Zorin OS (Linux) - OMG!

[Kuron]

> Still ugly!

Eye of the beholder.

Killer game, nothing ugly about it! LOL

[PB]

UPDATE: Just for the heck of it, I installed "Linux Mint 16" to
give it a shot because so many others like it, but unfortunately
even after installing WINE (which Mint doesn't come with), it
didn't let me run the Windows versions of "Quake 3", "Hunting
Unlimited 2009", or "Plants vs Zombies". They either locked up,
had corrupted displays, or just failed with an error about video
graphics not supported.

By contrast, Zorin OS played them immediately with its version
of WINE, without a hiccup at all. So, for this old Windows user
wanting a pain-free switch to Linux: Zorin OS wins.

[ts-soft]

Linux is Not Windows

[heartbone]

Linux is Not Windows

Thanks. That truly needed to be posted right about here.

As a matter of fact because it embraces Windows to the extent that it does, should not be considered capitulation, rather acknowledgement of user reality.
For example if M$ were accomodating, then users wouldn't HAVE to ALWAYS install Windows first to a hard drive, instead they are not at all considerate of other operating systems.
Likewise, users would not need to use third party tools like Paragon's ExtFS to access Linux drives from Windows.
That closed OS attitude has made Windows worse for computer users than Linux.

Why is it so ugly?

What exactly about it is ugly to you?
Perhaps it isn't the most modern or stylish looking interface, but if the functionality is there, and the price is free... I think it looks good.

Regarding older computers... I've seen pictures of Wary Puppy, didn't like at all. If I was using older computer, I would definitely give Zorin Lite a shot.

Am I sensing a style over substance preference here?
It would be surprising to read anyone admit to that, but I am an expert in interpreting English.
What about the way Wary looks didn't you like?

My favourite Puppy derivative is FatDog. I don't know why it's not listed on distrowatch but imo it's an excellent lite distro.

Thanks for the link to FatDog.
I am downloading it and will be trying it out.
At 245 MB it is freakin' huge Puppy!
If it runs on my old Athlon system, maybe it can replace Wary.
edit: Scratch that, it's 64 bit only. Cancelling the download.

Okay, time for my report after a day of using Zorin.
{snip}
What else... oh yes: WINE. The best part of Linux for Windows defectors! If you
don't know, WINE lets you run a hell of a lot of Windows executables directly from in
Linux, without any work or conversion on your part. Basically, you just double-click
the Windows exe that you want to run, and it'll either run perfectly in Linux, or die.

Run it from the terminal and you'll see why the abend.
Many times it's simply a missing DLL.

And the amazing bit? PUREBASIC RAN! Yep, I can compile my Windows apps
using the Windows version of PureBasic in Linux.

Why would you even do such a thing?
You will still need to compile in Linux for Zorin.
Also check to see if the internet/LAN component of your Windows games is active or not.
I would be impressed and surprised if they have that in the WINE installation included in Zorin.
It was a bit of extra installation and configuring in standard UBUNTU to get the LAN games to work.

[Thunder93]

Visual aspect of it, and based on the shown images on the site, reminds me of Windows 3.1.

I would have to have a pretty old computer (486 20mhz 8MB of RAM) to not mind having Windows 3.1 visuals. LOL! ... Actually had Windows 95 running on that sys specs with good experience.

I think these days because there are many options, wanting things to look decent isn't unthinkable. True functionality is important, but for myself .. so is the presentation. If my computer is so old that I have to resort to Windows 3.1 visuals, I would throw the computer out my highest window and run it over with my vehicle a few times without regrets.

Regarding older computers... I've seen pictures of Wary Puppy, didn't like at all. If I was using older computer, I would definitely give Zorin Lite a shot.

Am I sensing a style over substance preference here?
It would be surprising to read anyone admit to that, but I am an expert in interpreting English.
What about the way Wary looks didn't you like?

[heartbone]

Visual aspect of it, and based on the shown images on the site, reminds me of Windows 3.1.

I would have to have a pretty old computer (486 20mhz 8MB of RAM) to not mind having Windows 3.1 visuals. LOL! ... Actually had Windows 95 running on that sys specs with good experience.

I think these days because there are many options, wanting things to look decent isn't unthinkable. True functionality is important, but for myself .. so is the presentation. If my computer is so old that I have to resort to Windows 3.1 visuals, I would throw the computer out my highest window and run it over with my vehicle a few times without regrets.

___

Nothing like a little picture Thunder93, to aid in the visualization.
Now I'm thinking that instead of 3.1.,
Wary looks closer to the XP experience than even ME did.
Are you sure that you were referring to Wary?

