No-nonsense full review of Zorin OS, the Linux distribution targeting beginners
Everybody’s talking about Zorin OS right now. Microsoft pulled the plug on Windows 10 support in October 2025, and millions of users sick of Microsoft went looking for something else. And for now, this Linux distro is soaking up all the buzz. Zorin OS 18 cleared a million downloads in five weeks flat, 78% of them from Windows machines. The system gives you a slick interface that looks like Windows or macOS. And like every Linux, no trackers, no forced cloud and no mandatory account with the vendor. On paper it’s the dream for anyone who wants out of Microsoft’s ecosystem.
So we wanted to see for ourselves exactly where this thing stands, through Linux eyes. We downloaded Zorin OS 18, installed it on two test machines and here’s the full rundown for you. The usual NovaFuture treatment: honest, documented, no free passes. If what you want is one more article copying Zorin’s press material almost word for word, telling you that of course everything is wonderful, the web is full of them. Here, we’re digging in. We’re looking at what’s really under the hood, what the paid edition is worth and whether the current hype holds up or it’s mostly slick marketing. Spoiler alert: we found stuff we liked and stuff that really pissed us off. But you make up your own mind.
Shutting down the argument: yes, mainstream Linux distros absolutely belong in this ecosystem
Before we go further, let’s get something straight. The Linux community has always looked down a little on so-called mainstream distros like Zorin OS, Linux Mint or Ubuntu. Some purists figure real Linux means Arch, Gentoo or Debian, hardcore command line only. In their book, if you’ve never compiled your own kernel you don’t deserve respect.
And that elitist take is completely counterproductive and completely beside the point. Linux isn’t reserved for network admins or developers. Linux is for everybody! And if some distro lets your grandma browse the web without Microsoft spying on her, that’s a win for free software. End of story!
Full transparency, I run Linux Mint with Cinnamon every day because I like a pleasant desktop. On another machine I run Debian for the work side, networking and development. So the so-called easy distros and the so-called serious ones aren’t at war. You can use both depending on what you need. It’s even the smart move.
All that to say we’re not knocking Zorin OS for being beginner friendly. That part is great. We’re looking closely at whether the result lives up to the promises. And on that, there’s a lot to say…
So what exactly is Zorin OS?
Zorin OS is an Ubuntu-based Linux distro, built since 2008 by a small Irish team called Zorin Group. Their stated goal: an alternative to Windows and macOS with an interface familiar enough that anybody can switch without a headache.
Version 18 shipped on October 14, 2025. No coincidence there, since that’s the exact day Microsoft ended Windows 10 support. Under the hood, Zorin OS 18 runs on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with Linux kernel 6.14. They’re promising support through June 2029, so there’s room.
Zorin comes in several editions. Core is free and forms the base, with the GNOME desktop and four different themes. Lite is free too and uses XFCE for older machines, but it isn’t out yet for version 18 as I write this. Education is also free and takes Core, then adds a collection of educational software like GCompris, TurboWarp or Kolibri. Then there’s Pro, which costs €47.99. It gives you twelve desktop themes instead of four, a suite of preinstalled creative software, extra wallpapers and email tech support for installation. We’ll come back to Pro in detail, because there’s plenty to say about what you actually get for that money.
How we tested Zorin OS 18
For this review we installed Zorin OS 18 Core on two very different machines. The idea is to see how the system behaves on recent hardware and on an older setup.
Machine one runs an Intel N100 with four cores, 16 GB of RAM and an NVMe SSD. Modern hardware, nothing high end. The kind of setup you find today in a €200 mini PC. Machine two runs an AMD A4-5000 with integrated Radeon graphics, four cores as well, 8 GB of RAM and a plain spinning hard drive. Nobody would call it recent anymore, but it’s no antique either. We didn’t pick these two at random, because they’re exactly the kind of computers sitting in a lot of homes.
