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Most recent experience with Zorin, a linux distro.

posted 8 years ago by rixrex
3 replies | jump to latest

I first tried Zorin 9 about 2 years ago when first released just as a lark since it touted itself as being so user friendly to Windows users. It was an easy install on a 1GB XP HP computer that had been upped to Windows 7. Installed it as a dual boot option for comparison purposes.

It ended up being practically the same as running Windows 7 on 1GB RAM, a little sluggish but usable. Actually maybe a tiny bit quicker due to less hogs running in the "systray". It had a Linux version of Firefox and also versions of Chrome and Opera were available.

I really could not tell any difference in internet speeds between Win 7 and Zorin, but it was a change of pace to run Zorin sometimes and especially when people were over to look and wonder what it was. It's really pretty easy to use even for those not at all familiar with Linux, and still good if you are.

So I set it away and really did not think about it until just this past month when I found one of my Win 7 PCs would not upgrade to Win 10 due to CU issues though it was a relatively fast 4GB AM RAM 3.00 Ghz processor. I moved that Win 7 install over to another no OS PC that would upgrade, and wondered what to do with this leftover.

So why not try Zorin again, I thought? There were new distros, 10 and 11, but since I had the install disc for 9 and it has had a lot of good support, I threw it on in there on a new HD. Again, a quick install almost hands free, and even software updates done upon post-install in about 1/10th the time of Win 7. And nicely, ALL devices were found and drivers installed. Usually for this PC I had to locate proper useable graphics, monitor and sound drivers when installing Win 7.

But the best thing was the great upwards cure in improved quickness and internet speed from the old Win 7 that was previously on that PC. There was no comparison, Zorin beat the old Win 7 by enough that I could easily see the difference. It wasn't like just a little bit and hardly noticeable, but it was significant, where on the old 1GB PC, there was no real difference to note.

So, I'm pretty pleased with it. Next step is to learn how to use the Wine software and then also see if I can easily set up several Zorin PCs in a small network configuration that actually works well, and without all of the stupid mickey mouse security and sharing hindrances of Windows.

[–] AJ_June_forever 8 years ago

Zorin emulates Window's looks and feel quite well. Though lack of good KDE integration stops me from using it. haven't used it or tried it in last 1 and half years but I might try it just for having a look.

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[–] rixrex 8 years ago

I had issues with it when I first tried it almost two years ago. That's Zorin 9, I mean. Have not tried either 10 or 11. I could not get printer drivers for it, unless I purchased a 3rd party printer driver package.

But the recent install of Zorin 9 has an option to download updates during installation and a whole truckload of printer drivers came with it. I like the fact that I did not have to hunt and search for drivers for video/monitor or LAN or Sound like I often did with Win 7 or Win 10. So that's a prompt to try both 10 and 11 distros.

I did find that it operated best on 2gb RAM or higher, somewhat like Win 7 supposedly okay on 1gb but really sluggish. The 1gb dual-boot XP computer left a lot to be desired on Zorin responsiveness even though XP was great.

[–] m-slovak79 8 years ago

I did find that it operated best on 2gb RAM or higher, somewhat like Win 7 supposedly okay on 1gb but really sluggish.

Yeah, almost everything needs at least 2GB, but 4GB+ to run more optimal for general basic use. i think that's especially true for those who want a decent performance computer that see's moderate or regular use as a light OS with 2GB is still useable even though a bit sluggish.

but 1GB is still useable (especially if your not in a hurry) if your OS is light on resources. but with web browser burning up quite a bit more RAM then they once did i think even 1GB is really pushing it but still usable if your just using the machine as a very basic internet machine and it don't see much use as i think for more regular use you don't want nothing TOO old and nothing under 2GB of RAM.

i got Lubuntu Linux (v16.04.1 LTS) running on a old computer i had since 2001 which is a AMD Athlon 1.2ghz with 1GB of RAM and a Geforce 3 TI200 64MB video card etc. but in this computers case i think lack of CPU power is more of a performance hindrance than the lack of RAM as you can see certain tasks peg the CPU to 100% usage and loading up websites you can see the lag which is more CPU related than anything else. but considering how old it is, it's not TOO bad, especially if you bit a bit of patience and are not in a big hurry.

p.s. at that time AMD had faster CPU's than Intel and continued that way for a while til i think it was about mid-2006 before Intel regained the speed crown (i think it was the Core 2 Duo when Intel finally overtook AMD again) and Intel has been the speed king ever since i think and likely won't lose that title for the foreseeable future.

