Zorin Pro - yes or no?

[KGIII]

OK, I meant if you get a free version, can you upgrade to the new one without needing to reinstall?

It doesn't say.

BUT...

I'd speculate that the answer is 'yes' for both free and pro versions. Long-gone are the days of yore where upgrading to a new release meant a clean install.

If it does require a clean install, just backup you ~/ (home) directory, do the clean install, move your data back to the ~/ directory, and install the software you had installed. If you do that, you'll have all of the same configurations you had with the previous installation (usually). You'll even have the same browser settings - meaning you'll open your browser and have all the same tabs open.

 

[KGIII]

It looks like they support upgrade in place.

Upgrade Zorin OS

Upgrade Zorin OS from a previous version, or from a free edition to Zorin OS Pro.

help.zorin.com

There we go. I only made it as far as the FAQs. I figured they could read the rest of the site just as well as I can.

 

[Trynna3]

Thanks all, I'll give Zorin a go then

 

[nikNiz]

OK, I meant if you get a free version, can you upgrade to the new one without needing to reinstall?
Does anyone know?

I use Zorin Core (free) and update it without any problems with the built-in tool.

 

[Deleted member 204243]

If you want to say "thank you" then yes. If you're expecting a better product then no.

 

[theLegionWithin]

Honestly, if I get all those things in other distros for free, why would I pay Zorin $$ to get them?

probably the same reason that businesses purchase RHEL subscriptions

 

[dos2unix]

probably the same reason that businesses purchase RHEL subscriptions

I think this is true up to a point, however I seriously doubt I would get the same level of support from Zorin, that I get from Redhat.
Also, there are packages Redhat has, that nobody else has. I wonder if Zorin has packages nobody else has? (Although, it sounds like they may have some unique desktops). On the other hand, Zorin is quite a bit cheaper than Redhat.

 

[Deleted member 204243]

probably the same reason that businesses purchase RHEL subscriptions

You can't compare these two. With RHEL you get a technical support. With Zorin Pro you get installation support. That's not even close. RHEL comes with a guarantee that the system will work on a certain level. I don't think you can say the same about Zorin Pro. To be honest, I don't think they should use "pro" in their name. "Premium" or "Plus" would be more appropriate.

 

[f33dm3bits]

I think this is true up to a point, however I seriously doubt I would get the same level of support from Zorin, that I get from Redhat.
Also, there are packages Redhat has, that nobody else has. I wonder if Zorin has packages nobody else has? (Although, it sounds like they may have some unique desktops). On the other hand, Zorin is quite a bit cheaper than Redhat.

I currently pay around $145(including tax) a year for the Proxmox Community subscription, I only get community support from the community support forum and access to the enterprise repo which has better tested packages. I don't do it because of the things I get in return since I don't really need support, I do it because I use Proxmox a lot and find it a good product even though it's free to use. That way the developers are shown some appreciation.

 

[Deleted member 204243]

There is nothing wrong in paying for Zorin Pro if you want yo say "thank you" (even if 95% of the work is done by Debian and Ubuntu teams), but no one should think that Zorin Pro and RHEL belong to the same category of products.

 

[MikeWalsh]

Back during my early distro-hopping days, a decade or so back, I did shell out for Zorin 'Pro'.....I think it was ZorinOS 7 or 8 back then. Mainly for the WINE stuff, since even now there's a couple of Windows apps I'd got really used to under XP, and which to this day I've yet to find suitable Linux replacements for. (Not without needing to simultaneously use 3 or 4 different apps to achieve the same level of functionality.)

During the next 3 months I came to realise you can take any 'free' version of ZorinOS and turn it into the 'Pro' version by adding the packages from the repos yourself. Sorry, Artyom & Kyrill, but.....bye-bye, Zorin 'Pro'!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

In Puppy, we now use the WINE AppImages that several people are providing over at Github. These things are so simple to use, they take all the mystery & complexity out of using WINE.

You 'link' the AppImage into /usr/bin 3 times, under 3 different names. That's it. That's all there is to it.

Unlike older WINE packages, where the 32-bit stuff had to be installed separately to get the functionality from older 32-bit Windows apps, these AppImages have both 32- AND 64-bit stuff included (the SysWOW64 stuff).

I've turned 'em into a 'portable' WINE. Whenever you want to run a Windows app, it auto-links the AppImage into /usr/bin, creates the profile inside the 'portable's directory then links that into the user's /home directory for the duration of the session. At close, it shuts down the app and kills the links. Result? WINE is only ever temporarily 'linked' into the system while it's actually being used. When you're finished, it's 'disconnected' again...so despite that there's always 'security concerns' when running WINE, these ARE minimised as far as is possible.

Because I run half-a-dozen builds of WINE (some older builds work better for older apps than modern builds, believe it or not.....this has always been true of WINE), I built my own version switcher with GUI, etc. This lets me swap WINE versions quickly, depending on what app I want to run.

TBH, the way my Pups are set-up these days I've all the functionality you'd find in ZorinOS 'Pro' in an OS a quarter the size.....that's completely under MY control at all times.

Works for me.


Mike.