Zorin OS Cubed, "Fresh" LibreOffice, and Year of Linux

In today's search was two Zorin OS reviews and a recommendation. The Document Foundation released the second update to the 4.2 branch of their popular office suite. Jamie Watson got a new Acer laptop and test drove several popular distributions on it. Computer Weekly online has published an article on Unix to Linux migrations and Simon Phipps put out a new post titled 2014 is the year of the Linux desktop.

TechRepublic.com's Jack Wallen "examines Zorin OS to determine if it's the replacement Windows XP users have been waiting for." This comes on the same day that LinuxInsider.com's Jack Germain said, "you can not go wrong with Zorin OS 8." And if that wasn't enough Zorin for you, PCWorld.com has a short article of "3 easy Linux alternatives for Windows XP refugees."

Wallen says of Zorin OS after his cursory look around the desktop, "Zorin OS is an environment that's as familiar and as comfortable as an old t-shirt. Everything is there, waiting to help you get your work done." He later said, 'The idea behind Zorin OS is to be the perfect combination of Linux pieces to serve as the ideal desktop operating system for the new user. Does it succeed? The short answer is a resounding "yes."'

Germain says, "Zorin OS is especially well suited for Linux newcomers who want a familiar desktop that has the look and feel of Windows XP or Windows 7" and concludes, "If you want a Linux distro with all the power of Ubuntu without dancing around the Unity interface, you can not go wrong with Zorin OS 8."

If that's still not enough Zorin OS, PCWorld.com is running a piece suggesting three Linux distros new Windows "refugees" might like. These include (yes, you guessed it) Ubuntu, LXLE, and (drum roll) Zorin OS 8. So, check that out.

Simon Phipps wrote a post over at InfoWorld.com titled, 2014 is the year of the Linux desktop and states just that (if you count Chrome OS and Android as Linux). I actually quit reading about then when he threw in the word "cloud" too. But you might be interested.

Jamie Watson is at it again! This time he's testing openSUSE, Fedora, and Mint on his shiny new Acer AO725. Overall, Linux did very well on this machine and Watson said he encouraged enough to try Debian next. So, you may want to catch that.

Last but not least, is yesterday's release of LibreOffice 4.2.2. It's a maintenance/bug fix update to the 4.2 family. The changelog is a fairly short list of 29 items and none too serious. Download it or any version at www.LibreOffice.org.

Bonus: March of the penguins: how we migrate from UNIX to Linux.