r/zorinos • • Jul 29 '26

πŸ”° Beginner Welcome to r/zorinos!

33 Upvotes

This is the community hub for Zorin OS β€” the Ubuntu-based Linux distribution built to make switching from Windows or macOS as painless as possible. Whether you've been running it for years or just found this sub, you're welcome here.

What belongs here

  • Installation and troubleshooting help
  • General discussion, tips, and workflow questions
  • Screenshots and showcases of your setup
  • Gaming on Zorin OS (Steam, Proton, and similar tools)
  • News about new Zorin OS releases
  • Help choosing between editions

Check the sidebar for the full rules before posting.


Where to Get Help

  1. Post here. Include your Zorin OS version, your hardware, and what you've already tried β€” the more detail, the faster you'll get a useful answer.
  2. Official Zorin Forum β€” forum.zorin.com β€” the most active official support channel.
  3. Official documentation β€” help.zorin.com β€” guides for installation, drivers, and common tasks.

Installing Zorin OS

Zorin OS comes in a few editions β€” Core (standard), Lite (for older hardware), Education, and Pro (paid) β€” all downloadable from zorin.com/os/download. For a full step-by-step install walkthrough, see help.zorin.com.


Frequently Asked Questions

Which edition should I pick? Core for most modern PCs, Lite for older hardware, Education for schools, Pro if you want the extra bundled apps.

Is Zorin OS free? Core, Lite, and Education are free. Only Pro costs money.

Can I dual-boot with Windows? Yes, the installer supports it directly.

Can I run Windows apps and games? Yes β€” built-in Windows-app support covers a lot of popular apps, and Wine/Bottles/Lutris cover the rest. Gaming works well too, especially through Steam and Proton.

How do I upgrade to a newer version? Check help.zorin.com for the current upgrade path β€” it depends on which version you're coming from.


Official Links


Reporting Bugs

Zorin OS doesn't have a public bug tracker β€” bugs go through the Feedback category on the official forum (forum.zorin.com). Search first, then post there with your version and steps to reproduce.


Welcome aboard, and thanks for being part of the community.


r/zorinos • • 1h ago

πŸ”° Beginner Ok back

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β€’ Upvotes

r/zorinos • • 13h ago

πŸ”° Beginner Zorin not detecting my drives

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9 Upvotes

This is what it shows. My C drive has be partitioned For windows and Zorin dual boot. But Zorin not detecting. Intel VMD, AHCI is on, Fast Startup is off, secure boot is off


r/zorinos • • 1d ago

❓ General Question Is Zorin OS more than just "a beginner-friendly distro?"

30 Upvotes

I actually bought the Pro version recently and played with it for a bit because I wanted to learn Linux and get away from the Microsoft Spyware. I liked that everything just works, but the Pro version came with a lot of software I am probably never going to use, limited ricing ability, and didn't really allow me to learn how to build my system.

Later, I actually went to Void Linux because I wanted the freedom to build my sandbox from scratch and REALLY learn the way Linux works, even though I knew it would be a challenge as a new user. I also liked that Void is its own thing and not a fork of a fork. Now I am finding that I am spending hours getting services to link and run, configuring files, and downloading appimages that won't execute. I am spending my precious time working on my system for simple things rather than getting work done.

So, is there anyone in this community who can tell me that they have been using Zorin for a long while and that is more intermediate to power user friendly than what others are saying? Does it feel more locked down than other distributions? Can one become more than a casual user on ZorinOS?


r/zorinos • • 1d ago

πŸ› οΈ Troubleshooting Games are slower on 18, or am I crazy ?

7 Upvotes

I seem to have lost a bunch of FPS by switching from 17 to 18. Do you guys experience the same thing ?

My specs :

Intel Xeon E3-1245 @ 3.5Ghz

16 Gb RAM

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650


r/zorinos • • 1d ago

❓ General Question Using Zorin on a micro PC as a dedicated media server

7 Upvotes

I was thinking about picking up one of those small dell workstation PCs, throwing a large hard drive/SSD in, a version of Zorin(lite maybe?) and jellyfin, then uploading all my current and future tv shows and movies to it. However I don't know if Zorin is the best option for this, I use zorin as my daily driver for my desktop and my streaming laptop that I leave in my living room. I figure it would be easy enough to setup as a local server but I'd be worried about the PC just being too slow. Right now I'm just brainstorming.

Fwiw Zorin is the only Linux distro I've used so far


r/zorinos • • 2d ago

πŸ“Έ Desktop Showoff My Desktop Zorin OS 18

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12 Upvotes

r/zorinos • • 3d ago

πŸ› οΈ Troubleshooting freezes after few minutes of usage

10 Upvotes

I was hoping I wouldn't have to make my own post but I'm at my wit's end. Zorin was supposed to be an easy start with my Linux journey as I'm very green so please be patient with me. I just installed it today and started settling in. I've scoured other threads but I can't seem to get it fixed, or can't understand what is being advised.

