Edit: i apologize for the gargantuan amount of text in my reply.
tlwr: Good choice for beginners. It attempts to ease certain aspects like installing software. Issues include outdated stuff due to being lts and duplicate apps on the store
+++++++++++
It was my first distro, back when v16.0 had just been released in 2021. Its a good distro. It has very good ideas which are helpful for beginners, id say.
The main aspect id recommend it for linux beginners is that if you try to download certain software from the web, a pop up will appear that says “hey, you can actually download this app on the software center”. I found this super useful in order to break the habit of searching the web for all the exes i need.
(Fun story: One time i needed Zoom, so i went to its website and i didnt know if I had to pick the deb, rpm or tar.gz . Once i clicked on the deb, that pop up showed up, telling me Zoom was in the software center all along haha.)
When you download an exe with no equivalent on the app store and run it, it will ask you if you want to turn on “Windows App Support”. Its just a fancy term for installing Wine, but its very helpful for a new user, as normally youd need the terminal to install it.
Another core aspect of Zorin is that you can install apps from the snapstore, flathub, ubuntu’s repos, zorin’s own repos, and the afromentioned windows app support, from the get go. I chose zorin for this reason: flatpaks vs snaps was a very prominent discussion back then, so a distro that implemented both by default let me form my own take.
(A huge minus from this comes with duplicate apps. My example: I needed Audacity, searching for it gave me three results. The flatpak, the snap and the ubuntu repo variant. That perplexed me for a few minutes and I was confused when i ended up installing two of them by accident.)
I think those are the main aspects of zorin. It uses a heavily customized version of Gnome 3.38 (latest release of gnome at the time). It has a lot of extensions to bring a Windows-like experience (Dash to Panel, KDEConnect, Desktop icons NG+, etc). The shell theme is honestly gorgeous and it has accent colours with dark mode too.
There is a “Lite” version of zorin that uses xfce instead. Its theme is nearly identical to the one they used in Gnome. There is also a “Pro” version that costs 40 dollars. Thats mainly to support the project, as it only grants you more preinstalled apps and the ability to switch to a MacOS or Unity style of desktop (aka different gnome extensions to replicate those DEs e.g. “dash to dock”)
Since its yet another ubuntu lts based distro, its packages will tend to be outdated. v16.2 came out recently i think, which updated its packages to 22.10 so it wont be as noticeable as it could be. Nonetheless, it still has outdated features in some regards. (It still uses Gnome 3 as DE, no Wayland support, etc.)
In short. Its a good distro. It eased my transition from windows with those popups that encourage usage of the app center. They also made installed wine as easy as it gets. Having flatpaks and snaps allow the user to get the latest software updates with an lts stability. It also looks fantastic theme wise. The only thing i could note as issues are the duplicate apps on the app center and the outdated aspects many lts distros have. If those dont bother you, give it a go. Perhaps itll make you feel right at home.
Edit: i apologize for the gargantuan amount of text in my reply.
tlwr: Good choice for beginners. It attempts to ease certain aspects like installing software. Issues include outdated stuff due to being lts and duplicate apps on the store
+++++++++++
It was my first distro, back when v16.0 had just been released in 2021. Its a good distro. It has very good ideas which are helpful for beginners, id say.
The main aspect id recommend it for linux beginners is that if you try to download certain software from the web, a pop up will appear that says “hey, you can actually download this app on the software center”. I found this super useful in order to break the habit of searching the web for all the exes i need.
(Fun story: One time i needed Zoom, so i went to its website and i didnt know if I had to pick the deb, rpm or tar.gz . Once i clicked on the deb, that pop up showed up, telling me Zoom was in the software center all along haha.)
When you download an exe with no equivalent on the app store and run it, it will ask you if you want to turn on “Windows App Support”. Its just a fancy term for installing Wine, but its very helpful for a new user, as normally youd need the terminal to install it.
Another core aspect of Zorin is that you can install apps from the snapstore, flathub, ubuntu’s repos, zorin’s own repos, and the afromentioned windows app support, from the get go. I chose zorin for this reason: flatpaks vs snaps was a very prominent discussion back then, so a distro that implemented both by default let me form my own take.
(A huge minus from this comes with duplicate apps. My example: I needed Audacity, searching for it gave me three results. The flatpak, the snap and the ubuntu repo variant. That perplexed me for a few minutes and I was confused when i ended up installing two of them by accident.)
I think those are the main aspects of zorin. It uses a heavily customized version of Gnome 3.38 (latest release of gnome at the time). It has a lot of extensions to bring a Windows-like experience (Dash to Panel, KDEConnect, Desktop icons NG+, etc). The shell theme is honestly gorgeous and it has accent colours with dark mode too.
There is a “Lite” version of zorin that uses xfce instead. Its theme is nearly identical to the one they used in Gnome. There is also a “Pro” version that costs 40 dollars. Thats mainly to support the project, as it only grants you more preinstalled apps and the ability to switch to a MacOS or Unity style of desktop (aka different gnome extensions to replicate those DEs e.g. “dash to dock”)
Since its yet another ubuntu lts based distro, its packages will tend to be outdated. v16.2 came out recently i think, which updated its packages to 22.10 so it wont be as noticeable as it could be. Nonetheless, it still has outdated features in some regards. (It still uses Gnome 3 as DE, no Wayland support, etc.)
In short. Its a good distro. It eased my transition from windows with those popups that encourage usage of the app center. They also made installed wine as easy as it gets. Having flatpaks and snaps allow the user to get the latest software updates with an lts stability. It also looks fantastic theme wise. The only thing i could note as issues are the duplicate apps on the app center and the outdated aspects many lts distros have. If those dont bother you, give it a go. Perhaps itll make you feel right at home.