mr_x wrote:Yeah sorry I meant to write 18.04.
I do agree with you but I came from Manjaro that’s updated all the time. I haven’t used Windows in a while.
But regardless of the versions Zorin uses, I’m very happy with the distro as a whole. I’m just dreading the time when I’ll have to go through the update procedures
When you say update procedures, are you referring to upgrading the OS to the next version?
For example, upgrading from Zorin 15 to Zorin 16...
Yes, I can understand dreading that, if so. That is a wipe and reload.
When I moved over to Linux operating systems from Windows last year, it was... a hard transition. I had never used Linux before and the unfamiliarity of it was daunting.
Me, being me, I was not satisfied with just installing things and hoping that they ran and worked. I wanted to know HOW they worked. So I went into root and poked and prodded and pried things up to look underneath. Needless to say, I utterly destroyed my O.S. a lot.
I made a lot of mistakes that resulted in devastation, as well. Such as Not Reading Terminal Output and just hitting "Y" to commands... which once removed the entire Zorin Desktop on a 'sudo apt autoremove'.
After about 15 or so wipe and reloads, I got pretty adept at having back ups at the ready and doing a re-install of the O.S. and having all things back to normal and running like it was within less than thirty minutes of one of my nuclear experiments reaching critical mass.
I went from dreading the wipe n' reload to feeling like I got it under control.
Which probably was a mistake because it made me more bold to poke, prod, pry and destroy....
But my point is that with proper backups, a wipe and reload is almost never as bad as a person fears. My curiosity trained me to be fearless, to get in the good habit of making regular back ups (I do not use software to do it, I make them manually). This is a good habit as a hardware failure can cause their necessity, not just software changes. In my case, it even was a boon sometimes as it resulted in a fresh clean slate of a shiny new desktop experience, unfettered by multiple installations and removals that did not destroy the OS but did clutter it up. There were times I did a wipe and reload out of the blue just to get a Fresh new start.
I learned to make a list that I save in my documents of tweaks, settings changes- Whenever I made a change or adjustment, I noted it on the list and saved. That way, it was backed up too, on the new OS in Documents, and I would open it and fly down the list putting everything back to the way it was.
I do not dread the Wipe and reload as I once did or as many still do. Maybe the above can help you to not only find it not something to dread, but something that can be an advantage, too.
But I do understand what you mean. You may prefer a distro that offers Rolling Release. It is not my cup of tea because I have Zorin tweaked, set, adjusted to my preferences and Stable in such- I would not want a Rolling Release changing things on me all the time or me chasing it to revert changes I did not like. With a rolling release, for me, comes endless troubleshooting.
It may be YOUR cup of tea and that is one thing that makes Linux great. We can have different flavors and preferences in our tea and not get forced to drink the same tea as everyone else.
KaOS, OpenSuse, Manjaro offer rolling releases.