Zorin OS 16 Pro arrives complete with optional 'Windows 11' desktop
(2021/08/10)
- Reference: 1628613489
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/08/10/zorin_os_16_pro/
- Source link:
Interview Zorin Pro 16 will be released next week, along with a free Lite edition, complete with an optional "Windows 11" desktop theme.
Zorin OS is one of a few commercial Linux distributions which aim to be user-friendly alternatives to Windows and Mac. The OS is open source and pricing is based on a freemium model, with free Core, Lite and Education editions, and a paid for Pro edition (formerly called Ultimate).
The Pro edition adds "premium desktop layouts," based on macOS, Gnome and Ubuntu, whereas the other editions are Windows-like. The Pro edition also includes additional business and media applications, games, and perhaps more significantly, Zorin installation support.
[1]
Aware that users can install what they like even on the free editions, Zorin has a "why pay" article that pitches the payment as a means of supporting the project. The new Pro edition will cost the same as Ultimate, £39 plus VAT, and will be available from 17 August.
[2]
[3]
[4]Zorin 16 is based on Ubuntu 20.04, the reason being that the company prefers to stick with the LTS (Long-term support) releases. "The reason behind basing on the LTS versions is that we're trying to make an operating system that is simple to manage, set and forget, and also really stable. That trumps all of the other more bleeding edge features that you find in these more short-lived Ubuntu releases," Zorin CEO and co-founder Artyom Zorin told The Reg .
[5]
Zorin OS does its best to imitate Windows 11
What is actually new in Zorin 16, given that Zorin 15 is also based on Ubuntu 20.04?
In the publicity, Zorin points to its premium desktop layouts, including the new Windows 11-ish flavour, as well as new and updated applications out of the box. We installed the release candidate and found applications including Blender, FreeCAD, GIMP and Inkscape for graphics, Evolution for email, LibreOffice for productivity, and Ardour, Audacity, OBS Studio, VLC and HandBrake for multimedia.
Zorin also points to [6]Xournal++ for notes and Barrier for multi-device support, [7]Barrier being an application that allows mouse, keyboard, and clipboard sharing between different devices and operating systems.
[8]
What is really new, though, given that users of Zorin 15 could also install these free and open-source applications? "We've had a lot of quality of life improvements across the system," said the co-founder. "It works a lot faster than Zorin OS 15, there are touchpad gestures that weren't available before, as standard. There are also smaller improvements across the system, a more refined desktop look and theme." There are also some backports to Ubuntu 20.04, like GNOME Shell 3.38, "which has lots of performance improvements, security improvements," he added.
[9]
Choosing a layout is simple using the Appearance app
It seems a similar philosophy to Linux Mint, also based on Ubuntu LTS editions. What is the key difference? "Mint is more aimed towards enthusiast users," says Zorin. "In our case we're trying to focus on not just enthusiasts, but also new users, less technically inclined users, and making it a cohesive, well-designed experience that will be easier to use."
[10]Russian Arm SoC now shipping in Russian PCs running Russian Linux
[11]New GNOME Human Interface Guidelines now official – and obviously some people hate it
[12]Google: Linux kernel and its toolchains are underinvested by at least 100 engineers
[13]Following Torvalds' nudge, Paragon's NTFS driver for Linux is on track for kernel
He instances some smarts built into Zorin OS such as that trying to install a Windows application will not only give the option to install Wine (which enables some Windows applications to run on Linux) but also prompt, for some well-known apps, that it may be better to install a Linux equivalent.
Another example of the system trying to be helpful is that while LibreOffice is pre-installed, there is also a plug for [14]OnlyOffice , another open-source product which unlike LibreOffice is based on Microsoft's XML document formats – perhaps an admission of defeat in the document format wars, but which can be better for compatibility.
What is the pitch to business customers? Is it just a matter of saving on licence fees? "That's only a small part of what makes Linux appealing," said Zorin. "We've spoken to a lot of businesses and they also find the vendor lock-in into the Microsoft or Apple ecosystem quite concerning. And governments, especially in Europe, prefer to work with a local European vendor. The lifespan of their computers is also a lot longer. We have the Lite edition which is designed to work on computers 15 years old. "The city of Vicenza in Italy predicted to extend the life of their computers by between 30 to 40 per cent. The open-source nature of Linux is also very appealing."
Microsoft issuing Windows 11 with its requirement for TPM (Trusted Platform Module) 2.0 and 8th generation Intel processors or higher makes this point more forceful.
[15]
Zorin (the company) is small. Based in Ireland, "it was started by my brother Kyrill and I originally as a science project in school. It developed more as the community grew, into a business," Zorin told us. "The full-time team is my brother and I, and we also hire people on an ad-hoc basis. We are looking to expand the company's full-time staff over the next year."
