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Zorin OS?


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I've heard of linix for years but know nothing of it.  I recently came across this OS online: http://zorin-os.com/

How well does this perform?  Is it compatible with a wide variety of hardware (like my dell 330)?  Also, what security programs are available for it (firewall, antivirus etc).  While I'm perfectly happy with my win2k machine, I was thinking of experimenting with a new OS for my other xp machine.  Just thought I'd ask if any of you guys have any experience with this?

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I have quite a bit of experience with Linux. It's a great OS, especially for someone who is tech savvy. Unlike Windows, Linux is highly modular, so one can customize their OS with a variety of shells and desktop environments. Linux has great compatibility these days. You can install a distro on almost any Mac or PC, and expect to have everything just work. Nvidia graphics cards seem to be the only area where Linux lags behind in compatibility. Performance tends to vary depending on what software you run and how well your hardware is supported, though I've generally found Windows to be a bit faster in most cases.

 

As for security, there are firewall and antivirus programs available, but they're not very useful for the majority of users, since Linux is already a secure OS and has very little malware written for it compared to Windows.

 

If you're looking to try a new OS, give Zorin a try. It's made to be easy for people coming from a Windows background.

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Nvidia graphics cards seem to be the only area where Linux lags behind in compatibility.

Are you saying then that Intel, Radeon and Matrox are AOK... or do you mean that updated drivers or drivers for new nVidia cards are slow to become available?

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I'm saying that of the major vendors of graphics cards, Nvidia tends to have the most compatibility problems on Linux. Most Nvidia cards actually do work fine using the proprietary drivers, and outperform other cards, but there just seems to be more compatibility problems than with other GPU vendors. Intel, ATI, and Matrox document their hardware pretty extensively, and have well-supported open source drivers.

 

The only way to know how well Linux runs on your computer is to actually try it out. Many distributions, including Zorin, can be run live from a DVD or USB drive without having to install it first to your hard drive.

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  • 4 weeks later...

see thats the problem

me as win user, and I bet 99% of them like me know s*** about these Linux shells

gnome, kde, some xfce and dunno how many are there and what are they

wikipedia only gives their names but not what they represent

 

even worse, some distros have 3 or 4 of them - WTF

 

so how the hell can we know anything

unless theres an app that provides some sort of relink to such sites

Edited by vinifera
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yes but there is ZERO documentation for newbies which does which

and which is better or lighter or more customizable

 

I gain nothing from installing OS that gives you huge amount of choice

but ZERO knowledge of what serves what and which is better

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok, I've tried Linux Mint and Zorin on one of my desktops, Mint for some reason has a problem with restarting-but Zorin seems to work just fine.  The problem I'm having now is that I have a U.S. Robotics USB dialup modem that has linux drivers on the cd-but how do I install the thing?  Anyone have a tutorial on how to do this?

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I tried Zorin about three years ago when Windows 8 first came out. While I liked their Start Menu, the graphical quality of the OS left a lot to be desired -- "grainy" or "gritty" is the best adjective I can come up with to describe the look of the taskbar, window borders, backgrounds, etc. Think of the way the background looks in the Windows 10 Settings app or the title bar, like dingy or (again) gritty.

 

More recently, thanks to @dencorso I tried a Linux distro (Netrunner) that uses KDE, and it looks much sharper in every sense of the word. It even comes with built-in themes that make the windows look reasonably like Windows 7, including some transparency. If I ever switch to Netrunner full-time, I'll search for a way to make a 3D taskbar (think Vista ;) ) and if possible a launcher closer in design to the traditional Windows Start Menu.

 

--JorgeA

 

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KDE is pretty awesome as far as customizability and user friendliness is concerned, but I've always had problems with it crashing or glitching out.

 

My favorite desktop environment for Linux is Xfce. It's very lightweight, customizable, and has a very XP-ish feel to it.

 

Ok, I've tried Linux Mint and Zorin on one of my desktops, Mint for some reason has a problem with restarting-but Zorin seems to work just fine.  The problem I'm having now is that I have a U.S. Robotics USB dialup modem that has linux drivers on the cd-but how do I install the thing?  Anyone have a tutorial on how to do this?

Do you get any error messages when trying to set up your dial-up connection through the Zorin interface? "Big" Linux distros like Ubuntu, Mint, Zorin, Debian, etc. usually include kernel modules for all hardware that they expect a user to use with the system, so it's likely that you already have a driver installed for that modem. Unlike Windows, Linux users rarely need to manually install drivers.

 

If you have problems, run the "lsusb", "lspci -k", and "lsmod" commands and post their output. We can diagnose the issue if we know what hardware the system detected and has drivers loaded for.

 

MSFN is mainly about Microsoft products, so you might also want to ask in a Linux-specific forum if you want more help.

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I tried Linux mint and ubuntu, after following a couple of different sets of tutorials I found-I still couldn't get the thing to recognize my modem.  I've already put XP back on that system for now, but whenever I bite the bullet to upgrade back to cable internet-I'll give it another shot since all of them seemed to detect my ethernet stuff.

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For the USRobotics USR5637 56K USB FaxModem, according to http://support.usr.com/support/5637/5637-ug/install.html:

Linux Kernel 2.4.20 and Higher

You need a USB modem driver (CDC ACM) compiled into a Linux kernel 2.4.20 or higher or as a loadable module for your kernel. Installation of the modem under these kernels is fully automatic provided your kernel has the Plug and Play module enabled (default). You do not need to install any drivers off the USRobotics installation CD-ROM.

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  • 10 months later...

Been on cable internet for the last few months, have really enjoyed Linux!  Zorin 9, Linux Mint have been the main distros I've dabbled in-however the cost is fixing to go back up so I've started scrambling again to figure out the dialup issue-and now I have for Zorin 9!

Thanks to this page for the information! https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-56k-dial-modem-support-gnu-linux

I installed gnome ppp, then went into terminal and typed "sudo adduser (username) dialout" then rebooted my system.

Fired up gnome ppp, detected my modem, entered my info and it works!:D

Windows is just a game machine for me now!

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