Submitted 5 months ago by throws_lemy@reddthat.com to technology@lemmy.world
I just installed Linux Mint on my dad’s old laptop. He asked me to do it!
I checked and it could run Windows 11 with a RAM upgrade. But he wasn’t interested in that.
He was surprised at all of the software installed by default. And mostly just uses the browser to read his Outlook mail…
Same dude!
I got games to run too, using Lutris. I can give you a few tips if you want. I put it on a thinkpad T470p.
I can probably run pretty much anything using Lutris. It can read any iso file and presumably even .exe files though I haven’t tried it with exe’s.
Still, most of what we need is available just in a browser or from open source, like Libreoffice.
Thanks for the offer! But I’ve been running Linux only since 2002 or so, currently with Arch on my laptop, because I’m not yet brave enough to try Nyx. 😄
Can’t blame them. The sloth has done so much to alienate their user base that should just kill the division
Eh, that's fine but I'm good until 2032 with my Windows 10.
Also, we aren't for sure certain how many of those people are uniquely downloaded from Windows and specifically the purpose or reason.
Some could've downloaded Zorin for experimental purposes. Some could've downloaded it from a Windows VM. Some could've downloaded it from Windows when they're in a dual-boot system.
Hate to burst that bubble, but you need to consider these things before big numbers are boasted. There's a lot of variables involved.
The article isn’t making any baseless claims. That’s you.
The developers of the Linux-based Zorin OS say their latest release, Zorin OS 18, has already been downloaded more than one million times, and according to telemetry, over 78% of those downloads came from Windows systems. It’s not a perfect proxy for real migrations, but it’s a striking data point during a moment when Microsoft’s user base is unusually restless
they need some clickbait news, that’s why.
How popular is it against other distros? First I’ve heard of it (which admittedly doesn’t say much since I’m used to the older ones), which makes me wonder how close to a million people did. Did influencers spread the word or something?
I’ve noticed Zorin does a lot of marketing and it comes in waves, you won’t hear anything for months then it’ll be everywhere for a few days.
Decade of the Linux Desktop. It’s here guys!
I’m gonna make it 780,001 today.
How many computers do you have ?!
Well, a grand total of one.
I downloaded Mint last week and started the installation but got cold feet when it came to drive formatting. I still want to keep my win10 operational in case I won’t be able to run something on Linux.
I never actually used Linux before… I installed it 3 times before and always quickly went back to windows due to some compatibility or driver issues, but…
<Rant mode=“venting”> I am NOT switching to win11… It’s enough that I am forced to use it at work. That system is so fuckin stupid… They took a lot of minor elements and just made each of them worse… I get that the sales department told you to shove OneDrive and Copilot everywhere, it’s stupid and annoying but I get it, it’s just plain old greed, but why can’t the Calendar show the whole month and don’t work on the second monitor?!? (Are you planning to add it as a paid subscription later?!?) </Rant>
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
You can just test Mint without installing it… run it off of USB.
It’ll be slower, but you can see if it fits your needs.
One can resize the Windows partition from Windows itself, then install Linux alongside it. But have backups and be careful.
Bruh, they moved rename file. That shit has been in the same place since 3.1. Fucking why.
I used disk2vhd to virtualize my laptop windows disk and put it on a USB stick and then got it running on Linux with VirtualBox. I’m gonna need it once a year for taxes.
I did run into some trouble getting secureboot working in virtualbox, but solved it after I figured out the kernel drivers were compressed.
lol I forgot about the calendar issue
a perfect example of them making it worse for literally no reason at all
Just add a new partition and dual boot, it is pretty easy.
Also I do not recommend Mint for Windows users, because the officially supported UX layers are more apple-esque. Use a distro that has KDE support baked in. Adding KDE to Mint is easy but may not be for people switching.
For that reason, I recommend going with distros with KDE Plasma by default. Kubuntu or KDE neon.
Why KDE? It feels like where Windows should have gone. It’s like the glory days of Windows (windows 2000, etc) in the modern age. It is a drastic upgrade from Windows with more freedom than you ever had.
I do not recommend Mint for Windows users, because the officially supported UX layers are more apple-esque
you can’t have a more classic desktop look and feel than using MATE, and it’s from the same people that maintains Mint
Mint has the Cinnamon desktop environment which isn’t that different from Windows/KDE. You’re probably thinking of Gnome?
You can get a cheap ssd and install linux on it. Before installing disconect existing windows drive. After install reconnect windows drive and make sure that windows boots. Then boot to bios and choose linux as default drive and after booting to mint desktop update grub to include windows. On each boot you will be able to choose which OS you want.
