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Windows Linux

Windows 10 Refugees Flock To Linux as Zorin OS Claims 'Biggest Launch Ever' (neowin.net) 116

Posted by EditorDavid from the year-of-the-Linux-desktop dept.
"Windows 10 is officially dead," writes Slashdot user darwinmac, "and the vultures are circling. Or maybe they are liberators, depending on your point of view." Neowin reports: Of all the projects trying to poach Windows users, Zorin Group might be the most aggressive, launching its biggest OS upgrade, Zorin OS 18, on the very day Windows 10 died. In a recent post on X, Zorin Group celebrated the launch of version 18, claiming that it hit 100,000 downloads in "a little over 2 days". The company called it its "biggest launch ever" and claimed that over 72% of those downloads came from Windows...

Zorin OS 18 now includes an updated version of WINE 10 for better support of Windows software. On top of that, there's also an expanded database that helps when it detects a Windows installer. The system checks the file and suggests the best way to run over 170 popular apps, whether that means installing a native Linux version, using the web-based alternative, or firing it up through WINE.
The article also notes LibreOffice's creators have been presenting Linux as a secure and cost-effective alternative since June, and "We have also seen initiatives like The "End of 10" Campaign by KDE, making the case for Linux and providing guides and info on how to switch."
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Windows 10 Refugees Flock To Linux as Zorin OS Claims 'Biggest Launch Ever' More

Windows 10 Refugees Flock To Linux as Zorin OS Claims 'Biggest Launch Ever'

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  • Linux is cool now (Score:5, Interesting)

    by thecombatwombat ( 571826 ) on Saturday October 18, 2025 @03:07PM (#65734896)

    The biggest shift I've noticed in conversations around desktop Linux is when someone says something like this:

    "Is Linux really good enough to do $x? Such and such didn't work, OMG LOL."

    Maybe they want to run photoshop, or some game, whatever.

    In 2010, this would be met by a bunch of advocates basically begging that person to use Linux, or trying to shame them to get good, and everyone would just sort of get smug and walk away. The original person who started the conversation says something like "This is why you jobless neckbeards can't use real operating systems" or something silly.

    In 2025, the conversation often goes "so don't run Linux, it's cool, Linux doesn't need you, the growth is happening with or without you." And the original poster says something like "no no, I still want to, I'm cool too." Because running Windows, is just not cool at this point. If you're like a PC building gamer, it's not something to be proud of. Upgrading from 10 -> 11 when PewDiePie is upgrading from 10 -> Arch, just isn't something to make noise about.

    The tone has totally changed, go check out like /r/linuxquestions on Reddit or similar, countless YouTube channels. The community's with Linux switchers younger than the /. crowd are night and day.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by sinij ( 911942 )
      However, Linux desktop UI have been going off the deep end for years. I recently loaded Gnome and it won't even let me have desktop icons. Deeply, disturbingly anti-user mindset.

      • gnome is the worst (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        The organization is almost completely broke due to mismanagement, and so Framework (the laptop company) offered to give them money, since Framework uses Gnome. GNOME TURNED IT DOWN BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T LIKE THE POLITICAL VIEWS OF OTHER SOFTWARE FRAMEWORK DONATED TO. Like Christ on a pogo stick, the snake has eaten itself. The world would really be better off with Gnome. Doesn't even work on FreeBSD anymore because Gnome has decided that systemd is now an essential part of Unix.

        • I stopped using gnome years ago when the new version went out with Ubuntu. I was using a little Toshiba netbook and it was a disaster, just wouldn't work. then found Mint/Mate which worked perfectly on that same little computer for the next maybe 13 years. It was a while ago but if I recall correctly I went over to Mint because it was the only distro with Mate. It was a quite a while back so my memory might be incorrect on this point.

          Replaced the Toshiba this year with a Framework 13 running latest Mint/Mat

        • Seriously, what are you talking about?

          GNOME listed Framework on their donors page, they are either the first or second corporate sponsor to be listed there:

          https://donate.gnome.org/ [gnome.org]

          I don't know how to interpret that as turning down their money?

        • Like Christ on a pogo stick, the snake has eaten itself. The world would really be better off with Gnome. Doesn't even work on FreeBSD anymore because Gnome has decided that systemd is now an essential part of Unix.

