ON ZORIN 5 SUGGESTIONS

FIREFOX 3.6.17 AS DEFAULT BROWSER.. FIREFOX 4.0 > PROBLEM HERE IS THE MAJORITY OF THE ADD-ONS PEOPLE USE ARENT AVAILABLE ON FIREFOX 4.0. AS FOR CHROME . CHROME FAILS BECAUSE DOESNT HAS ADD-ON INTEGRATION. VERY DIFFICULT TO OPERATE AS OPPOSED TO FIREFOX WHICH RUNS SMOOTHER, AND JUST WORKS! CHROME IS A TOTAL FAIL.


ANOTHER SOFTWARE THAT IS A MUST HAVE IS WEBCAM STUDIO. AMAZING SOFTWARE TO WORK WITH WEB CAMERA. HAS ALL THE RESOURCES WE NEED AND IS JUST GREAT.

ANOTHER THING , RHYTHUM BOX. WHY DOES THIS SOFTWARE ALWAYS CATCHES MY INFORMATION AND STORES IT? WHY DOES IT TRIES TO CONNECT TO THE NET EVERYTIME I CONNECT? WHATS WITH THIS THING ?? I PREFER TOTEM AND ITS MOZILLA/FIREFOX PLUG IN, WORKS FANTASTIC AND CAN PLAY THE MMS I NEED AND MOVIES.

ANOTHER SOFTWARE TO ADD IS MOONLIGHT. FANTASTIC SOFTWARE THAT IS THE SILVERLIGHT OF THE WINDOWS SIDE BUT MUCH BETTER AND LIGHTER ... JUST FIVE STARS.

ANOTHER LITTLE SOFTWARE TO ADD IS AUDACIOUS OR QMMP . THEY PLAY ANYKIND OF MP3, OGG, WMA ... ETC ... YOU NAME IT .. SIMPLE AND THATS IT... AND..... SO SMALL IN SIZE... LIGHT AND DONT WASTE RAM! EXCELENT!

THAT S WHAT I WANTED TO SAY.

A FINAL REMARK...

PLEASE PUT GNOME AND SKIP UNITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
UNITY FAILS! JUST FAILS! UNITY IS GOOD FOR TABLETS, IPHONE, IPAD, NETBOOKS, BUT FOR LAPTOPS AND DESKTOPS???? NO WAY! EVER!


KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK . ZORIN IS GREAT! HHEHE ! NICE

YAY! HAHA!

Im pretty satisfied with the actual zorin set of default apps.

For browser firefox 4 is the way to go. Add-ons compability is not a strong reason to not upgrade and lose the great improvements of the 4.0 version.

For music, a music manager like rymthbox or banshee is the way to go, winamp clones just lack features to be a default apps

for video i really like VLC, i dont know about its dependencies.
for photo the shotwell does a pretty decent job.

in overall the apps selection is very good.

zorin, could you please make a preview of zorin 5 os features? Nothing was said about it, and users are getting curios!
thanx!

I only use Google Chrome as it shows through the best. In particular, Facebook provides a good example of what I mean here. But if this should be the default browser in Zorin5? Well, I think this today.

I also feel again the following program should be standard:

GnomeBaker
gThumb
FileZilla
gurlchecker
DeVeDe
Vlc
OpenShot
Photo filmstrip
Thunderbird
SeaMonkey
Gtk-RecordMyDesktop

And is there a better and more advanced WedCam program?
As we all know, as Microsoft has bought Skype. Is there anything similar on the market that Skype works just as well?

Other one can mention are:
A separate application to edit PDF files
Download and convert flash movies to various formats.


I am however very happy with Zorin, as it is today. Will Zorin 5 as well, so I also buy that version. Thanks to all this great work you have put so far. Incredible is the right word to all the developers of Zorin.

I'd keep Chrome as the default browser...i think it is excellent and a lot of people use it now...Those that prefer Firefox or whatever can always easily add/substitute for Chrome if they desire....

On Linux i don't think security is an issue so i would keep VLC Media Player as it is excellent for playing videos and playing certain types of streams (like windows media streams)...

Rhythmbox is really better then Banshee, so instead of going with ubuntu's new banshee default...i think Rhythmbox will be the better choice...

Actually, i had not tried Banshee for a long time and just downloaded it on my current system (mint) and it seems a lot better then it use to be...Also i read that Rhythmbox is expected to go out as a project within the next year or so with no further support offered for it, so i guess that is why Ubuntu is switching over to Banshee, so maybe it makes more sense to go with it too...

I always install Amarok (kde program) as well...and K3b (kde program) burner...but for the defaults, Banshee and Brasero would be fine...