On the older machine we also tested XFCE to see if performance improves over the GNOME desktop that ships with Core. XFCE is what Lite uses, the edition supposed to run Zorin on machines over fifteen years old according to the official line. Let’s see how that goes…
Zorin on the newer machine
On our Intel N100 with 16 GB of RAM, the install went off without a hitch. Clean and fast. First boot, and yes, the interface really is pretty. Polished, uncluttered, modern design. Somebody landing here straight off Windows gets their bearings right away, with a start menu at the bottom left and a file browser that works exactly the way they expect.
A few things we liked. First, PipeWire handles audio by default. In practice that means Bluetooth just works. We paired a wireless headset and it connected instantly, good sound, no audible lag. Second, Brave ships as the default browser instead of Firefox. That’s a solid privacy call, even if you can obviously install Brave in thirty seconds on any Linux distro.
Zorin Connect comes preinstalled too. It syncs your phone with your computer. You get your phone notifications on your PC, you move files without a cable, you share the clipboard between both devices, you control media playback or you use your phone as a trackpad. A bit gimmicky for my taste, but it can be handy for some people and it works well. On the phone side you install the Zorin Connect Android app from the Play Store and pair both devices on the same WiFi network.
And here comes our first gripe with Zorin OS. Zorin Connect isn’t a Zorin creation. It’s just a rebrand of KDE Connect, an open source project that’s been around for years. On Zorin’s own GitHub repo it says in black and white that the app is based on KDE Connect. But nowhere in Zorin’s interface or documentation will you find that stated clearly. Not a classy way to operate.
So if you’re eyeing Zorin OS specifically for that feature, know that it’s free on every Linux distro out there. Just install KDE Connect, which has its own Android app on the Play Store and F-Droid, and even an iPhone version for the poor souls stuck with Apple. The only difference is that it comes without the Zorin logo.
Otherwise, the software catalog lives in a graphical app that pulls several sources together. You can install from the Ubuntu and Zorin repos, from Flathub for Flatpaks and from the Snap Store. For somebody discovering Linux who doesn’t want to touch a terminal, that really is handy. So on this machine, no major complaints. Zorin OS 18 does the job for beginners.
Zorin on the older machine, and the cold shower
This is where it gets ugly! On our AMD A4-5000 with 8 GB of RAM, Zorin OS Core turns barely usable. Apps take forever to launch, window transitions stutter and the second you open more than two or three things at once it crashes. Three or four tabs in Brave are enough to freeze the system. We’re a long way from the smooth experience promised.
So we installed XFCE to see if things got better. That lightweight desktop is the one Lite will use, the edition supposed to breathe life back into old machines. And sure, it’s better than GNOME. But still heavy. We never got the snappiness other lightweight distros deliver on the same hardware.
And that’s where Zorin’s messaging starts to bother us. On their official site, the minimum specs list 2 GB of RAM for Core and 1 GB of RAM for Lite. They also claim the system runs on fifteen-year-old machines.
Let’s be clear! Those numbers are pure marketing fantasy. Technically, yes, the system boots with 2 GB of RAM. Using it daily with a modern web browser is flat out impossible. Just open the browser and your machine drops to its knees. Those specs are there to look good on paper, not to describe real use. And honestly, that pisses us off. It’s a load of crap, and it’s going to waste the time of people who try it on small machines and walk away with a bad impression of Linux.
Taking apart Zorin Pro at €47.99
Now let’s talk about the paid edition. The price alone gets us off to a terrible start! €47.99 LOL Not €48. No, €47.99! That’s a discount supermarket pricing trick, and it tells you everything about Zorin Group’s commercial approach. Anyway, let’s look at what you actually get for the money.
Pro gives you twelve desktop layouts instead of four. You can make your interface look like Windows 11, classic XP style Windows, macOS, ChromeOS, Ubuntu, elementary OS, Linux Mint and a few other variations. It’s sold as an exclusive premium feature.