          It is exactly this sort of thing that will keep Linux off most end-users desktop - not because the average desktop user cares about Gnome, but they see the arguments, the forked OS versions and general in-fighting and simply choose to stick with the stable, reliable OS they know.

          Yes, "stable, reliable" - the vast majority of computer users (90%+?) manage to do everything they want to do in Windows, they don't care about the the historical issues Linux advocates remember from the last version of Windows they

      • Definitely true for gnome (and their increasingly forced client side decorations). Fortunately there are other desktop environments and programs. Any program which forces those awful inconsistent title bars (which don't even show if the window is focused) ends up getting uninstalled. We solved these UI problems decades ago, gnome seems determined to cause them all over again.

      • Re:Linux is cool now (Score:5, Informative)

        by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Saturday October 18, 2025 @03:31PM (#65734954)

        However, Linux desktop UI have been going off the deep end for years. I recently loaded Gnome and it won't even let me have desktop icons. Deeply, disturbingly anti-user mindset.

        Try Mate [wikipedia.org] or Cinnamon [wikipedia.org], based on GNOME 2 and 3 respectively, preferably on Mint. I'm using Mint 22.2 (Cinnamon).

        • Re:Linux is cool now (Score:4, Interesting)

          by sinij ( 911942 ) on Saturday October 18, 2025 @04:34PM (#65735048)
          I like minimalist PixeL (default with PiOS), but having Gnome being default on so many distributions is insane and holding Linux adoption back. I was recently re-exposed to Gnome when I installed Debian 13 with all defaults. I was really shocked how bad it was (Gnome, not Debian). WTF.

          • I like minimalist PixeL (default with PiOS), but having Gnome being default on so many distributions is insane and holding Linux adoption back. I was recently re-exposed to Gnome when I installed Debian 13 with all defaults. I was really shocked how bad it was (Gnome, not Debian). WTF.

            I recently stood up a VM with openSUSE Tumbleweed and GNOME, to check out if I liked the rolling release, and (again) didn't like GNOME compared to Cinnamon or even Mate. I used Ubuntu Mate until v18 then Canonical went completely Snap happy, so I switched to Mint Mate, then Cinnamon. Will be sticking with this for a while on the bare metal. I also tried a VM with Mint LMDE and it was okay, but I liked regular Mint better.

          • I use Fedora and dropped Gnome when I learned how awful Gnome 3 was going to be and ended up with Xfce. The default on Fedora is Gnome, but they also have a number of spins based on different DE,s including Xfce. Normally I upgrade in place, but there are times I want/need a clean install, and those spins make it easy. Unlike with some distros I don't have to install with Gnome then migrate to Xfce and try to get rid of everything Gnome insists on dragging in. I can't speak for other distros, but at lea

            • Re: Linux is cool now (Score:5, Insightful)

              by reanjr ( 588767 ) on Saturday October 18, 2025 @05:13PM (#65735132) Homepage

              The basic (netinst) install for Debian doesn't even include X/Wayland. It's pretty bare bones. Pick whichever DE you want.

              There is a more fully featured version of Debian that ships with GNOME as the default, but IMO the small netinst distro of Debian is THE Debian distro; the rest are variants.

              • And how many Linux newcomers do you think there are who know how to perform a netinst on their own without any help?

                • It's brain dead simple. You just hit enter until you have an OS. The only exception here is when you type in a username and password.

                  • Re: (Score:2)

                    by sinij ( 911942 )
                    It is dead simple when you have an idea what the outcomes going to be because you have done it before. Now think from the point of view of someone doing it for the first time, installer does not at all explain what these choices mean. It ought to at least show preview/screenshot of each available desktop environment for people that don't know that Gnome is absolute shit.

                    • It's way simpler and more detailed than installing Windows. Windows installer is filled with minefields that can disable features or fuck up your system if you choose wrong. And there is no warning or explanation for any of it.

                      The Debian installer is fully explained for a newb.

