Both are adequate. Both are based on Ubuntu. The biggest difference is going to be the interface.
Zorin has a Gnome-ish interface. If you pay a few extra bucks, you can customize it to make it function like Mac or Windows or Ubuntu, etc. in one click.
Mint has a (in my opinion) much less modern interface that I don’t like. But it’s also, I believe, the single most popular Linux distro so there will be endless amounts of community support for it.
Zorin has a commercial license for additional GUI front ends, installation support, and a bunch of “professional” apps. It’s not clear if they’ve done something to make adobe/Autodesk/pro audio stuff work on Linux, pre-bundled their FOSS alternatives, or have made software themselves.
Personally, if I was looking for something “professional”, I’d go PopOS!. But if I were a small or mid-sized business I’d consider Zorin Pro if I could get license to include additional support outside the installer… Or just buy System76 computers with PopOS! pre-installed and support built-in to their sales pipeline already.
That said, Mint is also very Windows (classic)-like in their GUI experince (intentionally). It also has one of the largest Linux communities focusing on GUI usability.
Depends on your use case on which flavor you should go. But for $50, I’m curious what Zorin’s software suite is and might dive in.
Or just buy System76 computers with PopOS! pre-installed and support built-in to their sales pipeline already.
S76 (and all Linux PCs) are all just insanely expensive and overpowered for the needs of most people. I wish they would just offer a barebones model with an N100 or something for $500 that normal people could afford…
You can buy nearly any budget machine and load Linux off a USB stick, but most people just take whatever they have and their last windows action is to download a boot image and write it to a USB stick, then boot off the stick and tell it to use the whole disk
Then use your backup system to restore your documents, pictures, web and mail configuration, and game settings and saves to your Linux machine
I mean, that’s kinda the cost for low volume sales + computer support.
They’re not selling computers for the average Linux user, they’re selling computers for independent professionals and businesses that need the support licenses to confidently run their operations.
For the average Linux user, they have put out an incredibly stable version of their OS that has a professional in mind (docking station ready, highly optimized GUI workflow tooling, familiar OS styling, and more). We can then go grab a bare machine and toss their OS on ourselves.
I get it though. I’ve strongly considered snagging one of their laptops in the past. Especially since I want to support them. I’ve even considered some other machines for niche purposes (HTPC, home lab VM host)
, but always wind up snagging a Lenovo or IBM laptop or building my own desktop instead.
I have the pro version, aaaand it’s convenient… But honestly all applications can be downloaded without much work. Zorin is also so stable that I’ve never had to contact support. The extra layouts is pretty nice tho.
This is more of a “donation” option imo. If you love foss you should definitely financially support projects that you endorse!
It is in fact a bunch of pre-installed free software. I like Zorin, but Zorin Pro just seems like a way to trick businesses into paying for the distro. I guess having access to a support team is nice, but otherwise it’s not worth it at all.
Mint develops their own desktop called Cinnamon which is like a cross between Gnome2 and windows 7 UIs. Its looks a bit bland, but some people prefer that.
Zorin uses Gnome3, but is heavily customized to give people a choice between windows 7, windows 10 or MacOS type experiences. The UI does look a lot more modern than mint in the looks department. They also have a commercial support option.
Both have a pretty good suite of software for customization and management.
Personally I’m loving Bazzite, which is Fedora based with a lot of customizations for gaming and modern hardware. It’s also immutable, which makes it difficult to break.
I’d advise using Mint in place of Ubuntu as your training wheels/potential daily driver, since Ubuntu’s developers (Cannonical) have the habit of making features and restrictions absent in the rest of the ecosystem (Snap comes to mind).
Mint has a much larger and more dedicated userbase, so you probably will have an easier time finding answers to questions (Mint’s forums are pretty good nowadays), and it’s been an established “Windows jumping-off point” OS for quite a few years now. Zorin is the new kid on the block (while they existed in the past, their quality was nowhere near on par with Mint), so I’d wait and see before checking them out.
Zorin vs Mint comes down to; do you like the color green or blue? Jokes aside they are basically the same. I prefer gnome(zorin) over cinnamon(mint). I also find Zorin does a better job guiding newbs from windows. For example if you would download and run a windows exe, then Zorin will show a pop-up telling the user about alternative Linux apps, or it will handle running windows apps for you through wine.
