I'm waiting for the stable release so I can run it through the wringer for a couple weeks before I start installing it on my donation machines. That said, I'm also playing around with a distro here and there as time allows. I've played with deepin, Peppermint Manjaro XFCE, Fedora, and, of course, a couple Mint variants. All seem fair to good but bugs here and there. Surprising to me that Manjaro was the most solid and fast as heck! I would love to play with deepin a little more but it just takes forever to get it updated and install additional software.

I tripped across a distro called Feren OS and played with it in a VM and it seemed cool, ran bug free in virtual environment and was speedy. Interesting OS.

Take care,
Tim

P.S. - The addiction you speak of will only get worse, LOL! If you keep an eye on DistroWatch you may find yourself nervously search for a USB stick to get the last release of a disro on just to see what it looks like!

Hey Michael,

Not sure if you have gotten something worked out for the wife yet. I may have something you would be interested in.

I buying what was going to be a parts machine for $100. It is a Toshiba Portege A30-C1340 with a 13.3" display, 8GB RAM, SuperDrive DVD drive which was bought in June 2016. The problem with the machine is the 500GB factory hard drive which won't spin up. I can plug in my USB SSB drive and boot into Ubuntu 16.04.1 without any issues. I have a new SanDisk Ultra 2 480GB SSD that I am going to install later this week. I told the owner she may want to try to work with Toshiba to warranty it but she has more money than time...way more money than time and doesn't want to put up with the frustrations.

The lady I bought it from wants the old hard drive so she can try to get data off it. That was going to be my job but beyond my skill level. This gal bought a new laptop while I was working on hers and said if I could remove the stock HD I could just have the box but I told her that wasn't a fair deal so I'm giving her a hundred bucks and the old HD then I'm going to install the new SDD.

Labor isn't something I change for and by the time I'm done I have $100 in the machine and another $110 in the SSD which would be cool to recover but not necessary. If you're at all interested, let me know and I will put the machine together, install Mint 17.3 Cinnamin, test it out and send it out to you. If you like it and it works, we can then discuss money. I work on the honor system and am yet to get the short end of the stick. If not, this in one of the few machines that I get that I may resell rather than donate.

Hope all is well! Weather is cooling of here in MN but the fall colors are beautiful!

Regards,
Tim

Thank you very much Tim for your interest in my problem. The birthday has come and gone, and the wife is happy with the gifts I got her (new printer, art set, book, 2 bags Starbucks's dark roast, soft mat to stand on while cooking, and My Pillow - details given in case other guys here need ideas). So, for now, I'm not in the market for a laptop. but your offer sounds like a very good deal, a very nice machine. I am going to see if she'll let me put Linux on her Dell machine. I'm actually leaning toward Ubuntu at this point, but I'll have her test different Linuxes to see what she likes. I'm currently on Deepin. I think it may be a keeper for me, along with 'buntu 16 and Zorin 12 when it's out. My Solus install won't boot anymore, after an update. And while I like elementary, something has to go. I think 3 Linuxes is enough. It gets confusing when you can't remember which one you were on when you saved that article about fixing the toilet.

The colors here have been amazing. We don't even have to go anywhere, a drive to the post office, or just a look out the window, is enough. Alas, such beauty will only lead to another 5 months of Arctic misery. Although the last one was unusually mild. We actually are in a drought, and really need a good snow pack this time. Which will be no consolation when I'm on the roof shoveling the garage and house. Ah, but the summers here (i.e., July) are something else!

Hey Michael,

Great! Glad to hear the birthday was a success!!! After my wife and I got My Pillows a few months ago, she just ordered them a few days ago for all our beds so when family and guest are with us they can try them. Really good pillow!

Sorry to hear you Solus install went south. If you're using it for the Budgie DE you may be interested in the Ubuntu spin using Budgie. You can find info at https://budgie-remix.org/ regarding the project. I used it about a month ago and liked it, seemed very stable and was really fast. Moved from it as Budgie wasn't my cup of tea.

Another idea...regarding the saving stuff across distros and/or machines. Both you and I are not Google fans so GDrive isn't good option. Dropbox is good but limited storage without paying. I use MegaSync which offers 50GB for free and has Linux desktop integration as well as mobile apps. I use their paid service as I need/use the space. You can find them at www.mega.nz which is also where you can have web access to your cloud.

Cool that the colors have been a spectacle! We live on Gull Lake in central Minnesota and it's our first year. Unfortunately the colors came and went fairly quick this year and with our family/friend commitments we didn't get to enjoy them as mush as we would have liked but at least we had a couple days viewing. We are now getting ready for a trip to Austin for the Formula 1 race event at Circuit of the Americas which will give us a much needed blast of warmth before our arctic season begins here in the land of 10,000 (frozen) lakes.

As always, glad all is well and take care!
Tim

P.S. - Rather than taking up the forum of thee nice folks for non-Zorin/Linux type conversation, feel free to email me at crazyporscheman(at)gmail.com anytime!

I keep forgetting I have Box.com. I use it mainly as a place to host my music, but I do put documents there from time to time (and then forget they are there). I have wondered about MegaSync, and may look into that.

Could you elaborate on the part please.
Looking at the Zorin site here.
http://zoringroup.com/blog/2016/09/1...s-zorin-os-12/
The responses seem to be overwhelmingly negative toward the new release. I have never used Zorin but
was thinking about trying it out of curiosity. From what I've read I will probably pass.

I may be wrong about this. Somewhere, awhile back, I read that Zorin 12 would be based on Debian, thus mirroring what Deepin did, when they moved from being Ubuntu-baswed to being Debian-based. Apologies.

I too have seen the negative comments on the Zorin blog, but many of them seemed to me to be of the bashing sort. I am reserving judgment until I actually try it out.

+1

I have been looking at the Zorin site. Zorin lite 32 bit looks interesting, I think I will
give it a try.
New look or old look is immaterial to me as I have never used it anyway.

I finally got tired of waiting and installed the beta of Zorin 12. VERY impressed. But now the waiting is even harder. Just what I was afraid of...

Hi Michael,

Awesome and good luck!! The guess would be that the final release should be "hitting the shelves" fairly soon but historically Zorin is very careful to make sure the final product is ready.

As always, hope all is well!

Best Regards,
Tim

At Long Last!

http://zoringroup.com/blog/2016/11/1...elease-ever-2/