[SOLVED] Is Zorin OS Ubuntu based or Debian based?

I am completely new to Linux. I chose Zorin 9 as my first Linux distro to try on a windows machine. So far I really enjoy using Zorin but I need to rethink a few concepts coming from Windows to Linux it seems.

On Distrowatch Zorin OS is described as based on Ubuntu and Debian. Should I think of Zorin as an Ubuntu distro or a Debian distro, or somehow both? What would be a meaningful distinction or description of Zorin as learn more about Linux, the terminal and install software and so on?

One practical example: I noticed that my laptop overheats so I wanted to install tlp for power management. But note that there are installation instruction for Ubuntu and Debian respectively.
[url]
http://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-lin ... ement.html[/url]

In this particular example which installation instruction should I follow?

I look forward to learn more.

Hi, OK, for starters Zorin is a 'fork' of Ubuntu. What this means is the brothers Zorin take essential 'core' elements of Ubuntu and fork it in such a way that you get a unique Desktop Environment namely Zorin DE. Ubuntu is partly based on Debian because the packages it uses to install software are .deb packages. The bad thing about Ubuntu is that with every iteration it comes up with it forgets where it has come from - a few iterations ago, Ubuntu boots up with 'Ubuntu with GNU/Linux' - very conceited - and more recently, just itself - it fails to recognise that it is based on GNU/Linux or it would not exist in the first place. Debian is a separate distribution that uses .deb software packages - and usually Ubuntu and forks of Ubuntu are able to utilise - the only time their might be an issue is if the .deb package in question is reliant on other packages/libraries which will be determined by the 'kernel' currently installed on the system. My advice to you would be to install 'gdebi' - just open a terminal (Menu | Accessories | Terminal) and enter:

Code:

sudo apt-get install gdebi

You will be asked for your login password to elevate you to 'root' (administrator) - but you won't see or hear anything as you enter the password so be careful! You get three attempts before dropping back to a normal user.

Once you have installed Gdebi Package Manager - run it (just enter 'gdebi' in the search bar at the bottom of the Windows7-like menu and it will come back with it in the Menu - launch it then select 'File | Open' and browse to the downloaded .deb package you want to install - it will do some background checks to see if the package is compatible with your system - it will report 'all dependencies met' if it is, if not it may say something is needed and will be in 'red'. If you get the message 'all dependencies met' click on the 'Install' button.

Hello Swarfendor437 and thank you for clearing up a lot of my confusion of how to understand Zorin OS. Very helpful

I installed gdebi package manager just now. There was othing I needed to install right now but I will use gdebi instead of software center in the future.