My Thoughts on Zorin OS 6

Originally posted on http://www.makeuseof.com by me.


I have been using Zorin OS 5.2 since March 2012. I must admit this operating system does give the user a Windows-like experience. The desktop environment was easy to navigate being a long time Windows user. Since I liked Zorin OS, I upgraded to Zorin OS 6 when it was released.


I currently have Zorin OS running on three different computers. Installation seemed to be an issue for me. I had an old Gateway laptop I bought back in 2004 that originally had Windows XP and decided to replace it with Zorin OS. When installing Zorin OS 6 32-bit on my old laptop, I was getting the following message during install — “This kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU: pae. Unable to boot — please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU.” With some tinkering, I was able to make another ISO that had a non-pae kernel. The second computer I installed Zorin had no issues (go figure). The third computer was a 64-bit install and I had issues with my NVIDIA graphics card. During the installation process on this computer, the screen would turn white displaying jumbled graphics and it looked like the installation process froze. However, this computer had onboard graphics installed on it and I simply went into the BIOS and told the computer to use the onboard graphics instead NVIDIA; and then I was able to install Zorin OS. Once installed, I was able to load the necessary drivers for my video card and all was well.


Overall, I would recommend to give Zorin OS a try. You can try the live DVD for awhile and take Zorin OS for a test drive, then if you like it install it to your hard drive. Having used Zorin OS for about four months, it has re-introduced me back into the Linux/Ubuntu world of computing. Windows 7 is still my primary operating system of choice and I consider Zorin OS my secondary choice.