Zorin OS: An ACTUALLY GOOD, Open Source Windows Alternative?

[@SoftTehCustomer]

Linux users be like "yeah it took me 7 hours to get 1/4 of the programs I use to work, and the other 3/4 doesn't work, but after I switched I'll never go back."

[@BobSockTwo]

That's how horrible windows is

[@wolfygamerpro5803]

​@@BobSockTwowindows is not horrible, microsoft is

[@Wkaelx]

@@wolfygamerpro5803 Windows is a great system, any system has its flaws and its fine it works well for 99% of people, Microsoft is wanting far too much and this is killing Windows even for normal people that just want to use Google Chrome, Steam, etc...

[@SRSpawn]

@SoftTehCustomer 😂

[@joogled1839]

accurate. linux users are the most pretentious bastards on the planet but we love them for that.

[@SirFoxTopx]

I can't believe Strike didn't consider us Windows fans who like being spyed on smh

[@chibicat13]

While Linux has come leaps and bounds in gaming, sadly Windows is the only guaranteed way to play. Zorin isn’t the distro I would recommend for anyone who is getting into Linux for the first time. Mint is great and I while my DaVinci Resolve works for the for complex projects, KdnLive works wonders basic editing, and Photopea is an online photoshop clone. OBS works like a dream too, in fact my 4K webcam works on Mint better than on windows. I do have a dual boot for Win10. I use it for my photoshop CS4 and I got the OS isolated from Microsoft’s prying eyes… but booting into it is quite rare now. I think Zorin just happened to be the wrong distro for the laptop you had. Mint, Pop, or Ubuntu world work better I think.

[@ImStrikeTV]

I said it in a previous reply but I did take a look at pop and mint, and they do both look great although I'm aware that pop also has many problems. I don't want people to take away from this video that Zorin and my problems with it represent Linux as a whole.

[@zuppasoup3757]

Thats nice, since you seem to do productivity a lot, do you also tried lots of the app that are non linux version (like running your photoshop cs4 with proton/wine etc) ?

[@xanderplayz3446]

Kdenlive works terribly. When I add audio, play through it, and rewind, it stays in the same place. (abcdef *rewind* ghijklm instead of abcdef *rewind abcdef) On one of my devices, the preview did not work.

[@chibicat13]

@@xanderplayz3446 It could be a outdated kernel on the distro you are using or the default audio drivers may not be working as well as the manufacture's. I had a few buggy issues with KdenLive myself and using the manufacture drivers helped a ton. There are also two versions of KdenLive, the flatpak and the system package, if you are using the Mint distro. flatpak Did not work at all but the system package is amazing.

[@Lazdinger]

Sorry to hear, my friend... you're not the only one that's happened to! Especially if you're a graphic designer/videographer or use very specialized software, it can be an extra pain. Sometimes, the cold hard truth is, it's just not feasible for some people to do the complete switch to Linux. I would suggest to anyone considering switching from windows to Linux to start slow. First, try and replace (if possible) a single program that you regularly use like MS_Office, for example, with an open source alternative like LibreOffice, OpenOffice, OnlyOffice, etc... and then get used to it, get the feel for it, and once you're comfortable with it, find another free open source replacement for a different program and keep going. Pretty soon you might have replaced all your programs with free/libre open source alternatives which are likely already available, natively or through the repo (software store), on many a Linux distro. Then, the switch might not be so rough. And if anyone is set on switching to Linux for the first time, cold turkey, I would suggest start with Ubuntu or Mint. EDIT: *I'm sure most people know this already but many open source programs that are native to many Linux distros like Zorin, Ubuntu, etc.. are also available for windows. START SLOW.

[@brvndxnl]

I just finished creating a dual-boot for my laptop as well. The distro I chose was Nobara and I had the same issues you did, although to a much lesser degree. Linux is great, but setting it up as a newcomer definitely gave me a better idea on why it has such low market share.