As a linux newb your choice of distro really doesn’t matter too much. Just don’t go for difficult stuff like Nix, Gentoo. Desktop Environment is where it’s really at for newbs. So try out Kde Plasma, Gnome, Cinnamon and pick the one that you fancy.
Interesting! This is exactly why I asked. I knew the general consensus would be go with mint. I’m looking for an easy OS cuz I don’t want a project car for my daily driver.
zorin is more out of box and mint is lighter. so when you install zorin its going to put in libre office, disk burning, windows rpd, wine with play on linux, its a long list. So it comes down to out of box (I want a bunch of software I may use to be installed along with the os) or lighter and get what you want later. zorin is basically a lazier distro which is why I like it :) while some stuff may be a waste of space I just want it available right away or in a situation where im offline and did not think to install it previously for some reason (disk burning is a good example for this kind of thing)
Zorin and Mint are quite similar in philosophy, Zorin is more “fancy” but Mint is more reliable in my experience (not to say Zorin isn’t, just that it’s har to beet Mint). Any reason for wanting to use Ubuntu? Mint and Zorin are based on Ubuntu so pretty much everything that works on Ubuntu works on Mint/Zorin, most of the instructions for Ubuntu even transfer over
Few years back I thought I might get into cyber security. Had an old gaming PC that I put ubuntu on for learning purposes. Had fun, eventually bricked the PC (it was a Frankenstein anyways).
I figured everyone would say go with Mint. But its nice to hear everyone’s thoughts.
So I’ve mucked around with ubuntu… gonna switch over to linux. Ideally something more user friendly at first.
Can someone TLDR Zorin OS vs Mint?
For now I just want something I can swap out my main device until I have more time to finish learning ubuntu.
Both are adequate. Both are based on Ubuntu. The biggest difference is going to be the interface.
Zorin has a Gnome-ish interface. If you pay a few extra bucks, you can customize it to make it function like Mac or Windows or Ubuntu, etc. in one click.
Mint has a (in my opinion) much less modern interface that I don’t like. But it’s also, I believe, the single most popular Linux distro so there will be endless amounts of community support for it.
Zorin has a commercial license for additional GUI front ends, installation support, and a bunch of “professional” apps. It’s not clear if they’ve done something to make adobe/Autodesk/pro audio stuff work on Linux, pre-bundled their FOSS alternatives, or have made software themselves.
Personally, if I was looking for something “professional”, I’d go PopOS!. But if I were a small or mid-sized business I’d consider Zorin Pro if I could get license to include additional support outside the installer… Or just buy System76 computers with PopOS! pre-installed and support built-in to their sales pipeline already.
That said, Mint is also very Windows (classic)-like in their GUI experince (intentionally). It also has one of the largest Linux communities focusing on GUI usability.
Depends on your use case on which flavor you should go. But for $50, I’m curious what Zorin’s software suite is and might dive in.
S76 (and all Linux PCs) are all just insanely expensive and overpowered for the needs of most people. I wish they would just offer a barebones model with an N100 or something for $500 that normal people could afford…
You can buy nearly any budget machine and load Linux off a USB stick, but most people just take whatever they have and their last windows action is to download a boot image and write it to a USB stick, then boot off the stick and tell it to use the whole disk
Then use your backup system to restore your documents, pictures, web and mail configuration, and game settings and saves to your Linux machine
I mean, that’s kinda the cost for low volume sales + computer support.
They’re not selling computers for the average Linux user, they’re selling computers for independent professionals and businesses that need the support licenses to confidently run their operations.
For the average Linux user, they have put out an incredibly stable version of their OS that has a professional in mind (docking station ready, highly optimized GUI workflow tooling, familiar OS styling, and more). We can then go grab a bare machine and toss their OS on ourselves.
I get it though. I’ve strongly considered snagging one of their laptops in the past. Especially since I want to support them. I’ve even considered some other machines for niche purposes (HTPC, home lab VM host) , but always wind up snagging a Lenovo or IBM laptop or building my own desktop instead.
