Goodbye Windows 10, Hello Zorin OS
Today is Windows 10 Apocalypse Day in many countries; Microsoft will no longer provide security updates, meaning that the legendarily secure operating system will become increasingly vulnerable to hacks. For some reason, Microsoft would like the owners of the 400 million PCs currently running Windows 10 to buy new Windows 11 PCs, and discard their current laptops to be sent to poison children in the global south.
But you don’t have to do that. Your Windows 10 machine can carry on living an even better life, using Zorin OS, which is a free operating system called Linux, but tweaked to look and feel like classic Windows.
I recently converted my 80 year old mum’s PC from Win 10 to Zorin, and after a 10 minute intro to using it, she’s had no problems at all (she had been running Libre Office previously, rather than Microsoft Office, so there was less of a learning curve, but Libre Office is pretty easy to get used to after Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc).
Please note, there are many flavours of Linux (AKA ‘distros’). I’m not suggesting that any are somehow lesser quality. Manjaro Linux, for example, is reputedly excellent and comes with Vivaldi browser as default. I’m not a Linux aficionado, but wanted to rejuvenate an old machine for my mum. My reading suggested Zorin would be a candidate for an out of the box experience that would feel familiar to a Windows user, and my mum liked it when she tried it, so that parental tech support ticket was closed. YMMV – Your Mum May Vary.
You’ll need something to back up any personal files that aren’t already backed up to OneDrive/ Google Drive or Docs/ Dropbox/ Amazon etc, and one USB stick with 4GB or more to install Zorin from. This USB stick doesn’t need to be empty, but it will be over-written. Then, download Zorin Core (which is free, forever), and follow the installation instructions. (If you want, you can try it out without overwriting your existing system, but it will be a lot slower running off your USB drive, and once you remove the stick, Zorin is gone from your machine.)
If you have more than one machine to upgrade to Zorin, you can just install those from the previously-created USB drive.
Once you’ve set up Zorin, you’ll see a desktop reminiscent of classic Windows. The bottom left Zorin button is analogous to the Windows Start button. Customisation is done through the Zorin Appearance option:
There are options to further tweak the desktop theme:
You can also add shortcuts to the desktop (I like to have the Rubbish Bin on the desktop):
Libre Office, a PDF Reader, and some utilities are already preinstalled. From the start menu, you can install additional software from the Zorin store. Choose Software:
Do you use the Web? Do you like personalised, private and powerful browsing from a European alternative to Big Tech? Of course you do! From the (hard-to-find) search magnifying glass on the top left, search for Vivaldi:
Click the blue “install” button, then open it once it’s installed.
Open applications show their icon in the dock/ taskbar / dash; right-click on it and you can choose “Pin to dash” to keep the icon there at all times:
And now you have a fully-functioning PC running a free Operating System and browser that won’t nag you, nudge you to store all your files elsewhere, won’t spy on you, or sell your data to advertisers, or use your personal data to train an “Artificial Intelligence”.
What’s not to love (unless you’re a Microsoft board member or an e-waste smuggler)?
Buy "Calling For The Moon", my debut album of songs I wrote while living in Thailand, India, Turkey. (Only £2, on Bandcamp.)