                    • No, windows installer for Win 10 or Win 11 is *easier* than, say, an Ubuntu desktop install -Windows doesn't ask the installer about LVM/disk layout. That isn't a hard question, and a sentence saying "if you are unsure, just accept the default choice, it's suitable for most users" could neutralize the issue, but my point is Win 10 and Win 11 installer is really, really simple. If you think it's hard, you haven't tried it lately.

              • Bam! THE root distro.

                Oh wait, Devuan. But the net install is the go to iso.

        • KDE has come a long ways too. I personally had been using Cinnamon for years now, after being a long time Gnome2 and MATE user. I hadn't tried KDE in probably 15-20 years. I recently installed Manjaro on an extra machine and I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. I still kinda prefer Cinnamon in general, but I think that's just because I'm used to it.

      • >"However, Linux desktop UI have been going off the deep end for years. I recently loaded Gnome"

        Um, Linux doesn't have "a" "desktop UI". And Gnome is probably the worst in many people's opinion. I would never set up a new user with Gnome. It would likely be Mint running Cinnamon or MATE, or KDE. Linux has lots of choices for desktops, and most are quite nice.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by sinij ( 911942 )

          Um, Linux doesn't have "a" "desktop UI".

          While technically you are correct, do you think people attempting to migrate from Windows would care about this? Whatever default is, they will install, look at the UI, correctly decide that these people lost their minds and never give Linux another chance.

          • Gnome wants to be MacOS, so it's not surprising that someone who's used to MS Windows would hate it. If you're coming from Windows, I would suggest KDE as a desktop that will look similar to what you're used to.

      • However, Linux desktop UI have been going off the deep end for years. I recently loaded Gnome and it won't even let me have desktop icons. Deeply, disturbingly anti-user mindset.

        Gnome has always been a lost cause.
        https://kde.org/ [kde.org]

      • Re:Linux is cool now (Score:4, Informative)

        by test321 ( 8891681 ) on Saturday October 18, 2025 @04:08PM (#65735012)

        The problem is the big distributions persist at promoting GNOME as the default option despite a long history of questionable UI decisions. The constant support enables this sort of decision making at GNOME.

        • I agree, GNOME 3+ is still garbage. Wish KDE was more prevalent

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Not just that, but if you want anything other than GNOME you are kinda on your own when it comes to compatibility and sorting out the inevitably issues that comes up.

          One of the biggest problems with Linux is the diversity. It's good that people have a choice, but with that comes a huge number of compatibility problems. Not just software compatibility, but support compatibility. Something doesn't work, you need to find a solution for your specific configuration, your obscure variant of Debian, and also the s

      • However, Linux desktop UI have been going off the deep end for years. I recently loaded Gnome and it won't even let me have desktop icons. Deeply, disturbingly anti-user mindset.

        This article is about ZorinOS.

        ZorinOS tries very hard to mimic the UIs os OTHER OSs, including, but not limited to, Win7, Win10 and MacOS (you, the user. chooses which one it mimics).
        Linux Mint also Mimics the UI of Windows.

        So, Linux UI going to the deep end for years is not relevant (is offtopic) in this particular thread.

        PS: By the way, ZorinOS offers paid support, which may be usefull for independent professionals for compliance/certification/legal/auditing/(cyber)insurance reasons...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

          I recently loaded a computer with the free version of the Zorin OS and it looks very good and promising.

          The computer is a potato so I can't tell how good it is.

          What in the end could be a blocker would be the lack of office system integrations with Teams and Outlook being the most important ones. Then comes the question why companies relies on storing all their data in the cloud served by a different company. What would happen if that company goes offline? (Bankruptcy, crime or political action... Take your

    • Is this finally the year of Linux on the desktop?
      Is anyone here old enough to remember that joke?

      • Hey, I'm still waiting for the year of the LAN and the paperless office to arrive. Linux on the desktop... that's a long way off (says the guy who's been using Linux as his go-to OS for nearly 20 years and has no regrets.

    • In 2025, the conversation often goes "so don't run Linux, it's cool, Linux doesn't need you, the growth is happening with or without you."

      This isn't a good thing. This is just a reflection of toxicity in the community, it's not promoting growth, its making it out to be a club full of stuck up self absorbed arseholes.

      Please stop having these conversations.

      • The *nix community has always been thus. I've seen it from the sidelines since the 90s. Only the phrases have changed, the holier-than-thou attitude never has, and probably never will.