Actually if they would go with Chromium instead of Chrome then supposedly you don't get the google tracker which targets the ads that you see on web pages...although when you use yahoo or google search pages you are being tracked anyway

Not sure if the default browser choice is a big issue. IE is still the most used browser on Windows so - potentially - any new users to (Zorin) Linux are going to have to use a new browser anyway, it probably won’t matter too much to them which it is, just so long as it works and isn’t too different to IE. If they’ve already chosen to use Firefox on Windows then they can probably figure how to switch Chrome for Firefox in Zorin (I found it really easy to do, anyway)

I don’t think there’s any major problems with Firefox 4 and, as Firefox (on Windows) is more popular than Chrome maybe it should be the default, and Chrome an option, just to make life that bit easier for new migrants from Windows? Or

swarfendor437 wrote:a choice of browser at point of first desktop logon for each user

Talking about Chrome trackware, has anyone tried Iron (Chrome without the cr*p) for Linux?

SRWare Iron is a real alternative. The browser is based on the Chromium-source and offers the same features as Chrome - but without the critical points that the privacy concern.

http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php

Iron-Version: 11.0.700.2 Stable for Linux
…contains all features and updates known from Chromim 11. The current version is 11.0.700.2.

http://www.srware.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2415

Can't i just use an precompiled unchanged Chromium-Build from the Google Server?

This is not useful because the original Chromium-Builds have nearly the same functions inside than the original Chrome. We can only provide Iron because we massively modified the source.

http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron_faq.php


I’ve been using VLC on Windows XP for three years or more and never had any security breaches so I’m not too worried about using it on Linux!

I am well pleased with Zorin 4. I realize this is a brainstorm forum, but its amusing to see all the posts just a week before the release. The team came up with a total winner on Zorin 4 so I am sure that Zorin 5 will be as useful. And since any software is so simply located and installed, if folks don't feel Zorin 5 hits their sweet spot, its a matter of 35-40 minutes and it will be exactly what they need.

Suggestion: I think Zorin-OS could benefit from an official blog and newsletter.

FewClues wrote:its amusing to see all the posts just a week before the release.

Suggestion: I think Zorin-OS could benefit from an official blog

Well, we probably realise the suggestions are unlikely to make it into Zorin OS 5, but maybe enough notice to see some appearing in v6 or 7.

The official Zorin Group blog

swarfendor437 wrote:Perhaps reading this might change your mind!

https://secunia.com/community/forum/thr ... rity_issue

And not sure what version VLC is at at the moment.

Nope! I use Secunia PSI, it's a great, easy-to-use freebie and I suggest its use to other WIndows users. After you mentioned the security issues I came across this, which is quite interesting. This is the Secunia list for Firefox (first released November, 2004). And here's the Secunia list for Chrome (first released September, 2008)

Not sure what's the latest VLC version for Linux but for Windows its 1.1.9.

Looking forward to Zorin 5.

I would like to see an OS changer, like I have dual boot on my computer, and I think it would be pretty sweet to have a program that could hand off from Zorin to windows without shutting down the computer, does that make since ?

Gom player auto subtitle like bs player? Is there a way to have gom player look for subtitles online, like bs player? maybe an extention or plug in?

Hi,

try "gmpc-plugins", it might have what you want!!. You can install it via Synaptic.

(You can simply type "gnome plugins" in search in Synaptic and you will see a few other options!)

Regards Wolfman

I tend to be a fan of Ubuntu LTS, Debian, and Cent OS vs. Fedora, Ubuntu Non-LTS, Arch, and other distros that while very cool for testing and bleeding-edge, severly lack in stability.

Both Zorin OS 4 and 5 are based on the Non-LTS versions of Ubuntu, which are really betas for the next LTS (12.04). Since Ubuntu's LTS starts out bieng pulled from debian-testing and the Non-LTS versions are pulled from debian-unstable, so therefore it's true that any distros forked from Ubuntu ( which Ubuntu itself is a fork from Debian ) will also come from these two sources of debian-testing and debian-stable as well. Linux Mint and Zorin OS are both forks of Ubuntu and are both affected by this.

I'm all for testing, bleeding-edge, etc,..... just not on any production / critical / main systems which I use. So that all being said, I like Zorin 5 for what it is, but because of the lineage back to debian-unstable, it (much like Zorin 4), doesn't work for me very well (and in some places, not at all.)

If I have a suggestion, it's more for Zorin in general than for a specific version; and it's this:

I recommend promoting the latest and greatest versions, BUT making it clear that Zorin OS 4, 5, 6, 7, etc, whatever version(s) that may be, aren't as stable as Zorin OS 3.1 is (since it's based on Ubuntu 10.04LTS). As such, please put a note comparing 3.1 and 5, with clear links to both on the Zorin OS homepage for downloding them. For the average Linux neophyte, Zorin OS 3.1 is my main choice to recommend - and it is the version I install on newly refurbished systems which I donate to people who need computers.