Zorin [16]said last year that version 15 was downloaded over 1.7 million times proving at least that this small company has attracted plenty of interest, though with most of those downloads being tr-youts or free users it does not necessarily translate into a strong business.
There is something else coming, though – Zorin Grid, a system for managing a fleet of desktops centrally, which, Zorin told us, is "a space that's really lacking on Linux." Was not [17]Grid meant to be here by now?
"There were some delays. We announced Zorin Grid back in January 2020 and the world has changed a lot since then, and we decided that in order to make it easy to manage for remote-first organizations there were some parts that would need to be re-architected," he said. "We're looking to launch in the first quarter of 2022." ®
Get our [18]Tech Resources
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[4] https://blog.zorin.com/2021/08/09/say-hello-to-zorin-os-pro/
[5] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/08/10/zorin-win11.jpg
[6] https://xournalpp.github.io/
[7] https://github.com/debauchee/barrier
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YRL3IIS4iJ2ZVLZAlfC2sgAAAMs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/08/10/layout.jpg
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/10/baikall_iru_arm_pcs/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/09/gnome_human_interface_guidelines/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/04/google_linux_kernel_security/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/02/paragon_ntfs_linux_kernel/
[14] https://www.onlyoffice.com/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YRL3IIS4iJ2ZVLZAlfC2sgAAAMs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://blog.zorin.com/2020/09/08/zorin-os-15-3-is-here/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2020/01/28/zorin_grid_simple_management_for_linux_desktops/
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Zorin OS is one of a few commercial Linux distributions which aim to be user-friendly alternatives to Windows and Mac. The OS is open source and pricing is based on a freemium model, with free Core, Lite and Education editions, and a paid for Pro edition (formerly called Ultimate).
The Pro edition adds "premium desktop layouts," based on macOS, Gnome and Ubuntu, whereas the other editions are Windows-like. The Pro edition also includes additional business and media applications, games, and perhaps more significantly, Zorin installation support.
[1]
Aware that users can install what they like even on the free editions, Zorin has a "why pay" article that pitches the payment as a means of supporting the project. The new Pro edition will cost the same as Ultimate, £39 plus VAT, and will be available from 17 August.
[2]
[3]
[4]Zorin 16 is based on Ubuntu 20.04, the reason being that the company prefers to stick with the LTS (Long-term support) releases. "The reason behind basing on the LTS versions is that we're trying to make an operating system that is simple to manage, set and forget, and also really stable. That trumps all of the other more bleeding edge features that you find in these more short-lived Ubuntu releases," Zorin CEO and co-founder Artyom Zorin told The Reg .
[5]
Zorin OS does its best to imitate Windows 11
What is actually new in Zorin 16, given that Zorin 15 is also based on Ubuntu 20.04?
In the publicity, Zorin points to its premium desktop layouts, including the new Windows 11-ish flavour, as well as new and updated applications out of the box. We installed the release candidate and found applications including Blender, FreeCAD, GIMP and Inkscape for graphics, Evolution for email, LibreOffice for productivity, and Ardour, Audacity, OBS Studio, VLC and HandBrake for multimedia.
Zorin also points to [6]Xournal++ for notes and Barrier for multi-device support, [7]Barrier being an application that allows mouse, keyboard, and clipboard sharing between different devices and operating systems.
[8]
What is really new, though, given that users of Zorin 15 could also install these free and open-source applications? "We've had a lot of quality of life improvements across the system," said the co-founder. "It works a lot faster than Zorin OS 15, there are touchpad gestures that weren't available before, as standard. There are also smaller improvements across the system, a more refined desktop look and theme." There are also some backports to Ubuntu 20.04, like GNOME Shell 3.38, "which has lots of performance improvements, security improvements," he added.
[9]
Choosing a layout is simple using the Appearance app
It seems a similar philosophy to Linux Mint, also based on Ubuntu LTS editions. What is the key difference? "Mint is more aimed towards enthusiast users," says Zorin. "In our case we're trying to focus on not just enthusiasts, but also new users, less technically inclined users, and making it a cohesive, well-designed experience that will be easier to use."
[10]Russian Arm SoC now shipping in Russian PCs running Russian Linux
[11]New GNOME Human Interface Guidelines now official – and obviously some people hate it
[12]Google: Linux kernel and its toolchains are underinvested by at least 100 engineers
[13]Following Torvalds' nudge, Paragon's NTFS driver for Linux is on track for kernel
He instances some smarts built into Zorin OS such as that trying to install a Windows application will not only give the option to install Wine (which enables some Windows applications to run on Linux) but also prompt, for some well-known apps, that it may be better to install a Linux equivalent.
Another example of the system trying to be helpful is that while LibreOffice is pre-installed, there is also a plug for [14]OnlyOffice , another open-source product which unlike LibreOffice is based on Microsoft's XML document formats – perhaps an admission of defeat in the document format wars, but which can be better for compatibility.