    • In 2025, the conversation often goes "so don't run Linux, it's cool, Linux doesn't need you, the growth is happening with or without you." .

      And it has been that way for a lot of us for a long time. To put it bluntly, I don't care. I don't use an operating system based on popularity. I do have 1 program that I need to use that runs on Windows only. When I need to use it, I pull out the laptop it is on, use it, turn it off and it sits until the next time. Then I go back to MacOS or Linux and have a week or more of problem free computing.

      You have to use Windows and cannot use anything else? I feel badly for ya. That and a dollar will get you a

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Malc ( 1751 )

      Yet the pain points that Linus raised over four years ago still exist today.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      • It's so weird to me how a certain crew of Linux detractors just love to cut and paste this video all over but don't seem to have any idea what it is.

        For one, it's not over four years ago, that's just when that one video was uploaded. It's from 2014, it's over ten years ago. I mean I guess uhm actually ten is over four but . . . come on, that's not what this person meant.

        Two, most of them don't exist today, at least not nearly in the same form. I mean, Linux is still open, that openness will always mean that

        • It's even worse that this is ten years old because those painpoints still exist. It's ridiculous how difficult it is to even compile for a different version of glibc etc to the build environment, it's like doing a cross-compile. Windows and macOS make that easy. There are still two main package formats (which apparently /.ers prefer per the comments about Mint, etc). And Snap and Flatpak are bloated bandaids working around a shitty environment.

  • Playing with toys doesn't count (Score:3)

    by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Saturday October 18, 2025 @03:07PM (#65734898)

    Sustained user base counts. Let me know in 2 months how many people stayed with it, then I'll be impressed.

    To be clear I hope to be impressed, but this isn't news, testing the waters alone isn't a success.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by allo ( 1728082 )

      All with computers that don't run the recent Windows anymore. That's why Microsoft failed to push it to users.

      • The problem is we have just read articles about record computer sales in recent memory driven by the same effect. While I'm an advocate for people using Linux, I am sceptical that these people will stick with it and not just go and buy a different machine in a month with Windows 11 on it.

        We saw a similar experience with Netbooks. The Linux variants were overwhelming bought "by accident" and suffered an obscenely high non-fault related return rate. Linux has come a long way since then, so finger's crossed.

    • Re:Playing with toys doesn't count (Score:5, Interesting)

      by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Saturday October 18, 2025 @03:58PM (#65734994)

      >"To be clear I hope to be impressed, but this isn't news, testing the waters alone isn't a success."

      Yes and no. It *is* a success if users are actually willing to understand they do have choices and Linux is one of them and then act on it. No doubt, some will not stay. But many will. 10 million trying Linux and only half staying is much better than 100,000 trying and 90% staying :)

      I just hope they are trying something like Mint or Zorin or whatnot, and NOT a distro defaulting to Gnome!

      I was shocked when my work friend, who has never used ANYTHING at home other than MS-Windows told me he was sick of one of his systems being slow as molasses and now "unsupported" and, on his own, found and downloaded and installed Zorin and likes it. He said it is now much faster than when it was new.

      • Yes and no. It *is* a success if users are actually willing to understand they do have choices and Linux is one of them and then act on it.

        In which case Linux should now have a huge market share since we've been through this with the Netbooks before. But what happened is that people ended up returning their Netbooks. This isn't a choice. It's a trial of a choice. A legitimate choice translates to long term use for many people, and while I hope that will happen this time, I've had this hope multiple times before and it never eventuated into a sustained market growth for Linux.

        • >"In which case Linux should now have a huge market share since we've been through this with the Netbooks before."

          "This ain't your Father's Linux", things have changed significantly since those days. (And yes, I know, I have been using it since it started. And yes, I owned the original Netbook as well, the EEE).

          • Indeed, and that's why I am hopeful it will work *this time*. But we have been burnt time and time again which renders me justifiably sceptical that this will turn into a long term user base.

            • Fortunately, there is no winning or losing. Any additional Linux users is good. And I think it is impossible there will be fewer.

      • 10 million trying Linux and only half staying is much better than 100,000 trying and 90% staying :)

        Is it though? Wouldn't you rather have something that 90% of people find acceptable over something that only 50% are prepared to use?

