I installed Zorin 9 in a VM the other day...went off without a hitch and seems waaaay more stable/bug free than Zorin 8. With 8, I'd get these random non-fatal errors that would constantly pop up, with 9, haven't had a bug pop up yet. Other than that, I don't see a whole lot of differences between the two. That's not to say there aren't problems, from their forum it seems like the AWN still gets lost every now and then. And there are some other bugs and such reported that could be attributed to a number of things.

I would recommend Zorin 9 to anyone who is looking for a Windows XP/7-like interface and especially someone who isn't familiar with Linux. I've tried Ubuntu and didn't really like it. Mint was a little more comfortable but the interface seemed kind of dry to me. Zorin seems to be mostly bells & whistles, most of which I don't use, but it's still more like what I'm used to - Windows 7. I know several people who are trying to get off of either XP or Win 8 and I will definitely recommend they try Zorin 9.

There is one thing that jumps out at me though: Zorin seems to be a very insulated distro - like there are only one or two guys working on it. For example, when I did get an error, there didn't seem to be a manual way of reporting it much less checking on its status. Other than the forum which is run by volunteers as opposed to people on the development team (and which seems to be going down as of late) there doesn't appear to be a way to report bugs. With Mint and other distros there is a proscribed method:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint

Add to that, if you look at Zorin's website there's no sense of community there. No solicitations for help or anything that would indicate this isn't anything but a one or two man operation. I was looking to offer help but all they seem to want from the community are donations. Anyone know the story on this OS?

Edit: I Googled for "Zorin OS bugs" and there is a repository for it on launchpad but of the several reported bugs I looked at, I didn't see one comment from a member of the development team.

you have had more luck than i have !. i have tried to install zorin 9 os 32 bit and zorin 9 educational lite , using mutiple downloads. the live dvd works[ slowly] but after installation the distro wont boot. i dont recall having this prob with other linux distros

I installed it to check it out last week without problems. I don't really like it but that's just my preference. Since Zorin is based on Ubuntu, you can probably resolve most of the problems you have by doing an online search for the error with Ubuntu or going to the Ubuntu forums and searching for whatever problem you are having.

That's surprising because I've loaded it on a couple of oldish laptops, one HP one Lenovo, without a problem. In fact, I had more difficulty loading Windows on one of them than I did Zorin, i.e. Zorin detected my wireless card immediately, with Windows I had to download one find that it didn't work then download another reboot several times, etc, etc.

If you're having problems try the support site. They're pretty responsive and usually come up with a solution.
http://www.zoringroup.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=3

So far I like Zorin 9 but....

I tried Z 9 lite on a 2001 vintage Dell L1100r 1.1 GHz PIII 384 RAM as a test bed for updating older computers from XP. It works OK but not great. Probably would work OK on a newer P4.

My big issue is lack of real documentation. It's OK to play around with Zorin or some other distro as a hobby but I'm looking at it as a business opportunity to promote to customers. I'd not a Linux expert (yet) and as a business proposition I can't "sell" it as a Windows alternative unless I can support it.

What's needed to make Zorin a real alternative to Windows especially by getting a foot in the door to replace "unsupported" XP is not a slicker interface, prettier graphics, or more 'features' but rather really good documentation so novice users and (Windows) computer techs alike feel comfortable using / supporting it.

It's not good enough to search on line for help and find some post or documentation that may or may not apply specifically to Zorin. Ubuntu stuff looks different and may or may not be the default or included at all in Zorin. Lite has a different shell than core so that makes it all the more confusing.

If Zorin proponents really want to sell it as an alternative to Windows they have to make it easy for the average person to use and that includes adequate documentation. Anyone who is reluctant to switch from what they know is going to be more reluctant if they can't even get a good manual on the new thing.

I just installed it on my HP Envy 15, and am really enjoying learning. However, I have [U][I]never[I][U] strayed till last week from Windows, but I got totally fed up with 8.0 and.1, and the fact you have to rent Office.

Don't know how long it's been since you've visited the Zorin site but FYI on Zorin forums a fellow has kindly made a PDF users manual of Zorin 9 available for download.

This is an oldish thread, but I am wondering about the general consensus regarding Zorin.
ie; is it gaining ground as a windows replacement, against the big players like ubuntu and Mint?
Personally I haven't tried it yet, but that's only because I am happy with what I've got.

Well, I've tried Zorin 9 - the stable, long-term support version - on three machines now, mostly late P4s. It runs fine, loads quickly, turns off very quick compared to any Windows I've used.
But just lately the AWN app has been giving problems on all of them. This is the Avant Window Navigator, that lies across the bottom of the screen. On one machine the part of the display on my right as I look at the screen has vanished, taking down internet connection information, time, language, sound adjustment, etc. In its place there is just a white background space. This is just an inconvenience, but annoying.

Recently I loaded Zorin 9 onto a clean HDD on it's own, to see if it had improved. It was fine until after it had updated itself with the latest files. After that AWN became a problem again, this time putting a semi-transparent grey bar across the whole bottom of the screen so that, when you come to turn off, the power button on the menu won't work; you can't operate it through the grey bar, so you have to use the keyboard to close down. Not good for an O/S that has been loaded for just two days!

To be fair, I think AWN is the problem rather than Zorin itself, but the guys who run Zorin should really take a look at replacing it. I went to the AWN website, and although there are numerous bug reports, nothing seems to have been updated on the app. since 2013, so that is not encouraging.

Every other way, Zorin seems great, and just right for people moving across from Windows 7, or refugees from Windows 8 or 10. But until they either get AWN fixed, or more likely replace it, newcomers are going to be put off what is basically a really good distro.

whoops

Along that line you might be interested in what this person has accomplished,

http://www.microlinux.eu/

He has many business, government and individual clients.

I'm interested in Zorin because it probably seems to have the most Windows-like user interface. However as I and others have pointed out in this thread, the 'support' is questionable. Even though there is a pdf manual there is not a lot of documentation and doesn't seem to be a really active developer/user community.

So I am playing with Lubuntu 16.04 LTS as an alternative. It seems to be a more popular Ubuntu derivitive than Zorin with more extensive documentation on the web site and more of a developer/user community. GUI is more Windows-like than Ubuntu and since LXDE is lightweight compared to Ubuntu/Unity it should run as well or maybe better than Zorin Lite.

Mint seems OK but one my primary objective is XP replacement on older computers Lubuntu seems to be a little more lightweight and Windows-like. I think there may be more of a market for $99 "malware-proof" stable (but used) computers than $299+ new computers with Linux.

This looks interesting and possibly a better alternative for old hardware but my thinking is that since Ubuntu seems to be the most popular it would be better for me to start off with an Ubuntu-based distro for desktop use since it is the most likely thing I will see and there are the most packages/applications readily available and easily installed.

If I was targeting server admin I would probably be playing with CentOS.

While all Linux is similar, it's hard enough to transition from Windows procedures and commands to Linux commands without also having to keep track of the differences between Debian/Ubuntu/..., CentOS/RHEL/..., Slackware/... etc.

...And at the same time I still have to deal with all the changes, quirks, and outright problems of Windows 10, which is going to be what I have to support for a long time even if I do succeed in moving some customers to Linux.

Entirely up to you, of course, but as a point of interest he just installed his system to two brand new servers for a local school district.