What is the pitch to business customers? Is it just a matter of saving on licence fees? "That's only a small part of what makes Linux appealing," said Zorin. "We've spoken to a lot of businesses and they also find the vendor lock-in into the Microsoft or Apple ecosystem quite concerning. And governments, especially in Europe, prefer to work with a local European vendor. The lifespan of their computers is also a lot longer. We have the Lite edition which is designed to work on computers 15 years old. "The city of Vicenza in Italy predicted to extend the life of their computers by between 30 to 40 per cent. The open-source nature of Linux is also very appealing."
Microsoft issuing Windows 11 with its requirement for TPM (Trusted Platform Module) 2.0 and 8th generation Intel processors or higher makes this point more forceful.
[15]
Zorin (the company) is small. Based in Ireland, "it was started by my brother Kyrill and I originally as a science project in school. It developed more as the community grew, into a business," Zorin told us. "The full-time team is my brother and I, and we also hire people on an ad-hoc basis. We are looking to expand the company's full-time staff over the next year."
Zorin [16]said last year that version 15 was downloaded over 1.7 million times proving at least that this small company has attracted plenty of interest, though with most of those downloads being tr-youts or free users it does not necessarily translate into a strong business.
There is something else coming, though – Zorin Grid, a system for managing a fleet of desktops centrally, which, Zorin told us, is "a space that's really lacking on Linux." Was not [17]Grid meant to be here by now?
"There were some delays. We announced Zorin Grid back in January 2020 and the world has changed a lot since then, and we decided that in order to make it easy to manage for remote-first organizations there were some parts that would need to be re-architected," he said. "We're looking to launch in the first quarter of 2022." ®
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YRL3IIS4iJ2ZVLZAlfC2sgAAAMs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[4] https://blog.zorin.com/2021/08/09/say-hello-to-zorin-os-pro/
[5] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/08/10/zorin-win11.jpg
[6] https://xournalpp.github.io/
[7] https://github.com/debauchee/barrier
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YRL3IIS4iJ2ZVLZAlfC2sgAAAMs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/08/10/layout.jpg
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/10/baikall_iru_arm_pcs/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/09/gnome_human_interface_guidelines/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/04/google_linux_kernel_security/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/02/paragon_ntfs_linux_kernel/
[14] https://www.onlyoffice.com/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YRL3IIS4iJ2ZVLZAlfC2sgAAAMs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://blog.zorin.com/2020/09/08/zorin-os-15-3-is-here/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2020/01/28/zorin_grid_simple_management_for_linux_desktops/
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
a_yank_lurker
Phone and tablet OSes are not all like desktop OSes and yet the average Jane or Joe can quickly learn them. The issue for any OS is the software available for it. Bloatware has the most software and many titles Jane and Joe are familiar with. Fruit is not far behind. Linux tends to have an equivalent to the name brand software but often not the name brand itself. If one steps back and realizes to most a computer or phone are really tools to get something done then OS inertia makes a lot sense.
Zorin historically has tried to mimic the general look and feel of Bloatware. The idea is to make the using Linux less intimidating to non-technical users. I seen many non-technical users adapt well to Linux Mint with Cinnamon. It usually takes a couple of weeks for them to get reasonably proficient and adapt to the Linux way of doing things. So I am not so convinced mimicking Bloatware look and feel is that critical.
Laudable ambition
Mike 137
" we're trying to make an operating system that is simple to manage, set and forget, and also really stable "
Excellent idea, as what users really need is just that - not constant enforced change. However it remains to be seen whether it's a financially viable proposition. Continuous churn seems to be the only way most vendors can take make money in what is otherwise a pretty saturated market space.
Re: Laudable ambition
Robert Grant
This is true, although they are building on Ubuntu, a fully fledged OS, already. So the costs are much lower.
The thing about OpenOffice/LibreOffice
Robert Grant
It might just be my experience, but they run deathly slowly on my work MacBook Pro/personal Windows laptop. I would really like to recommend them. Do they run at Office-ish speeds for other people?
Re: The thing about OpenOffice/LibreOffice
Anonymous Coward
LibreOffice is fine. Has been for 10+ years now.
The average persion can pick up a ChromeBook and use it, despite the UI theme looking nothing like Windows.
So I don't think that is the barrier to Linux adoption. ChromeOS kind of is Linux anyway, maybe not GNU/Linux.
Most people, the problem is, they ask if it runs $x which is very important for their workflow, and the answer is very often no.
Wine usually doesn't help. I can think of very few things that work reliably on Wine and don't have a better native alternative.
I actually think that making Linux look like Windows would make it more confusing. Go into one of the many Windows control panels, which are not the finest examples of software design, and try to administer a Linux system in the same way as a Windows system. It won't work, because Linux isn't Windows.
Normal people don't do that anyway, they ask people like us for help.