        • >"Is it though? Wouldn't you rather have something that 90% of people find acceptable over something that only 50% are prepared to use?"

          Hmm, that is a good point. But I don't think it is often a matter of people finding it acceptable as it is people being willing to actually make a change (not just the OS, but certain applications) and not give up immediately when things work differently. I mean, if Linux worked exactly like MS-Windows, I would *HATE* it :)

          When informing new prospective Linux users, I

    • Linux already has sustained user base [zdnet.com].

      • Yeah when you count game consoles to skew the numbers you get a great sustained user base. If you want to play silly games then sure you can say Linux has a huge user base thanks to Android phones too, but we're talking here about Windows alternatives. No one is swapping out a Windows PC for a Steamdeck (which is a huge contributor to the desktop market share stats since it identifies as a desktop linux system in them) to read emails and write reports at work.

  • I have been hanging around this dumpster fire of a site for over 20 years and it is for shit like this. You guys need to stop measuring your worth based on the comings and goings of a public company who has been dunking on you the whole time.

    • I have been hanging around this dumpster fire of a site for over 20 years

      Your 7 digit UID says otherwise, bruh.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by fjo3 ( 1399739 )
        I had been reading Slashdot for a decade before I registered. Never felt the need to contribute to the conversation before that.
      • Imagine being on a social site and not using the same login for 20 years. Iâ(TM)ve probably referred to you as a neck beard from one account or another a dozen times. Thereâ(TM)s no getting through to most of you so I havenâ(TM)t had much to say for most of my life here except to come and laugh.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by rsilvergun ( 571051 )
        To be fair he might have been a lurker. I lurked here for years and years because it didn't occur to me to sign up and comment. Honestly before everything in my life just kept going pear-shaped thanks to America's fucked up healthcare system and semi-annual economic collapses brought on by Wall Street deregulation I don't think I would have bothered constantly bitching on forums.

        I don't think I signed up to vent. I can't remember what made me actually sign up. But it wasn't long until that was 99.9% of
      • Totally do-able. The seven-digit UIDs arose about 20 years ago.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by SurfsUp ( 11523 )

        Need some 5 digit confirmation of exactly what OP said?

  • These newbies will make some minor change to their desktop, and everything will blow up. And they will be counseled to tweak this or that, but it will fail. And they will say WTF?

    • Re:And thenâ¦. (Score:4, Informative)

      by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Saturday October 18, 2025 @04:00PM (#65735002)

      >"These newbies will make some minor change to their desktop, and everything will blow up. And they will be counseled to tweak this or that, but it will fail. And they will say WTF?"

      When did you last use a Linux desktop? 20 years ago?

      • >"These newbies will make some minor change to their desktop, and everything will blow up. And they will be counseled to tweak this or that, but it will fail. And they will say WTF?"

        When did you last use a Linux desktop? 20 years ago?

        Probably never - it's just a popular thing for the Windows uber alles crowd to chant.

    • These newbies will make some minor change to their desktop, and everything will blow up. And they will be counseled to tweak this or that, but it will fail. And they will say WTF?

      2005 called. Look - It's all fun and games to make claims about Linux that were true20 years ago. I use Windows MacOS and Linux. Windows gives me 90 percent of computing problems. While using it the least. So these clueless people have no problems on The bestest, most popular, largest installed user base OS?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by SurfsUp ( 11523 )

      These newbies will make some minor change to their desktop, and everything will blow up.

      No it won't. You're full of shit.

  • Practically, still have a month ... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Saturday October 18, 2025 @03:27PM (#65734944)

    I noticed that the Edge (not that I use it) and Virus Definition updates are still happening on my Windows 10 system, as well as updated for third-party software, so since the major Windows updates happen/ed on "Patch Tuesday" there's still a month until the next one on Nov 11 and Windows gets completely left behind, from a practical point anyway.

    I've had my (more capable) Linux Mint 22.2 (Cinnamon) system up for a *while*, but am (still) being lazy about moving all my files over to it. I've sync'ed my Firefox and Thunderbird configs and files, and converted all my MS Office and (older) Lotus 123/WordPro files to LibreOffice, and renamed a bunch of files to remove embedded white-space and make them more Linux / command-line friendly. Just need to bite the bullet and start copying things over ...