If you have issues with mint, try something based on Debian or Fedora rather than Ubuntu like Mint is.
For Fedora I recommend Bazzite if you do gaming and nothing too technical. Flatpaks make it easy to find and install software without messing things up. Otherwise Fedora Kiinoite.
For Debian I recommend Debian itself really. Also runs very well on much older machinery.
If you didn’t know, Ubuntu is based on Debian.
The Mint team also puts out a very stable version called LMDE which is based on Deb rather than Ubuntu.
One pretty safe way is if you get a separate drive for Linux and completely swap out the Windows one. It’s not dual booting but at least you can switch back if it doesn’t work out for you.
Just make sure you have whatever you need to get the Windows drive working again if it’s encrypted.
also because w11 is filled with glitches and bugs to the brim.
Good, keep going, people have become way too complacent about how much control their OS has over their lives, with a little bit of patience anyone can get on the Linux train these days.
I am ashamed to say that I did use windows 11 for longer than I should have.
My machine was once VERY capable. It’s not a top of the line gaming box but it’s still capable and shows no signs of crapping out yet. Can’t run windows 11 but it’s not worth throwing away my computer over.
My desktop (that runs guix) is from 2009. At the time I built it for gaming. I upgraded it to 16 gig ram and replaced the graphics card (old one died), no other mods made. Now I use it for much more mundane stuff and it’s still completely usable.
I’ve been using a PC with C2D till it died. And I’m still having thoughts of checking whether it’s solvable with a bit of soldering, perhaps replacing power.
It’s enough for music, text editing, a little bit of web browsing and old games. Old games here includes a lot of goodness, but even World of Tanks worked under Wine on it back when I used it. Slow, but playable (when you have friends and it’s a social event, alone kinda sad).
I’ve got an Intel 6900K 8-core X99 system. Also not compatible with W11, but serving me well.
The issue is even if I wanted to upgrade, that market segment is effectively dead; X299 and X399 (AMD) were the last real HEDT platforms. The only thing now is workstation tier boards, which are about $1K and processors to match
Same boat, my computer is basically the computer my wife built probably about 12 years ago before we got together, it was pretty beefy for its time. I basically stuck her old components in a new box (and also stuck a newer graphics card in it because I got a really good deal on a used 2060)
Still manages to run most games out there on acceptable (to me) settings.
Made the switch to Linux about a week ago, no major issues, some things are arguably running better now. It’s not without its hiccups but so far things have gone pretty smoothly.
More!! More! Everybody get others into Linux Mint and Pop OS Cosmic as well!! I am doing my part if we want better we must grow the community
I tried Mint and it’s just too buggy to use.
What video card do you have? Do you plan to use the machine for gaming?
Mint and Pop OS really aren’t usable for cutting edge GPU’s tho.
Bruh ain’t no way people are choosing Zorin OS over all the available options.
If this is a result of people searching “best windows like distro”, they’re profiting off of a windows theme for GNOME, not even a full DE.
You can achieve the same thing with zero effort on any distro because DEs and themes aren’t tied to a distro.
Zorin is the best distro when you come from Windows. It works almost similarly so it’s easy to grasp for those who don’t want to tinker / learn a new DE.
Zorin uses gnome? I would not have guessed that based on the couple of screenshots I saw.
Contrary to what many people thing, Gnome is extremely modular and customisable. It’s just not really exposed in the base Desktop Environment itself.
You can do literally anything with the extension system. It’s very powerful.
That does however mean that you can easily break things, which is why by default Gnome marks extensions as unsupported when a new Gnome versions come out, until the maintainer adds a text string inside the extension that flags their extension as being validated for the new version.
You can disable the version checks, of course, and just risk it. But usually I find you don’t need to. By the time a new release comes out, the Gnome beta has been available for over a month, and the extensions have already been updated in advance.
You can achieve the same thing with zero effort on any distro because DEs and themes aren’t tied to a distro
No, YOU can. But for the average Windows user this is far from “zero effort”. Just the fact that Zorin OS will automatically run Windows executables through wine without the user having to set it up is a huge deal for people coming from Windows who want their PC to “just work” without fiddling around
Yeah except I have never seen anyone actually suggest Zorin OS for this purpose due to its controversial pro edition.
There are other distros that achieve the same thing. My point is that Zorin is making money off of something I could do with zero effort, which implies its not even worth making a pay to use distro when one of the inherent benefits of linux is that its free.
