After using Linux Mint for many years on my ASUS S200E VivoBook (also known as the X202E), I finally conceded that it was time to look for another distro. Although it's well over a decade old, this little 11.6" notebook is quite possibly the most reliable PC I have ever owned, and still looks like new. But it  does show its age when booting up and opening apps, which seem to take forever. I openly admit that I like Linux Mint because it's very much like Windows, and if something is familiar and easy to use, then there's nothing wrong with that. So off I went to Distrowatch to see what was in the top 100, and found Zorin OS. With it promising to be familiar to Windows users and with version 18 having just been launched I simply had to give it a go.

---

DVD drives are becoming a thing of the past, but that's no problem because Linux can be installed from a USB stick by using a utility called Rufus which can be downloaded here: https://rufus.ie/en/. The procedure for creating a bootable USB stick using Rufus is quite straight forward so will not be covered here. Your PC will need to be set to boot from an external USB drive instead of it's own hard drive, by changing the boot order in the BIOS. With the ASUS, pressing the F2 key just after it is powered on puts it into BIOS mode, but the key used depends on what make of PC you have. Once in, you will be able to change the boot order to make the USB stick first and then the hard drive (or SSD) second. Zorin can be run as a 'Live CD' which means you can try it first before permanently installing it onto your hard drive. The live trial has an install icon on the desktop which when clicked will guide you through the install process. If you find that your USB stick doesn't boot, it may need to be set as 'Active'. A free utility that can check if this is the case and correct it is MiniTool Partition Wizard.

Although Zorin can be installed alongside Windows (dual boot), I always prefer to do a clean install and wipe the old hard drive. To do this, when the 'Installation type' window appears, select 'Erase disk and install Zorin OS'. Also, if you are the only person who has access to your PC, or you don't keep any sensitive data on it, then you may prefer not to have to enter a password every time your PC boots up. If this is the case, then when the 'Who are you?' window appears, select 'Log in automatically'. You will still be required to enter your password for system tasks and for logging in but that's Linux for you! Just to be clear, security is extremely important and disabling passwords is risky, so do it at your own risk!

Appearance

Once installed Zorin is ready to go, but of course there's always something that can be changed to get it just how you like it. Below are some tweaks I needed to do to make it feel like my Linux home! Your preferences will be different of course, or you may be happy just the way it is. Note: 'Menu' refers to clicking on the 'Z' at the bottom left of the screen (just like the Windows start menu).

Right click (or two finger tap) the taskbar > Taskbar Settings > Style tab > personally, I set both sliders to the left (full length with flat ends) > set Panel background opacity to whatever you want (80% is nice) > Position tab > set Panel thickness to about 40px and Panel length to 100% (what can I do I'm a traditionalist!). Also, if you don't want the workspaces icon on the taskbar, you can hide it by deselecting the Activities button (click Visible).

How to...

Convenience

To install software from the Zorin 'App Store' (I'll call it that as it's a familiar term) go to Menu > Software > click the search icon in the top left corner and type what your looking for. I've listed some of my 'Must Have' apps below:

Google Chrome is the web browser of choice (for me anyway).

VLC is really all you need for media playback.

KShutdown for when you want to fall asleep to the radio.

XnView MP is a powerful but user friendly photo editor.

In XnView, to open an image file fullscreen when double clicked > run XnView > Tools > Settings > under General select Startup > in the Open drop down box select Viewer - Fullscreen > OK

To remove the file information > run XnView > Tools > Settings > under View select Fullscreen > untick Show Info > OK

To change the fullscreen background from light to dark > run XnView > Tools > Settings > under View select Fullscreen > Background color > choose Black.

Other useful software:

gFTP - FTP client for uploading your website to a server.
Puddletag - MP3 tag edtor (a Linux equivalent of the excellent Mp3tag in Windows).
EncryptPad - A text editor that can encrypt its content with a password.
Xournal - Touchscreen sketchpad for laptops (great for scribbling down ideas when you don't have a pen and paper to hand).

Installing new fonts
 
In your home directory, create a folder called .fonts and drag your fonts into it. The fonts will be available to select in all applications.

Installing a printer

Menu > Settings > Printers > Add Printer > follow the prompts

Desktop Screenshot