Zorin OS 18 officially Released! Based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Zorin OS finally announced new major version 18 for beginners switching from Windows or macOS!

Zorin OS is a beginner friendly Linux Distribution. It’s based on Ubuntu LTS and features a customized GNOME desktop experience, while a lite version is available for choice with XFCE4 desktop.

Zorin OS 18 is based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Thanks to the Ubuntu upstream, the new release upgraded from Kernel 6.8 to Kernel 6.14 with tons of new drivers, new and improved hardware support. See what’s new in Kernel 6.14 (replace 6.14 in URL link, e.g., 6.13, for changes other Kernel versions).

Thanks to GNOME upstream changes, it updated the desktop experience with a “dot and pill” icon to trigger overview, and indicate which workspace you’re working in. There are as well new camera app, remote login with RDP protocol, and OneDrive support in online accounts.

Besides the upstream changes, Zorin OS 18 refined the default desktop appearance with floating panel and rounded corners. While, user may easily change the layout with a single mouse click by using the built-in Zorin Appearance utility.

Like Ubuntu 24.04, the release also introduced a tiling window extension. Simply drag a window to screen top, it will show you a list of tiling layout, allowing to easily move and resize window automatically into selected screen edge.

By going to Zorin Appearance -> Windows -> Advanced Window Tiling, you may enable the indicator icon for the extension, and configure more about it.

For users who need Office/365, Teams, Adobe Photoshop, etc apps, the release also introduced a WebApp Manager allowing to easily turn your favorite websites into apps, by using either the default Brave web-browser or any other browser (if installed) as you want.

In addition, the release added some new apps! They include:

Deskflow – to share keyboard and mouse across computers (Pro only).
Warp – file transfer (Pro only).
Valot – time tracking app (Pro only).
Easy Effects – audio manipulation tool for Pipewire (Pro only).
Gradebook to keep track of your grades (for Education).
Spedread GTK speed reading software (for Education).
TurboWarp, a tool for learning programming (for Education).

They are either for Pro or Education editions, though they all can be freely installed from Flathub.org via Flatpak package.

Other changes in the release include:

Update built-in database to suggest alternatives to more Windows apps.
New Yellow and Brown theme colors.
3 new panel layouts: Compact, Linux Mint like, and elementary OS like layouts (for Pro, paid version only).
Use Pipewire instead of PulseAudio as default sound server.
Improve Zorin Menu with multi-monitors support.
Center new windows at launch.
Global search in Files, and more!

For more, see the official release note.

Get Zorin OS 18

The official .iso images are available in its website via the link below:

Download Zorin OS

They include Pro edition that needs to play $47.99, while other editions are free:

Core edition for basic use.
Education with educational software for schools and students.
And, Lite edition (not ready at the moment of writing) for low end computers.

The minimum hardware requirements include 2 GB RAM, 15 GB disk space, and 1024 × 768 resolution display.