Lastly, I have downloaded Zorin OS 3.1 Ultimate and would like the passwords for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of it; but I don't see anywhere to purchase them - only the orin 5 Ultimate versions. I'd also like to know exactly what the differences are between the Free and the Ultimate versions of Zorin OS. I know one difference is the Mac GUI, which isn't a selling point for me at all.

For those who want to customize Zorin, I write a script to modify Ubuntu (thus it works with Zorin OS, Linux Mint, Ubuntu, etc) http://sourceforge.net/projects/ubuntune/ which can be downloaded and read in gedit. It's highly commented inside of the script so that you can see and understand exactly what's going on, where, when, and why.

swarfendor437 wrote:The principal difference between core and Ultimate is that the latter has most of the packages that users will want to use depending on which version they want. The same packages can be downloaded via synaptic packages or Ubuntu Software Centre - with the exception of Zorin Background Plus.

ah ok, and Zorin Background Plus is what gives you the choice of using Luna (Windows XP GUI), Aero Windows Vista / Windows 7 GUI) and Aqua (Mac OS X GUI), correct? Are the only GUIs available?

Premium/Ultimate sounds like the best way to go. If you donate, do you get both the 32 and the 64 bit versions, or just the one that you pick?

chromium is better (for me) than chrome is, but my default to use is firefox, but only because I have it extremely pimped out and tweaked for looks and configuration.

When it comes to security, you can be more secure, but never secure completely. Let's say for instance, your PC was 100% totally secure in OS, applications, files, and network, cool..... but if someone can just walk in your front door and steal it, then while it was 100% secure in those ways, it was 0% secure in the physical sense.

Ok, Devil's Advocate time here......

Your PC is 100% secure in all of the ways above, including physically. Is it STILL at risk and STILL not secure?

Yes, of course it is....and here's why.

Amatuers hack computers. Professionals hack people.

Kevin Mitnick was a great social engineer. He had some technical chops, but why go through the mystical cyber voodoo skills and all of the technical spects, when it's much easier to baffle the end-user with bullsh*t and get in with the same results, but with far less work?

Security is a mindset. It is a way of thinking, acting, and being, in a 24/7/365 basis. It's not some hardware or software setting, configuration, or tool. Unlike code which can be patched and updated, doing that is far easier than for a human to patch themselves and upgrade their knowledge and skills in terms of computing and general overall security.

The ONLY thing that is secure in, around, or about Security, is that those who work in the IT Security field will have work for years to come. ...and on that note, and this is a different subject, but just wait until ipv6 becomes the standard. There's enough DNS-reachable IP addresses under ipv6, that each grain of sand on Earth could have it';s own unique, DNS-reachable IP address. EVEYRTHING will be remotely accessible, controllable, and reachable via the Internet.

swarfendor437 wrote:Normally just the one - but you could ask politely to see if they could oblige!

I may have to do that.

swarfendor437 wrote:Well raised points. I read an excellent article in Linux Magazine a few years back on how to build a nice secure system in every sense of the word - Would require an encrypted thumb drive (plus back up thumb drive) before the machine would boot - Now that 's what I call security! Bought the 10th anniversary mag which has ALL of the mags 10 year history on it last year.

Check out the E-Series laptops from Dell, they have a built in biometric reader which is intergrated into the system. the cool part is that the motherboard and hard drive are married to each other, so if one is removed, the other won't work.

Ubuntu, and by proxy, Zorin OS, have built in biometric support. In fact, you can see a rough demo of this by installing fingerprint demo software via sudo apt-get install fprint-demo - but you'll need to have an SDK to interface with it. (you;ll need a biometric device and the drivers for it, which is why an SDK is needed.). Incidently, the GSA (Government Services Agency) recently (last year) approved Ubuntu for use by government agencies. (Novel and Red Hat were the other two options they can choose from.)

I don't know if you've ever looked at the Red Book or the Orange Book, but check out what it takes to have compliance. Crazy stuff. STIG is another one to look at.

I currently work in the security field and often work with biometric devices, and security in general is one of my favorite subjects

Lastly, and this isn't a security related thing at all, but I got approved for Moderator status on here.

swarfendor437 wrote:I get a bit squeamish on biometrics - especially in Fictional Movies where people are force to put their face against the retinal scanner then shot or people shot then hands/fingers amputated to gain access!

I've used them, (finger, not iris), but I'm also a huge privacy advocate - which is totally opposed to my work.

Honestly, if I never touched another PC or network but my own, I'd love it. If I could just write my books and articles for a living, that's my dream and goal.