No, that’s the cost of high-end hardware.
I have the pro version, aaaand it’s convenient… But honestly all applications can be downloaded without much work. Zorin is also so stable that I’ve never had to contact support. The extra layouts is pretty nice tho.
This is more of a “donation” option imo. If you love foss you should definitely financially support projects that you endorse!
The amount of contributions to FOSS from a downstream Ubuntu remix are very limited. Better donate to Debian or buy a Steam Deck.
It is in fact a bunch of pre-installed free software. I like Zorin, but Zorin Pro just seems like a way to trick businesses into paying for the distro. I guess having access to a support team is nice, but otherwise it’s not worth it at all.
I think that is the point. Its like red hat. You pay for support.
Both have an Ubuntu base
Mint develops their own desktop called Cinnamon which is like a cross between Gnome2 and windows 7 UIs. Its looks a bit bland, but some people prefer that.
Zorin uses Gnome3, but is heavily customized to give people a choice between windows 7, windows 10 or MacOS type experiences. The UI does look a lot more modern than mint in the looks department. They also have a commercial support option.
Both have a pretty good suite of software for customization and management.
Personally I’m loving Bazzite, which is Fedora based with a lot of customizations for gaming and modern hardware. It’s also immutable, which makes it difficult to break.
I’d advise using Mint in place of Ubuntu as your training wheels/potential daily driver, since Ubuntu’s developers (Cannonical) have the habit of making features and restrictions absent in the rest of the ecosystem (Snap comes to mind).
Mint has a much larger and more dedicated userbase, so you probably will have an easier time finding answers to questions (Mint’s forums are pretty good nowadays), and it’s been an established “Windows jumping-off point” OS for quite a few years now. Zorin is the new kid on the block (while they existed in the past, their quality was nowhere near on par with Mint), so I’d wait and see before checking them out.
Zorin vs Mint comes down to; do you like the color green or blue? Jokes aside they are basically the same. I prefer gnome(zorin) over cinnamon(mint). I also find Zorin does a better job guiding newbs from windows. For example if you would download and run a windows exe, then Zorin will show a pop-up telling the user about alternative Linux apps, or it will handle running windows apps for you through wine.
As a linux newb your choice of distro really doesn’t matter too much. Just don’t go for difficult stuff like Nix, Gentoo. Desktop Environment is where it’s really at for newbs. So try out Kde Plasma, Gnome, Cinnamon and pick the one that you fancy.
Interesting! This is exactly why I asked. I knew the general consensus would be go with mint. I’m looking for an easy OS cuz I don’t want a project car for my daily driver.
Mint is loved for a reason! One user takes a left turn, the other right. Like i said focus on desktop environments :)
zorin is more out of box and mint is lighter. so when you install zorin its going to put in libre office, disk burning, windows rpd, wine with play on linux, its a long list. So it comes down to out of box (I want a bunch of software I may use to be installed along with the os) or lighter and get what you want later. zorin is basically a lazier distro which is why I like it :) while some stuff may be a waste of space I just want it available right away or in a situation where im offline and did not think to install it previously for some reason (disk burning is a good example for this kind of thing)
Just go Mint and then you can get as deep or not as you want into Linux.
Zorin and Mint are quite similar in philosophy, Zorin is more “fancy” but Mint is more reliable in my experience (not to say Zorin isn’t, just that it’s har to beet Mint). Any reason for wanting to use Ubuntu? Mint and Zorin are based on Ubuntu so pretty much everything that works on Ubuntu works on Mint/Zorin, most of the instructions for Ubuntu even transfer over
Nothing specific.
Few years back I thought I might get into cyber security. Had an old gaming PC that I put ubuntu on for learning purposes. Had fun, eventually bricked the PC (it was a Frankenstein anyways).
I figured everyone would say go with Mint. But its nice to hear everyone’s thoughts.
Nyarchlinux is the Linux for you!
https://nyarchlinux.moe/
Honestly I downloaded it as a joke but it’s great
Fuck it we ball, I have to know how scuffed it is.
Username checks out? LOL
Looks fun enough to spin up in a VM at least. :)
I love that this exists
Is this a serious comment? Because I don’t see an /s
I use nyarch, btw