[@MastermindAtWork]

Zorin OS was my first proper Linux distro I've tried back in 2021. It was great but I was also have compatibility issues since their version of their Linux kernel was usually far out of date. Now I use Tuxedo OS 2 with the Cinnamon desktop environment and I haven't looked back.

[@XenoMagami]

I was using zorin os from 2020 through 2023. With 15 and 16. It took a bit to get it set up out of the box but ran okay, later on started locking up steam a lot and came prepackaged with pulseaudio so audio was a mess. When 17 came out i tried that and it had the same issues i was running into on 16 so i switched to nobara and haven't turned back. I should also note i do not recommend dualbooting linux. Its easy enough to set up by just disconnecting your windows drive, fresh install linux to a new one, set the linux drive to your boot drive, reconnect the windows drive, boot it, then run sudo update-grub and itll add your windows partition to the boot menu. Issue is windows likes to update its efi partition from time to time and when it does it updates over the grub partition rendering it broken.

[@sydneyyourpal3403]

Been on linux for a few months now, EndeavorOS with KDE plasma, I am a PC gamer. Linux is NOT just for developers anymore, however the desktop is still in a very much so in development, getting closed to being finished but not quite there yet. It will get better with time! Me personally I only use debian based distributions on older hardware, having updates for newer hardware with bleeding edge support is very important to me. I think this is a nice vid, thanks for posting your thoughts for the broader community to hear it, surely someday linux will be a complete and viable alternative to windows! As of right now i have no issues playing games on my steam deck and on my endeavor desktop. And yeah def not gonna snitch on that roblox client, those devs need to sober up ;)

[@ImStrikeTV]

Shhh!!! They're always watching!!

[@Damglador]

It is a viable alternative to Windows even today, just not for everyone, and that's sad. I'm not even talking about any kind of struggles of configuring it, some things are just impossible to do on Linux and that's the most sad thing of all. Nice distro choice btw

[@Shadowofthedark847]

Debian has now gone woke , check the latest news. That means they will shittify Debian more.

[@intoalter]

I can relate to your video, I tried Zorin OS and also Fedora 40, But as far people say it's a breeze to install this and that trust me i faced so many crashes my system just freeze and that's on a clean installation with just a sudo update upgrade. But apart from this my reasons for which i uninstalled Linux was the application support people told me to dual boot, but when you are in a creative field you can't be restarting every time to Linux and windows. Hope the application and driver supports gets better in 2025.

[@Damglador]

Don't use Fedora 💀 My opinion on dual booting: you either go all Linux and make sacrifices, maybe run some things in a VM, or stick to Windows. I have Visual Studio in a VM with WinApps, not perfect, but bearable experience. Aside from responsibility it works almost like a native app. I don't see a point in dual-booting, perhaps if you have a game you want to play once in a while that has an anti-cheat that doesn't like Linux, but also would you want play a game that doesn't care about you if you're on Linux? I won't judge tho if the answer is yes. In other cases - Linux is just not for you and you should stick to Windows or Mac if you're... that guy.

[@intoalter]

@@Damglador I’m a full time audio engineer who’s mostly working with 3rd party vsts and audio gear etc and the companies don’t yet support linux so hopefully when they will give support gor linux i would probably move from windows, windows is just a memory hog.

[@Damglador]

@@intoalter yeah, that's a dead case. I hope more companies will port their software to Linux in the future

[@luds8474]

⁠@@Damgladorwhat’s wrong with Fedora?

[@Damglador]

@@luds8474 low amount of native packages and Nvidia situation. Installing proper drivers and optimus on Fedora is pain. dnf CLI is weird and requires adding additional repos for a lot of software, not really useful friendly in my experience, pacman is way more brain dead to use and that's why I like it

[@UnFlan32]

Hey, did you tried Kdenlive while searching for a video editor software? And is a shame to hear all this issues you have, I hope the GNU/Linux comunity can solve it in a future. Great video btw.