Except these are themes and GNOME extension configs. Nothing a mildly curious user can’t rebuild for free on any Linux distro running GNOME. Dig around and you’ll even find tutorials on Zorin’s own forum explaining how to recreate those famous layouts on the free version. As exclusives go, we’ve seen better.
But the real beauty is the creative suite. On their site Zorin proudly announces that Pro includes the equivalent of over $5,000 worth of professional software. Wow! Impressive stuff! Except when you look at the actual list you find GIMP, Inkscape, Blender, Kdenlive, Darktable, Krita, Ardour, OBS Studio, FreeCAD, LibreCAD, VirtualBox and Scribus. Spot the problem? Every single one of these is free and open source. They’re available on every Linux distro on the planet. You can install them with one command on Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora or anything else.
Zorin develops none of this software. They preinstall it, that’s all. Claiming $5,000 in savings for software anybody can get for free is what you could call very optimistic messaging, but I’d sooner call it what it is, blatant bullshit.
There’s more. The Pro plan also comes with tech support. Except it only covers installation, which doesn’t usually cause any trouble anyway. After that, if you hit a daily use problem, you sort it out on the Zorin forum like everybody else. Speaking of the forum, several users point out that Zorin’s developers barely show up there compared to other communities like Linux Mint, where the team answers regularly.
Another very important detail: your purchase gets you Zorin OS 18 Pro and its future minor updates. But when Zorin OS 19 lands, you pay again. Existing customers are promised a discount, but you still open your wallet a second time. The more this goes on, the more I wonder whether we’re still on Linux here?
If Zorin actually bundled premium proprietary software like CorelDRAW or a DaVinci Resolve Studio license, the price would make sense. That’s not remotely the case. Honestly, paying what they ask for a handful of themes and some wallpapers is a bit much.
Funding free software shouldn’t be a taboo subject
That said, let’s be very clear: we’d much rather hear that a free software outfit found a viable business model than hear they’re shutting down for lack of money. Funding free software is a real subject and a real problem. Sadly, excellent projects die every year because the developers can’t afford to keep donating their time. That’s a reality you can’t look away from. So yes, spending money within your means to help free software is not a problem at all. Quite the opposite.
But how you go about it matters! When a project says plainly that it needs support to survive, when it offers open donations or a transparent contribution system, you know why you’re chipping in. Personally and on behalf of NovaFuture, we donate to free software projects regularly. Because they do great work and because they don’t feed us a line. And if a free software project offers me a mug or a Tux t-shirt to help make ends meet, no problem here. I love penguins and the logos of the good free alternatives.
Dressing up hot air as a premium offer, artificially inflating the value of free software and reaching for the crudest marketing tricks the proprietary world has, that’s a hard no! And I’m hammering on this because it goes beyond Zorin. Better to draw the line now so the free software world stays healthy. You can’t ask ordinary people to leave Windows and then hand them the same shady methods on Linux. There, it’s said!
So which Linux distro should a beginner pick?
Personally, for a nice desktop I’ll take my Linux Mint any day. But past my own preferences, Zorin OS pisses me off mostly for the way everybody talks about it. Once again, outlets that know nothing about Linux run Zorin’s talking points as is, checking nothing. Then a swarm of clickbait sites picks it up and repeats the same thing. Five thousand dollars of free software, the revolutionary distro, the holy grail for leaving Windows… And we’re sick of buzz at any cost! We’d love real information once in a while, especially on technical subjects.
Zorin, for their part, understands the world we live in and pulls every marketing string available to pass for an exceptional distro. Time to snap out of it. This isn’t 2010 anymore! We need to kill the myth of Linux being hard compared to Windows, and the endless quest for the holy grail of simplicity.
Because the reality is that distros like Linux Mint, Ubuntu, MX Linux and plenty of others suit beginners perfectly today. No shameful marketing, no inflated promises and nobody charging you €48 for wallpapers. Sorry, €47.99 🙂 So if you want to dump Windows too and join the magical, wonderful world of Linux and you need advice, go ask questions on forums that specialize in open source. See you soon for new adventures 🙂
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