Title: Zorin 18 vs WIN11
Date: 16 August 2026
It has been much too long since I have posted here on my Blog. Sometimes life gets like that...I hope you can forgive my absence.
Since I have been away for the keyboard I have been monitoring the current chatter on online privacy and the gross overreach of many of the world governments to seize power and domain over an open and free internet. Many of the BS laws they have enacted in the name of protection are in fact the tyrannical oppression many dystopian novels and movies are based on. And if oppressive governments were not enough invasions of privacy, there is also the corporate overlords who want their pound of salt out of your data...that they mine every second of every hour of every day. With or without your informed and explicit consent. Of course, the big tech giants will say it was all explained in the “User’s Agreement” you agreed to...yatta, yatta, yatta. With the options to escape this death spiral of protecting your privacy while online from hackers, governments, or big tech corporations, what can the average person do??
Now, I am not a tech expert, however I try to keep an open mind, and keep my eyes and ears open for options. Alas, I may have found a path to protecting personal privacy online. Part of the solution is to switch away from the main stream computer options, namely Apple & Microsoft. This path away from the giants leads you to Linux. Right that scary unknown computer operating system that is “FREE”! Open source code. Scary. Applications (APPs) that can be downloaded for “FREE”. Scary. Operating systems that are transparent. Very scary. Well, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and the rest want you to think that Linux is scary. Please, allow me to introduce you to Zorin, specifically Zorin 18.1.
Lenovo Thinkpad T-14 with Zorin 18.1 O/S
Quick back story...I have not upgraded my old laptop to WIN11 due to a number of reasons with data mining and invasion of privacy being at the top of my list to say “NO”! However, I need a viable alternative. I started researching the many Linux distro (distributions). The Linux way of saying build version. Now Linux has been around for a long time and has been used by a variety of computer scientists, programmers, hackers, game designers; and the list goes on and on. Not on this list is the average computer end user. Until recently many Linux distros used command line prompt to navigate. For those old enough to remember DOS (disk operating system), that is what we are talking about here. Effective but not as user friendly as GUI (graphic user interface) aka desktop icons that link you to where you want to go. End result of that initial research was there were too many options to select from. Furthermore, too many distros were not designed for the average user, someone who just wants to use a word processor, email, and surf the net.
I even bought a book, Linux for Absolute Beginners by Andrew Warner. Which was informative but did not answer my questions I had that were preventing me from jumping ship from a Windows operating system. Namely:
1) Can I access files saved on my external hard drive that I saved using Windows?
2) If I can access my files can I edit them in a Linux environment?
I was not finding answers to my questions, until one day a friend shared a link to Mark 3 7 (https://mark37.com/). End of story, my new laptop is a Thinkpad T-14 running Linux Zorin 18.1 O/S.
Homepage on T14 with Zorin 18.1 O/S
Linux Zorin 18.1 O/S is one of many Linux distros. I have not had time to test drive other Linux distros, but I have had enough time with Zorin to make the following personal claim:
Zorin 18.1 is the easiest Linux distro for the average computer user to transition to from a MS Windows environment.
First, I found Zorin to be quite intuitive to operate and navigate. When setting up your laptop Zorin gives you many setup options to customize the home-screen layout to mimic Windows, Apple, or traditional Linux layouts. This gives a new user a familiar place to start.
Second, I was able without issue to access my files from my old hard drive and copy the files I wanted to my new hard drive.
Third, my laptop came pre-loaded with LibreOfficce, so editing documents is possible. In fact, LibreOffice (an open source office software) is very similar to OfficeUltra 1.3 I used before I went back to school. School assignments generally required submissions in MS Word (DOCx) format. But now I can return to open source software and get away from the annual, ever increasing bill to use MS Office365.
I am still learning the nuances of my new laptop, but suffice to say I am not planning on returning to a Windows environment for day-to-day use. I may fix my old netbook and continue to run Windows XP Pro, the last good version of Windows ever created in my biased opinion. But that will be for a project not everyday use and not for general net surfing. I still have to figure out what to do with email accounts. I understand the next big threat to privacy will be AI data mining old email content. Do you save your old emails???
The next threat to tackle will be a personal communications device...finding the correct cellular phone is on the horizon.
Protect yourself out there!!
Until next time...look for solutions!!
Mountainman.
No comments:
Post a Comment