Since long I have been waiting for a Linux operating system which can be as slick and stylish as Windows. I believe the time might have come for that in the light of Zorin OS release. It is a multi-functional operating system designed for Windows users who want to have easy and smooth access to Linux. Although it is Ubuntu based, however, I found it much smoother than the Ubuntu in usage. this is one of the reasons I believe it has great potential.
Zorin OS has a similar interface to Windows and can cater for their needs as it can run Windows applications using Wine. The start menu is like Windows 7 and enables quickly searching for items using the search box.
Like Ubuntu, it has a software center which makes it easy to install applications. If you would like to know the procedure of using Wine to run Windows applications on Linux then check out by tutorial: How To Run Windows Programs On Ubuntu Linux With Wine.
You can also install Zorin OS on a virtual machine such as VMware or VirtualBox and give it a try. You may also be interested in the The Look Changer which lets you change your desktop to look and act like either Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 2000, Mac OS X or Linux (GNOME).
So get your copy of Zorin OS and either run it as a Live CD or install it on a virtual or physical machine to give it a try.
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“Since long I have been waiting for a Linux operating system which can be as slick and stylish as Windows”
I stopped reading at this point. There are HUNDREDS of linux distros that are slicker and more stylish than windows. In fact, virtually any distro can look better than windows if you put the right packages on it.
I respect your opinion but many Windows users will beg to
differ. I myself have been more of a Microsoft guy and started using Windows
first and Linux later (and not the other way around). So the line you referred
to is the opinion of a Windows user who also happens to use Linux. I found
Zorin to match the Windows look (according to my opinion). It must be noted
that Windows does own more than 90 percent of the world market and large number
of users do not find Linux to be as good looking as Windows. Then again, it is
a matter of one’s opinion. Mac fans would perhaps consider it to be more
stylish than both Windows and Linux. I would suggest that you look at the
essence of the article and Zorin features and not hold one person’s opinion
against him.
Actually, the “Windows owns more than 90% of the world market share” figure is somewhat erroneous. It’s extremely difficult to determine desktop market share, but more likely figures put Windows at around 80% desktop market share worldwide, as Linux is very popular in developing countries. Linux also has a very large market share (only exceeded by Apple’s iOS) on web and mobile platforms (web and cloud servers, smartphones, tablets, and netbooks), which are becoming increasingly more important nowadays and are likely to exceed the desktop in importance within a few years.
Also, making Linux look good depends on what packages you use. Any Linux distro can use a sleek theme with nifty desktop effects. Most don’t look especially nice by default, but Ubuntu and most KDE-based distros already look very clean and sleek. Users’ opinions of the look and feel of other operating systems is most influenced by how similar or different it is from what they already know. In other words, it’s not really about aesthetics, but about familiarity, which is dependent on how the window manager actually works by default. It would be interesting to see the opinion on this subject of someone who has never used a computer with a GUI before.
The biggest Linux success story of the past decade has
perhaps been the Android boom. The market share I was referring to included
Windows client and Server operating systems. Whereas, you are talking about the
Smartphone market as well, where Linux has no doubt made enormous progress. If
one was to consider the Smartphone marker than I agree Windows will have a
lower market share perhaps around 80%. Your point about familiarity is exactly
what I was trying to point out. Anyways, it was not just the sleek design but
smooth usage which compelled me to write about Zorin OS. I have been regularly using
Ubuntu and have been dealing with periodic problems due to Unity and kernel
upgrades. For this reason I have also been writing guides to resolve those
issues. Zorin reminded me of Fedora and other Linux distros which have not gone down the line of Unity
like hiccups recently.
Thank you for taking the time to express your opinion.
Regards,
WML Cloud Admin