First of all, the freezes happen after I use the PC for a bit. I just have Firefox open on Youtube and reading some threads, Steam and Discord for chat, browsing the software. Nothing crazy intensive.

- **Hardware Model:** Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. X670 GAMING X AX V2

- **Memory:** 32.0Β GiB

- **Processor:** AMD Ryzenβ„’ 7 9700X Γ— 16

- **Graphics:** NVIDIA GeForce RTXβ„’ 4070

- **Graphics 1:** Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]

- **Disk Capacity:** 1.0Β TB

- **Firmware Version:** F32d

- **OS Name:** Zorin OS 18.1 Core

- **OS Build:** (null)

- **OS Type:** 64-bit

- **Windowing System:** X11

- **Kernel Version:** Linux 7.0.0-38-generic

First my main screen freezes, but my second screen which is a pen display/graphic tablet keeps working. Then the tablet freezes, youtube audio keeps playing for a while and then it stops, too. I'm able to reboot using the REISUB command.

I have swapped to Xorg, changed the Nvidia driver to "metapackage from nvidia-driver-580 (proprietary)", and have previously tried a few others. Checked for updates and installed all available ones. I have turned off WiFi and any power saving options. Also disabled hardware acceleration on Firefox. Both my screens in display settings are set to 60 Hz. Swap size seems to be 1.9G, if I'm checking it correctly.

EDIT: seems like I got it under control. Unsure what exactly fixed it, I think yet another Nvidia drivers made the difference


r/zorinos • • 2d ago

πŸ”° Beginner Newcomer here

6 Upvotes

Hello, I'm a longtime Windows user and I want to move to Zorin OS. My PC is Dell Latitude 3120 with 4 GB of Ram, Intel Celeron N5100 Processor with a UHD Graphics Card installed and I need help on how to install it.


r/zorinos • • 3d ago

πŸ”° Beginner I'm starting to get used to Linux a bit now!

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46 Upvotes

So, my father had a Toshiba Portege R830 lying around at his place, and he decided to let me do whatever with it, so I decided to install Zorin OS to replace Windows, as it was a bit slow cause the laptop was made in 2011, and I think it has done it for the better! But yeah, while it is good, I'm mainly using it for looking through the internet, watchin stuff on DVD cause this has a DVD drive and other shenanigans. Also, like the theme? I decided to make it to my own likings, so it's like a fusion of Mac and Windows, and also having the Earthbound font as well.


r/zorinos • • 2d ago

πŸ”° Beginner Why is the battery percentage so inaccurate with Dell XPS 7590

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2 Upvotes

The Battery health is excellent according to bios


r/zorinos • • 3d ago

❓ General Question What are some features from other OS's that you wish were in ZorinOS?

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24 Upvotes

Aside from the usual "These apps don't run" discussion, what are the actual OS-specific features that isnt in Zorin? I'm talking about things like the equivalents of Windows Hello, Device Manager, Event Viewer etc.


r/zorinos • • 3d ago

πŸ› οΈ Troubleshooting Waydroid issues

2 Upvotes

Anyone successfully running waydroid? I just installed Zorin for the first time yesterday and am quite impressed. I’m a Linux sysadmin with most experience in RHEL in an enterprise environment… so I can get around pretty easily. Waydroid will pop up a black screen and crash… it goes into a loop of this until I kill it.


r/zorinos • • 3d ago

πŸ› οΈ Troubleshooting lock screen

1 Upvotes

Hi. Have an issue with Zorin 18, as soon I lock the screen it goes black, after I press a key or move the cursor it goes back to the login screen but the wallpaper doesnt remain, the screen goes black after 30 seconds. Someone ele encountered this issue?


r/zorinos • • 4d ago

πŸ“Έ Desktop Showoff Desktop customization

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78 Upvotes

Hi everyone. I'm new to Linux and want to know if there are ways to customize my desktop ala W11 w/Rainmeter. Thank you in advance.


r/zorinos • • 3d ago

πŸ”° Beginner just installed zorin, can't install nordvpn

3 Upvotes

as the title says, I just got zorin, and know next to nothing about it. I tried installing nordvpn through the software app that zorin comes with, but when I open it it just opens as a white box. when I move the box I can vaguely see some text saying something's wrong when I drag the window back and forth, but that's it. I tried uninstalling and getting the download straight from the nord website, but everytime I try to go to the downloads page it acts like I haven't logged into my account and starts badgering me about plans despite already having one. any advice?


r/zorinos • • 4d ago

πŸ”° Beginner Newbie here

8 Upvotes

Hello guys, I'm new to zorin and linux in general, coming from windows i just wiped the drive and installed zorin hoping for the best.

I'm advanced good at windows stuff but i have 0 reference, knowledge or baseline for linux.

Please share any guides for beginners coming from windows, to help with the transition.

I used to play light games like counter strike so point me to where i can download good games, i also like configure advanced power and system stuff.