    Am still not completely happy about the Linux alternatives to AxCrypt (ignoring the 34MB Linux command-line version); I'm considering "ccrypt" and/or "7z" for various things as they seem relatively simple and portable (even to Windows, ccyprt via Cygwin). Looked into and enabled native VIM encryption, but don't really want to be tied to it. For ccrypt there's a Emacs module that supports it and I've found/created Nemo actions/scripts for en/decrypting from the GUI.

  • While I agree with the linux switch... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Slashythenkilly ( 7027842 ) on Saturday October 18, 2025 @03:28PM (#65734948)
    Windows 10 users with a MS account still have another year worth of updates on their older machines so...really?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by evanh ( 627108 )

      Still another year's worth of converts to come then. :)

    • It's another year of updates if you let yourself be bullied into activating backup features, putting stuff in their cloud, and fighting the OS with probably either silently enabling in the background, or nagging you about, any folders for which you have disabled backup. The offer is only free in terms of giving MS data instead of money. In a market economy, this is the kind of stuff consumers are supposed to consider protesting against by getting a different product.

      For me it was a hard no thank you as I co

  • How could I sell Linux to a non-techie when before you can even install an app you have to choose a flatpak, an appimage or a system package, or a .deb file, or ... Official comparisons within the distribution are lackluster/non-existent, and then there are bugs in the software center descriptions and thumbnails, looking at you Kate.

    • >"How could I sell Linux to a non-techie when before you can even install an app you have to choose a flatpak, an appimage or a system package, or a .deb file"

      By steering them to a friendly distro like Mint, maybe? It will use native apps for most everything important. Non-techies will usually just browse the software installer and see what is available and install stuff from there. And it will work. And Mint is "store" and "SNAP"-free, so they won't encounter that mess.

      • Well I *was* talking about Mint/Cinnamon... Software Manager does offer sometimes separate entries for flatpak/system or sometimes it allows you to select one.

      • >"How could I sell Linux to a non-techie when before you can even install an app you have to choose a flatpak, an appimage or a system package, or a .deb file"

        By steering them to a friendly distro like Mint, maybe? It will use native apps for most everything important. Non-techies will usually just browse the software installer and see what is available and install stuff from there. And it will work. And Mint is "store" and "SNAP"-free, so they won't encounter that mess.

        The people who have the woeful tales of "Linux is too hard!" must never have used Mint. If Mint is too hard, all computing is too hard. Have them get a smartphone, then when they have problems they can go to the store they bought it at.

    • How could I sell Linux to a non-techie when before you can even install an app you have to choose a flatpak, an appimage or a system package, or a .deb file, or ... Official comparisons within the distribution are lackluster/non-existent, and then there are bugs in the software center descriptions and thumbnails, looking at you Kate.

      You tell them to go to AT&T, or Verizon. and get a SmartPhone. Eternal September lives on, and if they are too stupid to use Linux, they will have the same problems or worse with Windows.

      • Remember that your "too stupid" could be somebody else's "I don't have time for this shit" - people pick their battles, and OS minutae might not be it.

        • Remember that your "too stupid" could be somebody else's "I don't have time for this shit" - people pick their battles, and OS minutae might not be it.

          Remember if they don't have time for Linux shit, they don't have time for Windows shit either. Change my mind.

          • Linux is still rougher and costs more time. Windows is going downhill though so maybe that's how it balances out. Regarding the flatpak/system/etc complaints, the windows equivalent is the Windows Store vs regular installer version. Imagine somebody questioning that division and branded as an idiot because they didn't RTFM or divine the wisdom of MS or something.

            I'm not going to change your mind of course, I'm just speaking from my own experience. I've been dipping in and out of Linux for 20 years, more

            • Linux is still rougher and costs more time. Windows is going downhill though so maybe that's how it balances out. Regarding the flatpak/system/etc complaints, the windows equivalent is the Windows Store vs regular installer version. Imagine somebody questioning that division and branded as an idiot because they didn't RTFM or divine the wisdom of MS or something.