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but looking up Zorin's requirements they are pretty light...

What are the minimum system requirements that I need to install Zorin OS?

For the standard desktop editions of Zorin OS:
1 GHz x86 processor
10 GB of Hard Drive space
512 MB of system memory (RAM)
Graphics card capable of 640x480 resolution

For Zorin OS Lite:
266 MHz x86 processor
5GB of Hard Drive space
256 MB of system memory (RAM)
Graphics card capable of 640x480 resolution

which i suspect is pretty similar to Lubuntu which seems to be roughly 512MB minimum but 1GB plus is noticeably better. i won't be surprised if some places 'claim' 256MB will work but i don't see that as realistic as things are already slow enough and i imagine will drop off a cliff with that little bit of RAM.

but then again i can't imagine almost anyone still using a PC with less than 512MB of RAM nowadays simply because going back to 256MB is very old and won't allow you to run damn near anything without it being very sluggish. because i figure if you can't do basic website browsing, even if it's a bit slow, then it's pretty much not useable.

but looking around online it does appear that Zorin is one of the better lightweight linux OS's. looks like Lubuntu/Zorin are fairly similar except Zorin seems to have a better looking interface.

who knows, i might give it a shot sometime on my old computer and see how it runs but i suspect it will run similarly and about the only time that computer i got running 'Lubuntu 16.04.1 LTS' see's any use is if my main computer goes down and i need a backup computer til i can order more parts for it to fix the main computer.

but... it did come in handy when one of my old 200GB IDE drives semi-died (my main computer, besides it's 4 on-board SATA ports, has a PCI-E controller card with 2 SATA ports and one IDE port on it) as Windows would not boot when it was connected (it was working but the drive apparently semi-died and once that happened Windows would not boot until it was disconnected) and when i tried booting with Lubuntu, it booted, but could not access the drive as it would error until i set it to read-only mode which was nice as then i got the files off of it and transferred them to another drive as i would have lost some data had i not been able to do it. but since i recently got a 5TB HGST hard drive and now i basically got a backup of ALL of my important computer data on it. so basically i got at least two copies now as that 5TB drive is larger than all other have drives i got combined (basically 5TB vs 1TB/2TB/400GB/250GB/160GB/160GB/80GB. the 160's and the 80 are 2.5" drives where as the others are full size computer hard drives) as it's basically 4.05TB vs 5TB. but i removed the 400GB/250GB internal drives and am using those occasionally with a external USB 3.0 hard drive dock i got. so i just got the 1TB/2TB/5TB installed inside of my computer now. i got 1723GB free on the 5TB at the moment and it started with 5000GB + nearly 846MB over that. but just the dang file system after formatted took a little over 341MB.

p.s. but anyways, it would be nice if i could use the old motherboard that was in my main PC til May 2012 as that was from March 2006 and is MUCH better than the PC from 2001 (like it's kinda old but not ancient like the 2001 computer is). but sadly, the PSU in my old computer's case won't work with that motherboard and it's not worth investing much into getting it going. but come to think of it... i might just need a PSU to get that going assuming it (i.e. ASUS A8N32-Sli Deluxe motherboard) will fit inside of the old PC's case that currently has the 1.2Ghz Athlon CPU etc in it. who knows, maybe ill look into it sometime as if i can get that going for cheap enough it 'may' be worth it simply because that is much faster than the 1.2Ghz is for general use and would be modern enough for general internet etc. so i guess it just depends on how it all plays out as if i can just get a PSU for a cheap enough price it might just be worth it to get it going and then i can let the old 1.2Ghz CPU motherboard collect dust instead of it being the other way around at the moment. plus, that had 2GB of RAM also which i imagine will be solid for a OS like Zorin etc. hell, i might even be able to go back to Windows 7 on it until it expires in Jan 2020 and then at that point movie it to a Linux distro. or i might just say screw it and wait til my current computer gets old enough and just build a entire new one and then use my current one as a backup computer as my current computer should be solid for general use into the foreseeable future. just some random thoughts ;)

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