[@that_guy1211]

oh yeah! I totally forgot, i couldn't install modrinth through the .deb install or smth, so i was forced to use the linux equivalent of a standalone .exe, i forgot the extension name, lol but it was CRAPPY and SLOW and lagging so much! So i literally spent a day looking through different minecraft launchers before settling on Prism launcher, which is basically MultiMC, but with pirate minecraft enabled, which is good!

[@FinnishGUIX]

Could you explain what distro were you using?

[@that_guy1211]

@@FinnishGUIX zorin

[@ImStrikeTV]

The .deb install broke and I messaged Modrinth staff about it. They said they were looking into it. Several days later, the page still says "We are working on a solution." I also downloaded the AppImage, and it was slow but at least functional. Sorry to hear you're facing the same issues.

[@that_guy1211]

@@ImStrikeTV not just slow, but laggy af, i'd say it was functional, but not any good, prism launcher and multiMC scored a good, since they're one of the best launchers and can still download modpacks from curseforge and modrinth, something the modrinth launcher can't do, lol

[@fabricio4794]

@@that_guy1211 what is your hardware,Ram?

[@coinbongo4694]

Laptops can be one of the most frustrating things to install anything on. And power management can be a real pain, especially setting up hybrid gpus.

[@CptNero]

I really appreciate the effort of trying to switch to Linux. And all of the valid criticism. Yes, whatever distro you would use, it is limited by the amount of apps, which work on linux. You can use some alternatives, but those are inferior to the Sony or Adobe Products. If you still want to learn some linux stuff, I would highly recommend buying another laptop, like an old Lenovo Thinpad series. Even more modern T480 is rather affordable this days. I use my old t430 which at this point is around 10 years old, and it is my favourite device that I own. Mostly because of how much fun I have tinkering with linux on it :D

[@BBWahoo]

Can't wait for the Arch Linux programming socks video

[@ImStrikeTV]

If you're coming down to comment "WHY DIDN'T YOU USE POP / MINT / ARC" you have missed the entire point of the video

[@Serge165]

I didn't know. Ubuntu games pack works for me. It's just the normal vanilla install of Ubuntu with a bunch of gamer stuff on it. Or is I like to jokingly or lovingly call it gamer BS. But we nerdy gamers like our gamer BS. I guess it boils down to your own preference in the end. However I have to counter something I just heard at 2:20: Yes there is decent editing software it's called DaVinci but I think this video is more about the areas you got with your video card so there could be that.

[@Stripes404]

1. Pop is more for those who like macOS 2. Mint looks too unappealing 3. Self-explanatory. Also, it's "Arch", not "Arc".

[@turkeyleg72]

​@@Stripes404And pop is good for keeping drivers up to date

[@realtitedog]

@@turkeyleg72 I mean Arch nvidia drivers are extremely up to date too

[@fabricio4794]

i use MInt but i Recommend Zorin.i wanna test Zorin on my other machines.

[@Ryftex]

lmao you were the person in the wiki that had the same CapCut issue as me

[@Dhalin]

Yeah, the gaming thing is why a lot of us are locked into Windows. We don't want to read encyclopedias on how to get crap to work in Linux. It's way better now than it used to be, but you can either just press a button Steam and it WILL work or you can muck around with settings, drivers, etc to try and hopefully get it to work only to find out 2 hours later that you didn't get it quite right and it still occasionally crashes. Nor do I want to dual-boot and have to be constantly switching between OSs to game and do anything else. It also helps that I don't have anything they'd wanna spy on in the first place.

[@KaaayKaay]

Switched to linux on saturday and ever since its been so bloody cool. I recommend AT Evolve for easy customization.

[@Shadowofthedark847]

Did not get web results for AT Evolve, what is it anyways ?

[@KaaayKaay]

@@Shadowofthedark847 It basically lets you customize Gnome/GTK with a graphical interface and (free) theme store.

[@TacticalPower88]

At the end, All you had to do was delete the whole partition in the windows install environment, create a new partition, and then proceed to install windows.