              I do know that as a person who got dragged into computer support, mainly because I used and worked with MacOS, and our support army was all Windows centric, your comment about costing more time got a chuckle. Our Linux people used no support, We had a hundred or so Macs, and if I had one support call a week, it was a busy week.

              On the Windows end, however, we had more computers, of course - several hundred. We had a departmental group of around 25 people with a group leader and a supervisor, and a depart

      • Having just switched from a flip phone to an android smartphone I can safely report that the phone is much more complicated than Linux Mint.

         

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      Granted, Linux isn't for everyone. Your grandmama will have to stick with a Mac.

      • You mock, but my mom (very tech inept) had been using an iPad (2?) for about 14 years. Her android phones came and went. I hate iCrap with a passion, but that thing lasted, up until last year.

  • Not even on RedHat, Sweeny thinks Linux would open his game up to cheaters. As if Fortnite's not already overrun by cheaters. This from a guy who went to war with Apple cause they wouldn't let him gouge his customers without sharing it with other gougers. Not to even mention how epicly unfair the matchmaking is.

  • My mum's getting Zorin... (Score:3)

    by Misagon ( 1135 ) on Saturday October 18, 2025 @05:35PM (#65735166)

    Yesterday, my non-techie mum asked me to install Linux on her PC. Apparently, one of her friends' husband had written a book about migrating from Windows to Linux, but she asked me first because she knew that I was using it.

    I will need to get her a more user-friendly and Windows-like distro than the custom setup that I have been using myself.

    Earlier today I had already selected Zorin for the first try. Let's see if she likes it. The runners up are Kubuntu and Mint.

    • Yesterday, my non-techie mum asked me to install Linux on her PC. Apparently, one of her friends' husband had written a book about migrating from Windows to Linux, but she asked me first because she knew that I was using it.

      I will need to get her a more user-friendly and Windows-like distro than the custom setup that I have been using myself.

      Earlier today I had already selected Zorin for the first try. Let's see if she likes it. The runners up are Kubuntu and Mint.

      If Zorin does not cut it (highly unlikely), go mint first, then Kubuntu.
      Mint (just like Zorin) tries very hard to resemble Windows. Meanwhile, Kubuntu is just Ububtu with KDE. It will bear justa a passing resemblance to Windows. Nothing wrong with kubuntu, nor some ill will towards the project.

      But if the goal is to be "windows-like" mint >> kubuntu.

    • I vote KUbuntu, currently the 24.04LTS version. I've tried Mint and some of the other "introductory" distros, but I keep coming back to Ubuntu and the KDE/Plasma DE.. Your mileage may vary.

  • Zorin Group celebrated the launch of version 18, claiming that it hit 100,000 downloads in "a little over 2 days. The company called it its "biggest launch ever" and claimed that over 72% of those downloads came from Windows..."

    Wow, all they need to do is sustain that launch day level of downloads continuously for a little over 3 years, and they'll have captured close to 10% of the current Windows 10 user base! That's really flocking!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by SurfsUp ( 11523 )

      You mean, on top of the 6% that Linux already has [zdnet.com]? Or 23% if you count Android as Linux?

      • You mean, on top of the 6% that Linux already has [zdnet.com]? Or 23% if you count Android as Linux?

        I would not count android as a linux distro (or GNU/Linux for the FeetFungusEaters). While android uses the linux kernel, the userland is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, and it can not run most applications one associates with a linux distro.

        Android is moving in that direction, but is not there yet.

  • PC's will still run fine on Windows10 w/antivirus software. ANY software can be hacked and people will find that out with Zorin. "Zorin OS 18 now includes an updated version of WINE 10 for better support of Windows software." So you're still running Windows software, what's the point then ??? Sounds like you're chasing your tail with Linux.

  • 7 users install Linux (Score:3)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Sunday October 19, 2025 @08:51AM (#65736042) Journal

    Linux advocates "it's a tidal wave!"

  • Can I trust Chrome on Linux OS of the day will validate the code I need to run on Windows and Mac? Can I use VScode and not have bugs killing my time that no one can support? Just looking at these things for 5 minutes makes me think I could be killing a lot of time over saving a few bucks on a new computer I probably could use anyway after like 7 years.

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