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Zorin OS 16 is a Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Based Distribution that has a Windows like Linux Desktop Environment. It is one of the few Linux Desktop Environments optimized for a 2 in 1 Touchscreen Device; supporting Touchscreen, including an onscreen keyboard and supporting the Device Screen Auto-Rotation (iio-sensor-proxy).

#Zorin #Linux #Dell

In this video I look at the use of Zorin OS 16 Core on an XPS 13 9365 2 in 1 Touchscreen Device and also dock the laptop with a WD19TB Thunderbolt Dock, to look at the use of Zorin OS 16 with a multi-monitor setup...

Unfortunately Zorin OS, like almost all other Linux distributions is not yet optimized for multi-monitor setup. It does not having any settings to show taskbars on each monitor like Windows does. The high DPI screen of the XPS 13 9365 is unusable with a standard resolution external monitor. Under the hood this is because it inherits the current (Xorg) graphic display driver model from Ubuntu 20.04 LTS cannot simultaneously set a 200 % DPI scaling on the XPS 13 9365 screen and a 100 % DPI Scaling on the external monitor. Both need the same settings making one screen pretty much unusable. There are a lot of upgrades going on in this area with the newer (Wayland) graphic display driver model being exhibited in Fedora and the latest Ubuntu Feature Based version. This newer graphics driver is unstable in other areas (mainly third party applications which need rewritten/updated to work properly with the newer protocol). In any case they won't be present in a LTS release until Ubuntu 22.04 LTS is released which Zorin OS 17 will likely be built upon.

I download installation media and create a Zorin OS 16 UEFI Bootable USB on Linux and Windows. I then ​go through a clean installation of Zorin OS 16 on a Dell XPS 13 9365. Full written instructions are available here:
https://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/zorin-os-16/
I start by configuring the Dell UEFI BIOS, looking at the system information to determine the processor, graphics card and wireless card. I then ensure the SATA Operation is compatible (AHCI and not RAID) and that a UEFI Boot is configured with Secure Boot. I remove old Boot Entries and perform a Dell Data Wipe to Securely Erase the internal NVMe SSD. For a complete install including codecs and third party drivers, we need to set up a Machine Owner Key (MOK) to allow it to pass Secure Boot.

The performance of Zorin OS 16 is good and is far more lightweight than Windows. In general Zorin OS 16 Core will likely perform much better than Windows 10 on early UEFI hardware (2012-2014 models) and Microsoft have pretty much given up on any computer older than 3 years with Windows 11... The Zorin OS 16 Linux Distribution can be used to replace Windows on Devices used for most common tasks, there may be some slight issues with Windows specific applications but that is becoming more rare these days.

Zorin OS 16 is powered by Linux and a modern Chromium Browser can be installed making it compatible with most web-related tasks such as video streaming (provided the multi-media codecs have been installed). The inbuilt FireFox browser can be used however it is lacking behind Chromium particularly for Touchscreen support. Zorin OS 16 inherits the flawed xinput profile setting for FireFox from Ubuntu 20.04 LTS giving the poor out of the box touchscreen experience with this browser. This can be fixed by using the command line:
echo export MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 | sudo tee /etc/profile.d/use-xinput2.sh
Otherwise Zorin OS is fully powered by Linux and an array of third-party applications can be installed from the Software Store. I take a quick look at KolourPaint (an equivalent for MS Paint) and the LibreOffice/Only Office Suites (an equivalent for MS Office). Zorin OS includes Screenshot an equivalent to the Windows Snipping Tool but lacks a built in screen recorder. VokoScreen NG works very well on it (although only an older version of the program is showing in the software Store). However if they were to make an inbuilt one, they should consider the user interface of the DeepIn Screen Recorder.

Zorin OS 16 (and Linux in general) is lacking behind Windows when it comes to the Windows Emoji Panel (with symbol input) and a Paste Clipboard. The inbuilt inbuilt Characters and Emoji Panel within the Text Editor are lacking in comparison. Having symbol input on the touchscreen keyboard like the Windows Touchscreen keyboard would also be good (Fedora Linux has a Touchscreen Keyboard with Emojis but lacks Symbols).

Zorin OS 16 also lacks the Windows Snap Layouts being exhibited in Windows 11. My guess is something like this will only be incorporated once full multi-monitor support is incorporated i.e. once the display driver model is updated.