[PB]

> Linux is Not Windows

I know. That's why most people don't install and use it, and
why its market share is so miniscule compared to Windows.

But anything that lets a user like me, continue to run at least
most of their old Windows software, is a good thing for Linux.
I like Linux (Zorin) for what it is. Totally. No doubt about it.
The fact that it lets me run my old fave games from Windows
is just the cherry on top, and lets me ditch Windows for it.

That can only be a good thing for the Linux cause.

[applePi]

@PB
i have resized the windows 7 partition (Part3 in the picture)

http://s27.postimg.org/6rj5se5lf/easeus2.png
using easeus partion tool and now i have free unallocated 21.67 GB logical partition (my major OS windows xp resides on part-1 in the picture which isolated from windows 7). from my testing using the older computer i saw there is several choices for zorin os install 1- install alongside windows 7 and 4-something else. do you choose alongside win7 or item "something else".

[PB]

applePi, I really don't want to give setup advice in case your PC becomes
unbootable. At one stage that happened to me, but I was able to boot up
with my Win 7 install DVD and repair the MBR (Shift+10 at the Windows
install screen, which kicks you into a DOS prompt, then enter both of
these: "bootrec.exe /fixmbr" and "bootrec.exe /fixboot").

So, no, I don't really want to give setup advice to anyone else.

What I can tell you, is that if you boot with the live Zorin DVD, and then
choose to install it from within the live environment, there's a part of the
setup procedure where you can select "Do something else" (I think it was
that?) and you can resize and set the partitions for install there. No need
to use a third-party tool like EaseUS to do it.

Just remember to set one partition as "/" mount point for the OS itself,
formatted as "ext4", and another smaller partition for the swap file. All
should go okay after that. Good luck!

[applePi]

Thank you PB , you are right since nowadays the hard disk is like a human soul inscribed on the metal. i have applied your approach and assigning 17 Gb from the free 22 GB for ext4 but when trying to make a swap partition from the remaining free i can't do that , the zorin partition utility mark it as unusable. then i exit the live DVD and running partition wizard trying to partition the free area as ext4 and swap, it succeeded in ext4 but for the swap partition it gives the error message "partition wizard can't create a partition at here there are no free MBR slots on the disk" . thats it we are restricted to 4 main partitions. i will merge later 2 small partitions.
and by the way i have logout from the LiveDVD and then it asked for the user and pass, i can't login and then i reset the pc power. searching now the user: live, password : no pass.

[ts-soft]

You can only create 4 primary partion on a harddisk. You can create a extended partion and on the extended partion, you can create 127 logical drives.
The swap-partion for linux is type swap or 81, not Ext4!
With 4 GB or more RAM, it should run without a swap-partion.

[heartbone]

Foreword: This is going to sound like an ad, but I don't care.

As some of you know, I've always detested Linux because every version
I tried had shortcomings of some sort. Some didn't play videos or MP3s,
some looked like garbage, some too slow, some too techy/confusing.

Today I found "Zorin OS" and OMG!

This is the BEST version of Linux I've found! Forget Ubuntu!

PB, I hope that your acetylcholine is not disrupted like it was when I posted that your happiness is all in your head,
but knowing now what you have learned during the past few days,
do you yet have any regrets posting something so ludicrously contradictory?

BTW, when you first started this topic, the Zorin download page contained this line:
ATTENTION: To avoid any complications, we recommend you to download Zorin OS using Firefox as other browsers may corrupt the file and may cause errors.
I found that interesting considering their default browser.
As of yesterday it had been changed to:
ATTENTION: To avoid any complications, we recommend you to download Zorin OS using Google Chrome or Firefox as other browsers may corrupt the file and may cause errors.

[PB]

> do you yet have any regrets posting something so ludicrously contradictory?

What did I post that was contradictory?

[heartbone]

> do you yet have any regrets posting something so ludicrously contradictory?

What did I post that was contradictory?

Ahhh, OK.
Thanks for responding.
It seems that you haven't seen it (Zorin) the way that I see it… yet.
I don't want to bias your discovery, so may I please defer my answer till later?
Again thanks.

[PB]

I know that Zorin is based on Ubuntu, but so what?
If you're saying I'm using Ubuntu under a different
name, that's great. I get that. Both OSes act and
feel totally different. I even tried Linux Mint 16
last night and it felt different to both of those,
too. The experience is all that matters to me,
and Ubuntu felt terrible last time I tried it.
Wow, look at my text sliding to the left.
I love when that happens in my posts.