported bugs to Awn panel. There was 111 items of which
16 were feature improvements and 95 some priority level of software bugs causing inconvenience of use or
system crashes.

According to my understanding there is also a need to make some basic software development to Awn panel to
keep it going. It might be a weak point for all future Linux distros using Awn, if there are that much not corrected items.
Malfunctioning of the panel creates the first (and often also the final) image of the whole operating system's expected
poor quality to a new user. Everyone can go there and look the reports and create his or her own opinion of the
Awn's bug situation.

By telling these detailed experiences I want to give pieces to the big picture how Zorin performs related to other
operating systems, seen from the new user's point of view. It is however a good candidate to replace Windows xp
and is ranked as one of the best Linux distros, no doubt about that.

Zorin 8/8.1 Core and Ultimate 32 Bit, Ubunbtu 13.10 32 Bit, Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit, Asus AMD Athlon 64 Bit X2 Dual core 4000+, HP 530 Intel Celeron M 32 Bit