I could understand if Zorin provided some groundbreaking software like Crossover, which for a long time had some serious advantages over wine and proton (yes I know irony that all are based on wine). But as other people have pointed out, most of this OS is just a reskin + preinstalled app combo. Might as well just use Nobara, which GE made in his spare time with some lazy scripts for Fedora.
Bringo. I started trying to learn how computers compute in my 40’s, after using them essentially since childhood. Still a dumbfuck. There is a huge class of users who are genuinely interested in… Having a computer - they are neat. The percentage of those people who also want to not be product-fucked on the regular by unimaginably powerful companies is pretty substantial.
It’s odd to look at Linux and open source communities that shame others, and diminish the possible entry point of a user hoping to escape the purgatory of Microsoft’s/apple etc. whims. What’s the goal? Many people are stupid; I’m pretty stupid. Help us more smarter.
What are some experiments I can do to learn grep a little? How do I internalize the file system in this OS better? How do I know I fucked something up, rather than found a loose nut in the software?
Rtfm. Hahah cheers
marketing is important. more important than a good product even.
I mean I downloaded 4 to try out.
There are two things that are keeping me attached to Windows - my PC not supporting 11, and Photoshop. My god, if anyone can get a copy of Photoshop to work with Linux, I will say goodbye to Microsoft immediately.
(Yes, I’ve tried GIMP, Krita, et al. They didn’t click for me.)
I have a windows VM for Adobe products, etc. Works fine for my usecase. If you need full GPU Acceleration (e.g. for Premiere), it gets a bit more complicated, but is doable still, as long as you have an iGPU or second GPU.
My legitimate copy of Photoshop CS6 works flawlessly with wine. But if you run the latest version it’s a different story
For work or personal use?
If its for work then consider having two machines, using windows for the work machine and Linux for the personal one.
This may not suit you, but for me and my skills, it’s a perfect Photoshop clone. All in the browser! Blows the doors off Gimp anyway.
There is literally a “photoshop UI” plugin for GIMP, did you try it?
Winboat is not even close to being stable enough to recommend.
Didn’t GIMP release an entire UI overhaul earlier this year?
I was not aware. I’ll give that a try, thanks
I think the affinity suite can run via wine, but that’s the closest you’re going to get you Photoshop on Linux.
There’s still some retraining needed to go from CS to Affinity Suite, but I did it around 5 years ago and would never go back. And now Affinity 3 is effectively free for basic use. Of course, this is probably the beginning of the end for it as Canva attempts not-a-subscription services on the Affinity platform (making it freemium), but I expect my Affinity 2 suite will still work for years to come.
That “780,000 Windows users” number is just made up for the title as clickbait.
That number is never mentioned in the original blog post.
All they said is they have a million downloads and “over 78% of these downloads came from Windows”. At no fucking point did they imply that means 780k unique users. There’s no reason to assume that everyone who downloaded the ISO actually went on to install it.
They also want $48 for their Pro version which comes with a “professional-grade creative suite” consisting of… GIMP, Blender, Inkscape, Kdenlive, and… Audacity (?), going off the screenshots they show:
They’re shamelessly reselling free software as some sort of comprehensive package, and it’s not even their own distro. They’re just piggybacking on Ubuntu.
And their premium support only covers… installation?
But hey, they support this edition with updates until 2029!
Of course, pay no attention to the coincidence that the Ubuntu LTS version it’s based on also hits end-of-life around then:
So I’m not really sure what you’re actually getting out of this purchase besides some extra themes and some really formulaic desktop wallpapers, and a couple proprietary apps. They say they “contribute to upstream Open Source projects” but offer zero evidence; their site doesn’t even have any Github/Gitlab links.
I am conflicted about Zorin, they are selling something using free software… but somehow, maybe marketing a not sure… they are able to get people on Linux that never did before. So you know, seeing people ditching Windows for Linux might be the first step… maybe someone start with Zorin, get comfortable and jump to something else.
Are they getting people onto Linux, or absorbing people that would be switching anyway and taking advantage of those users by charging them? Hard to say which it is
You’re forgetting what “regular” people are like.
I wonder if ZorinOS gathers runtime statistics and can tell if those new installees stick with Linux or switch to Windows or MacOS.
Says some distro nobody’s ever heard of
Even if most of those trying it out eventually go back to Windows, this is still great for Linux?
Penguin sounds intensify
I know some who went to Linux and a few who moved to Mac. But no one is seeing Win11 and saying “oh man, I gotta get in on that”.
nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
That’s a fucking low number