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.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
All posts need to follow our rules. For users logged in: please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Guest readers can email us for any issues.
17 comments
It actually looks better than Windows 11, at least in my opinion. 
7 Likes, Who?
what'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.
6 Likes, Who?
AussieEevee Aug 13, 2021
Not a fan of the Win 11 appearance, but this is kinda amusing.
0 Likes
walther von stolzing Aug 13, 2021
what'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.
0 Likes
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?
6 Likes, Who?
AussieEevee Aug 13, 2021
what'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.
1 Likes, Who?
what'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".
5 Likes, Who?
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.what'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.
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.
2 Likes, Who?
what'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
0 Likes
rustybroomhandle Aug 14, 2021
what'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
You can run a Deepin desktop without the Deepin distro.
1 Likes, Who?
I loved ZorinOS on the first try because it's modern, clean, elegant and brings all the standard layouts out there, like Ubuntu, MacOS and Windows. Windows 11 is finally improving the design to the modern standards and I just love the extremly clean and elegant look and the new dark themes. I'm using it since the first launch day on the dev channel though it's my daily driver for Adobe apps and little gaming, along with ZorinOS 16 Beta and Hackintosh Catalina multiboot.
I'm glad that 16 version is keeping tradition and brings W11 lauyout as well, but what looks strange here is that start menu is not centered on screen and that feels weird.
I'm glad that 16 version is keeping tradition and brings W11 lauyout as well, but what looks strange here is that start menu is not centered on screen and that feels weird.
1 Likes, Who?
This is cool and I try every new Zorin OS community version. However being a KDE user, I find it hard to navigate and restrictive. Good for me users perhaps.
For layout options, Feren OS does a great job. With checking out. It offers changing full look and feel similar to most popular desktops out there, including a tablet mode.
Zorin has its heart in the right place though!
For layout options, Feren OS does a great job. With checking out. It offers changing full look and feel similar to most popular desktops out there, including a tablet mode.
Zorin has its heart in the right place though!
0 Likes
Not fan of windows 11 and zorin os. In past I had only issues to make it work, as I would like. I think pro version is ok idea, but users who not understand much in linux, would prefer much more some kind of support for their money. And I do not mean forums, where many questions may stay unanswered forever. But some kind of support, where always can get some kind of answer. That is what I'm missing in many linux versions.
0 Likes
ThatOneFurry Aug 17, 2021
what'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.
Should be noted that not all Windows users are against the UI refresher they are bringing to Win11, myself included. I was hyped from the get-go when the leaked ISO made its rounds and unto my machine, still rocking it on bare metal within the dev channel.
So, Zorin bringing this to its line of UI setups is a major plus in my books as I will be checking out the latest Zorin Pro release as I've always had in the past.
0 Likes
what'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.
Linux users are ahead of the time I guess
0 Likes
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me