[@ImStrikeTV]

@@TacticalPower88 I did do that. The problem was that there was no storage driver for me to be able to see my drivers installed. I did say that in the video and the thread with the solution that I displayed on screen.

[@ChavaGrace-c5h]

Hey, some people's computers are little ***** and can cause problems.

[@BlueSparkzVideos]

I just love how the haters come on here to bash Zorin when he clearly mentions that he's a content creator who depends on Vegas Pro and CapCut. It's been well known in that professional editing software is a weak point for Linux. Choosing Mint, Fedora, or Arch wouldn't matter.

[@ImStrikeTV]

They stop watching around the 4 minute mark before commenting, so most of them miss that part.

[@user-empress_education]

Talk about video editing, Kdenlive is super underrated. Why is no one talking about it?

[@TheEvelynMakesThings]

Ikr?? Kdenlive is honestly too good to pass up

[@GarfieldtheDestroyer]

OK I'm going to address some points made by people here in the comments. 1. Arch is not a distro for people unfamiliar with Linux. Stop recommending Arch. The fact that you have to even touch the console to install it is a blatant sign that it is designed for people who know what they are doing. It will also end up scaring people away from Linux when they try one of the hardest distros to setup and they get this shit first impression. 2. It is not the user's fault if there is no explanation for the different package formats and they inevitably end up getting confused. This is a perfectly fair point. 3. A different Linux distro would not have fixed the glaringly obvious issue of incompatibility (cited in the video). 4. The storage driver issue was not fixable with a few clicks. 5. If we do not aim to make Linux less confusing for new users coming from Windows, we will not get an increase in new users coming from Windows. If you want Linux to be more popular, insulting new users who are unfamiliar with Linux is not the way to get there. It's also just rude.

[@JessicaFEREM]

yeah there's a lot of problems with Ubuntu LTS (the thing Zorin is based on) on modern hardware, especially nvidia cards.I really wish that weren't the case. and even when it is working, there's no telling if there's something that completely breaks the system. I guess the only real thing you can do is wait for the nvidia drivers to dribble out onto the LTS versions.

[@pawxed]

6:33 i agree here, linux is just isnt beginner friendly at all even trying out every single distro won't find the solution for that, yet linux user keep wondering why nobody uses linux

[@Vales55]

There are beginner friendly versions of Linux. Linux Mint is by far and away the best of those. The problem with Linux Desktop isn't Linux Desktop. It's that nobody develops high quality software for Linux Desktop. Like the guy says, you can make a version of Photoshop for Windows or MacOS. But to make Photoshop for "Linux" You would have to compile a separate version of it for EVERY major distro that you wanted it to work for. It's not impossible. But it's definitely enough of a headache that most companies just don't do it. And who can blame them?

[@t5381]

​@@Vales55except you don't have to compile for every distro out there though? Make a snap, flatpak or appimage and basically everyone can use it.

[@hyper_lynx]

​@Vales55 Flatpak exists and solves this. Every version of linux that can install Flathub (which is all of the main distros at least) can install every flatpak

[@ant2902]

@@Vales55 i switched from windows to linux mint and it was very easy to get used to it. can recommend

[@pawxed]

@@Vales55 Yeah i know, the majority of supported apps in linux is ridiculously low, i'm planning to switch to linux but ofc dualbooting since i have alot of windows apps

[@Hontman]

Zorin looks nice but you got SO many problems with it. I daily drive linuz and I don't get much problems, but I guess I might have been lucky with that...

[@chimichuflis]

lol yes making a bootable windows usb drive is usually a pain unles you know how to, the easy way: -ventoy: makes a bootable usb drive that supports multiple os at the same time, the kinda anoying way: - vm: make a w10 virtual machine, and from there you can make it the standard way like your video tho, i like zorin, but q4os gives a lot less issues imo

[@ImStrikeTV]

Replying to this to note that Ventoy just entirely broke the usb for some reason. Probably something I did wrong but who knows lol

[@chimichuflis]

@@ImStrikeTV LOL!

