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Feedback on Zorin OS 9 Lite

DarkReverser

Thu Aug 14, 2014 2:44:40 pm

-Due to everything looking smaller, I was led to believe that Lite Zorin had loaded a higher default resolution other than 1024x768, however I noticed no such change rather the icons were smaller, and all text including menu items and URL became very hard to read.
-I don't know the silly reasoning that goes behind not including Nvidia and AMD video drivers (It's not like you were able to fit it on 1 CD, lol I'll gladly pay 400 or 500 MB to include on lite cd).
-Also so far only a 32 bit edition, but I have 8 GB of ram.
-Actually, my biggest complaints are that firefox does not play flash 720p video smooth unless you install video driver, but chrome does, so chrome is what should be included by default.
-Remember, everything must work from Live CD (inc. smooth 720p video playback)
-Also, something close to home is missing (Load to RAM) Yes I want 1 to 1.5GB of Zorin to copy and run from Ram.
-I don't particularly call for Nvidia or AMD drivers so much as any descent driver able to load up to 1080p display.

Actually, if you addressed the items above, I'd gladly make a donation.
Now, of course, the standard critic is Why don't you install zorin, it would solve many above problems?
To that I say first of a product should fully function out of the box (on live cd), and secondly there are those of us who prefer for privacy and security to run in a live environment.

madvinegar

Thu Aug 14, 2014 4:31:27 pm

Since you have such a powerful PC why not try the core version and not the lite one? Core version has 64bit and this is what you need for your 8gb of ram. Lite is intended for low spec PCs.

You want everything to run perfectly from the live environment. This cannot be done if it involves proprietary drivers such as gpu closed source drivers and flash plugins. This stuff cannot be included in the cd as it would be illegal. This is why you have to download it afterwords.

As regards your last sentence I reply: Linux is the only OS that lets you use it in a live environment and most of the times it works out o the box. Win and Osx dont even function unless you fully install them and all the drivers needed.
In linux you pay nothing and you expect everything.

daspicer

Sat Aug 16, 2014 1:54:32 am

I agree. Complaining about a free operating system is pointless.
I don't understand the point of installing Zorin Lite on a 8 GB machine. But if that's the intent, and you want 64 bit, then install Lubuntu 64 bit.

DarkReverser

Sat Aug 16, 2014 4:30:25 am

madvinegar wrote:Since you have such a powerful PC why not try the core version and not the lite one? Core version has 64bit and this is what you need for your 8gb of ram. Lite is intended for low spec PCs.

You want everything to run perfectly from the live environment. This cannot be done if it involves proprietary drivers such as gpu closed source drivers and flash plugins. This stuff cannot be included in the cd as it would be illegal. This is why you have to download it afterwords.

As regards your last sentence I reply: Linux is the only OS that lets you use it in a live environment and most of the times it works out o the box. Win and Osx dont even function unless you fully install them and all the drivers needed.
In linux you pay nothing and you expect everything.


The very problem with linux is precisely the perspective you present; "it's free, don't complain".
How can linux approach perfection if the bulk of the linux community has your perspective?
It means linux will always get better but also linux will always be imperfect; which means only extremely humble people like yourself will appreciate linux to the full extent. That's a small audience.

There is no resolution cap on a generic display driver.
Don't assume that only propertary drivers can display higher resolutions, this is incorrect.
It is simply an extremely compatible, at the cost of extremely limited resolution.
There should at least be an option to use a less compatible but higher res capable generic driver.
And this option should be available from live environment.
I like Live Linux because it always works; garanteed same experience.
It's also garenteed of an maliscious activity short of live session hacking.
I don't understand why they have stripped copy to ram especially on the lite edition; it runs faster than an installed version, nothing is faster then ram on the pc. It's one of those features that makes users pick other distros. I noticed with the generic display driver that chrome renders 720p video and firefox doesn't.
Functionality trumps freedom. I would rather have that 720p then the free firefox lol.

madvinegar

Sat Aug 16, 2014 9:12:23 am

The correct phrase should be "it's free, don't complain, help to get it improved".
Linux is a community. It's us. The world. We help built linux, improve it, solve problems.
There is no big company behind it to offer 24/7 support. We got the forums.

When we have a problem we try to solve it (if we have the technical skills). If not we attend to the forums. Finally we send a bug report of our problem to launchpad giving as many details as we can and wait for it to be solved.
Linux ofcourse has native GPU drivers for nvidia (nouveau) and ATI (radeon). These drivers can work just fine and in some cases (if you don't want full power of the GPU) work better than the closed source ones.
However, if you are aware, these drivers are reverse engineered from the closed source ones. i.e. the programmers get the closed source drivers and try to find how they work in order to produce the open source ones. Nvidia and ATI don't just give out how these things work.
I hope you understand why the native drivers in some cases cannot work as expected especially in a live environment!
If you actually install the distro and the native drivers get updated you may find that they will work just fine.

In my laptops, the live cd resolution using the native drivers works just fine. But this is not the case for everyone and all PCs in the world. You cannot expect from Linux to include in the live environment kernel the correct drivers for ALL the GPUs out there. When, as I said, win and OSX have to provide the specific GPU drivers for each of the laptops/PCs they sell.
Even so, if you update your system, the repositories may send you the correct updated driver for your GPU and it may work better.

So the whole idea is not "it's free - don't complain". It's that you have to be realistic in what you are asking and expecting from a great operating system (fast, secure, long lasting, light etc.). You need to participate in this community, be realistic and not just complain.

As a solution to your problem I would suggest that you prepare a live USB with persistent space (i.e. space that will be used for saving changes/data). So you can update the system (or even install the closed source gpu drivers) and these changes will be saved after the reboot. Just a thought.

Swarfendor437

Sun Aug 17, 2014 8:41:27 pm

If we want 'free' in the true sense of the word then it has to be Stallman - he has a very slow Lemote notebook but lives with it as it is free of all proprietary software and hardware.