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Zorin OS 16 Pro, the upcoming release that will replace Zorin OS Ultimate has been announced and one of the features they're showing off is a pre-made style to look like Windows 11.

It was only a matter of time of course until someone or some distribution put up an official Windows 11-like style, and surprisingly it actually looks quite nice. Only available in the Pro edition, this is their paid version of Zorin OS Linux that provides a bunch of extras.

"The Windows 11-like desktop layout is brand-new in Zorin OS 16 Pro. It features a modern and streamlined UI that adapts well to computers with touchpads, mice, or touchscreens. The new grid menu, activities overview button, and taskbar icons are placed front and center for easy access and effortless navigation on screens of all sizes. "

Zorin OS 16 Pro will come with 8 very different desktop layouts with their 4 premium layouts to look like macOS, Windows 11, Windows Classic and Ubuntu on top of 4 other layouts included in the standard Zorin OS.

Why pay though? Well, working on open source software does have a cost attached to it and a very real one. People need to eat and we do live in a society where money talks. On the "Why Pay?" page, the Zorin team note that funding helps them hire developers and they're totally independent.

"We've designed Zorin OS to have the perfect blend of power and usability for everyone."

The thing is - why would you want to use Zorin? Well, the developers say a big target for them are new Linux users, and people who perhaps aren't the best with computers overall. They include a number of tweaks to make the experience as easy as possible like prompting to install Wine if you try to use a Windows application but also show some known equivalent options if possible too. Lots of little tweaks.

Building on top of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, they get a stable base with all the updates to the entire Linux software stack that came with it. The full release of Zorin OS 16 is due on Tuesday, August 17.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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AsciiWolf Aug 13, 2021
  • Supporter Plus
It actually looks better than Windows 11, at least in my opinion.
dude Aug 13, 2021
Though I don't really like the Win11 theme, this one looks so good that I want to install openbox.
Mal Aug 13, 2021
  • Supporter
Quoting: Guestwhat's the point of providing a windows 11 layout? Not even windows users want that. The first thing I see them doing is to try to find the setting to put it back in the corner.

Uh... Old people already accustomed to that windows if I had to find a use case.

When I "forced" my father to linux I gave him Zorin and it made the transition smoother since GUI issues are factored out. After the conversion is done it's surely possible to move on to more functional interfaces.
AussieEevee Aug 13, 2021
Not a fan of the Win 11 appearance, but this is kinda amusing.
wvstolzing Aug 13, 2021
Quoting: Mal
Quoting: Guestwhat's the point of providing a windows 11 layout? Not even windows users want that. The first thing I see them doing is to try to find the setting to put it back in the corner.

Uh... Old people already accustomed to that windows if I had to find a use case.

When I "forced" my father to linux I gave him Zorin and it made the transition smoother since GUI issues are factored out. After the conversion is done it's surely possible to move on to more functional interfaces.

No one's accustomed to the w11 layout yet, though.
Kimyrielle Aug 13, 2021
I kinda liked the Windows 7 UI, but Win 10 is unbelievably ugly. I have seen only a handful of screenshots of Win 11 so far, but it seems to be only marginally better than 10. Not sure why anybody would want to pay to make Linux as ugly as Windows. If you want Linux to look and behave like Windows, there is always KDE, I guess?
AussieEevee Aug 13, 2021
Quoting: Mal
Quoting: Guestwhat's the point of providing a windows 11 layout? Not even windows users want that. The first thing I see them doing is to try to find the setting to put it back in the corner.

Uh... Old people already accustomed to that windows if I had to find a use case.

When I "forced" my father to linux I gave him Zorin and it made the transition smoother since GUI issues are factored out. After the conversion is done it's surely possible to move on to more functional interfaces.

When I forced my father to use Linux (Because he kept breaking Windows...), it was Linux Mint 13. The Windows-like interface really does help for some users.

And to be fair, even though I've been using Linux on and off for nearly two decades... I still prefer the Windows-like UI over stuff like gnome.

I would never use this one though... Windows 11 is IMO ugly. I prefer the more Windows XP but darker type UIs.
Mal Aug 13, 2021
  • Supporter
Quoting: wvstolzing
Quoting: Mal
Quoting: Guestwhat's the point of providing a windows 11 layout? Not even windows users want that. The first thing I see them doing is to try to find the setting to put it back in the corner.

Uh... Old people already accustomed to that windows if I had to find a use case.

When I "forced" my father to linux I gave him Zorin and it made the transition smoother since GUI issues are factored out. After the conversion is done it's surely possible to move on to more functional interfaces.

No one's accustomed to the w11 layout yet, though.

Well... someone will eventually. And Zorin will make "easier" the transition. Windows -> linux is not just GUI. There are different abstractions for different "computer organizations" (for example, my father first pc was DOS. Just "removing" C: and A: was a trauma for him. Even though he doesn't touch a CLI since ages and it's just about icons. He had a mental model deeply rooted in his brain). By having at least a familiar GUI you can reduce the stress on the adopter while he metabolize the "new concepts".
Purple Library Guy Aug 13, 2021
Quoting: Mal
Quoting: Guestwhat's the point of providing a windows 11 layout? Not even windows users want that. The first thing I see them doing is to try to find the setting to put it back in the corner.

Uh... Old people already accustomed to that windows if I had to find a use case.
I think pcavaclanti's point was more that exactly that kind of people would rather have a Windows classic look (which apparently ZorinOS also has), more along Windows 7 lines, than a Windows 11 look.

Far as I can tell from the article, the Windows11 look is actually included more because they think it works well with smaller touch screens.
Whitewolfe80 Aug 13, 2021
Quoting: Guestwhat's the point of providing a windows 11 layout? Not even windows users want that. The first thing I see them doing is to try to find the setting to put it back in the corner.

Other than that, Zorin and Deepin are the most user-friendly distros out there. Well, Deepin used to be when I last tried it, at least.

Yeah but deepin is suspect at best i just do not trust a chinese distro its probably fine and my paranoia but no it would be the same as installing red star linux (the offical north korean linux distro) the sheer amount of monitoring software on that thing with every website apart from the state news webpage blocked
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