[@IsaacHarris]

The closest I've come to any Linux distro working 100% on any of my machines is Ubuntu. And that was my most recent attempt from a few weeks back. I've yet to get anything that isn't based on Debian to even boot up. I'd like to use Linux but it never works right for me. Eventually, I just want my computer to work. Windows has always worked without any extra work for me going back to Windows XP.

[@SpudOnscreen]

happiest linux user

[@fabricio4794]

Zorin is very Good, if you just want freedom and Open Source,this is a good alternatvie.

[@OsmanSaifi-gj7rf]

@strikeTv I didn't play the games but I am a coder but I don't like window Can u tell me zorin os os perfect for me❤

[@ItsSplonk]

6:04 abra cadabra-ass move right there

[@CleanUsername]

Whilst I agree with some of the points in this video I really have to disagree with the distro choice. From a quick google search and a (very) quick look at the zorin OS home page it just seems to be some generic slop. Personally for someone who has never used Linux before (I.E you [or so I assume]) I would recommend Linux mint, or even Ubuntu if you dont care about proprietary software. (P.S dont take this as an attack on you personally, just some advice I suppose.)

[@ImStrikeTV]

if you're here to complain about distro choice, you've missed the point of the video. If the goal was to judge Ubuntu itself, I would have *chosen* Ubuntu or Mint, or even one of the distros "made for gaming". The point of the video is not judging Linux entirely-- primarily Zorin OS. However, it should still be noted a lot of issues I had are still rooted in Linux itself-- specifically video editing and gaming. It's just not there yet, and hopefully one day will be.

[@CleanUsername]

@@ImStrikeTV ah, fair enough then. I may have misinterpreted the video. And in that case then I do apologize.

[@28msLIVE]

Who’s that 28ms guy he seems pretty cool

[@TheRealTimmy1]

fun fact:i actually installed zorin os on a laptop for school

[@nmcli]

i dual booted arch linux and linux from scratch on a laptop for school lmao

[@Damglador]

​​@@nmcli

[@Michirin9801]

Had a similar experience with Linux Mint back in 2019, switched back to Windows 7 after 3 weeks... Shame Windows 7 is no longer supported because Microsoft said so and now they're pushing an infinitely worse OS down our throats...

[@npcmaster3304]

ouch :concern:

[@RandomQuebecer]

Random fact: Zorin have preinstalled spying package. SO COOL YAY LOVE LINUX!!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@ImStrikeTV]

@@RandomQuebecer they give you an immediate option to opt out of any kind of monitoring. Otherwise, do you have a source that I might be able to look at? If they do actually have spyware, I don't want to leave this video up.

[@RandomQuebecer]

@@ImStrikeTV look at the package list and see yourself, even if you disable in the settings they still collect for some reason

[@smirkjuice]

The problem is Debian-based distros. They have out of date software, which is why most things won't work

[@asphalt2554]

KITTTYYYYYYYYYY

[@taumaru1876]

if you use Nixos you have an almost unbreakable distro

[@univera1111]

Why dont you try Cahcy os, endeavour os or linux mint

[@Stripes404]

1. It's awesome, but this is for WINDOWS ALTERNATIVES 2. Once again, great, but not really a Windows alternative 3. Mint is not that good looking at first glance, which scares off some Windows users

[@Lanyardpuzzlepiec]

So on linux you can install bottles it lets you install anything that works on win11

[@dumbfloppa]

Not "Anything" like UWP apps dont work nor does Adobe or Microsoft software

[@ariel_chess]

It's not stable at all

[@Rikonardo]

​@@dumbfloppa aside from maybe Minecraft Bedrock, I've never seen an UWP app that isn't a gimmicky alternative to an already existing Win32 app, just with more annoying UI and less features (though, Minecraft Bedrock at least partially also falls under that definition). Even on Windows, UWP is considered a dead platform. Microsoft Office has both OSS and freeware alternatives that would work for 99% of home users. The only unreplaceble Microsoft app I can think of is probably Teams, which used to have native Linux support up until recently, but pretty sure is still runnable under wine. The only software Linux really lacks as for now is stuff like Adobe or Autodesk