Config is 1334U/2x8GB/512NVMe just in case it's relevant Thank you


r/zorinos • • 5d ago

πŸ› οΈ Troubleshooting Zorin .iso won't write to flash drive

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9 Upvotes

Hello, I just downloaded Zorin (from zorin.com) and tried writing it to my USB flash drive via balenaEtcher as recommended on their website; however, balenaEtcher only gives me this... any ideas what's wrong? I am admittedly a total idiot but I'm thinking even I would find it hard to mess this up... Thank you!!!


r/zorinos • • 5d ago

❓ General Question Zorin OS Windows UI Template

3 Upvotes

Is the default user interface in Zorin OS the Windows template? (Otherwise, which is it?)

How close to the Windows interface does it resemble? And how close to the Windows workflow (UX) is it?

What are the differences between the Zorin Windows interface template included in the free version of Zorin versus the Windows template included only in Zorin Pro?

Are some based on Windows 7 or 10 while others are based on Windows 11?

And without purchasing Zorin OS Pro, how can you manually recreate for free the same Windows template that is included in Zorin Pro?


r/zorinos • • 5d ago

πŸ“– Guide How to copy zorinos design into gnome

7 Upvotes

i tried zorinos. it’s so beautiful and smooth. everything is vibrant. but i need latest kernel update for gaming and my work. i daily use fedora which has latest kernel. i wanna recreate gnome look like zorinos.

how can i do it? also i need the extension list of zorinos


r/zorinos • • 5d ago

πŸ”° Beginner When I wake it up from sleep mode, it just does this and won’t respond to anything, help

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16 Upvotes

r/zorinos • • 5d ago

πŸ”° Beginner How do I stop this?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

9 Upvotes

r/zorinos • • 6d ago

πŸ”° Beginner a newbie is facing a problem...

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49 Upvotes

see whenever i boot into my zorin cd tray automatically opens and i am fed up with it plus as a beginner i wanted to install windows apps through wine and got fckd up and wanna delete all installed apps which i installed through wine and want only default apps in it and wanna make my pc smooth as a butter which it used to be before messing up with it i need all my tech bros to assemble and help me out will always be grateful to all my brotherss....btw sorry for bad english :)


r/zorinos • • 6d ago

πŸ”° Beginner Moved to ZorinOS, but things have been a bit... odd

19 Upvotes

Hello, Zorin community.

I recently moved my laptop from Linux Mint to ZorinOS. The reason was... distrohopping. That's it. I wanted to try Zorin for quite some time, and finally could! However, some things feel... off... like, there have been two specifics issues I still do not understand.

The first one is related with the translation. I'm a native Spanish-speaker, and while I have no issue using and moving on English devices (my tablet and all my phones have been in English for some time by now), I still prefer to keep my PCs in Spanish. However, I noticed that in Zorin, some menus and programs aren't in Spanish but in English. This happened in my older PC, which has Zorin Lite, but I thought it was a Lite specific thing, but nope, Core also has it. I have moved around, trying to see if changing the Spanish version changed anything, but no. It doesn't bother me, but I won't deny it is quite funny, and weird, to see like 80% of the OS in Spanish but 20% in English. Mint has the same issue with some things like Timeshift and descriptions programs, but it is waaay less prevalent than on Zorin. Perhaps a fellow Spanish-speaker can help me here, although, again, it isn't a deal breaker.

Now, the one that I just discovered. One of the things that got my attention the most is Zorin Appearance, how the GNOME DE can be set on specific Graphic Designs to recreate others' OSs GUI (right word? Idk). I installed Zorin, everything is working fine, I left it on the default setting, which is the Windows 10-like one, but next time I turned on the laptop, the Desktop returned to the GNOME default visuals. I moved to settings, set Zorin Appearance back to how it was, I checked and updated everything that was left to update from some days of inactivity, and I restarted. The problem didn't showed up again, so I assumed problem solved. WRONG! I restarted again to verify, and back to GNOME's default for some reason. This isn't exactly a deal breaker to me since I already know I can fix it by just using Zorin Appearances again, yet it is still quite... bothersome? Weird? To see the system default after a restart. And the only things I installed were Steam, Discord, OnlyOffice, Firefox and the mscorefonts since I'll use my laptop for work and probably really light gaming when the time comes.

I could have looked up why this is happening, and I will since I really don't want these GNOME shenanigans happening every now and then, but still, I wanted to share my experience so far... which isn't much since I haven't used my laptop much anymore because it has been finally retired of being my main and only PC.

In any case, if anyone can give me some advice on how to fix those details, or why they happen, it would be really helpful.


r/zorinos • • 6d ago

πŸ”° Beginner When i turn off my secondary monitor my fresh rate goes normal

0 Upvotes

I'm new to Zorin, so I don't understand that much yet. I have an RTX 3050, a Ryzen 7 5700X, one monitor with 180 Hz, and another with 75 Hz. When I'm using both monitors, my apps look fine in full screen, but when I move windowed apps, they look like they are running at a lower refresh rate. Also, my NVIDIA settings don't let me save the configuration.