[@univera1111]

​​@@ariel_chess then what exe emulator is stable

[@ariel_chess]

@univera1111 None. I wasn't clear. Using anything wine related is not a reliable solution. And it's not a good experience for newcomers to have to troubleshoot. If you wanna use Windows programs, you'll get the best experience on Windows. The best solution is to virtualize if you really need to do it entirely on linux. I take the word from Chris Titus, "The Linux Experiment" and Gardiner Bryant

[@BobSockTwo]

Why not Mint? And why are you wearing a jacket inside? 1. I do not agree with your recommendation of Zorin after you only Zorin. 2. A good distro for content creation would be Nobara.

[@ImStrikeTV]

It's fine to not agree! :) The jacket goes well with the sweater. Zorin works perfectly fine for those in the workplace-- not content creators. As I stated in the video, if I was just using it for writing papers, excel, general tasks, it works absolutely fine (aside from that battery problem...) However, it's not good for people like me who edit videos and play games. Nobara looks cool! I might give it a go later down the line.

[@Shadowofthedark847]

@@ImStrikeTV Zorin is perfect but only for moderately newer hardware. I recommend you to take a look at Fedora KDE or Kubuntu/Ubuntu 24.10 for a more robust experience. Tip: Snaps auto update in the background in Ubuntu which you might wanna turn off.

[@BobSockTwo]

@@ImStrikeTV expect weird bugs with Nobara, the team is small so they are very present. Bugs may include: Random login manager Nuking, Freezing KDE, Microphone volume moves back after you moved it, The Nvidia drivers just not working, Do not use the login manager switcher, it's gonna nuke too. I'd recommend Mint for daily use, it doesn't require any hassle with drivers like Nobara, but doesn't have those weird bugs.

[@dumbfloppa]

Sadly most of these issues are cause of NVIDIA and because of the laptop Linux is way more mature on Desktops.

[@RakibHasan-hs1me]

Zorin OS is perfect for beginners.

[@ssmorkss]

your computer is a WHAT??? jokes aside, the only commentor you need is me : )

[@dungeonrobot]

StrikTV face reveal?!?!?

[@Paguo]

I'm gonna get a full AMD build before getting to Linux. Nvidia is a disgrace to open source community

[@Chuck_vs._The_Comment_Section]

No, it is not! I switched a few years ago and it was horrible!

[@Stripes404]

Explain...

[@ImStrikeTV]

That would be too much effort.

[@SchmataB]

whenever somebody says that linux feels more secure than windows I wonder what that actually means. what are you guys doing on your computers that windows doesn't "feel" secure?

[@nelliocalypse]

Honestly it comes down to the amount of malware for windows compared to Linux.

[@ArtemSayapov]

i use arch btw

[@Guitartube25]

0:25 hi! (⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)

[@glitchcade]

hai :)

[@taumaru1876]

try nobara

[@rch5395]

Cachyos is better.

[@remyreki]

Hi, I appreciate your decision to join us, Im switched Windows to Linux recently too, but I strongly recomend you install Arch Linux instead of Zorin, Arch way better, lightweighter, customizable, and have more support and documentation

[@ImStrikeTV]

I took a look at it and while I understand it is probably better than zorin, it's just not my style. That's just personal preference, but I know it works great.

[@taumaru1876]

the problem is Zorin

[@Damglador]

Should've used Arch🗿

[@BlueSparkzVideos]

Explain how Zorin is the issue when he cites software compatibility as being the primary issue. If he chose Mint or Arch, the result would be the same...except for Arch he would've given up a lot quicker.

[@wilsonlee6384]

Zorin can probably play about 70% of the games on Steam. As long as you are not the type to buy and play games as soon as they are released, and you play 2 to 3 years old games, then it is really suitable for you.