Show HN: TinyZorin – Transform Your ZorinOS Experience with These Beginner Hacks

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TinyZorin

A beginner's guide with stuff and hacks to help you optimise your freshly installed ZorinOS and improve your Linux desktop experience.

You're encouraged to follow, support and track progress made to this guide via my Telegram channel.

Get Started

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First off, I'll assume you're yet to install ZorinOS.

1. Official Installation Documentation
2. Video Installation Walk-through

After Installation

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Congratulations, you're a Linux user.

Navigate around to see if your keyboard, trackpad, time & date, bluetooth, WiFi etc. are working properly and get familiar with your new desktop environment and gestures.

Locate an application called Terminal, open it and paste these commands;

Update All Packages

• sudo apt update + enter to check for updates
• sudo apt upgrade + enter to apply the updates
• sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall + enter to install proprietary drivers

Update GPU Drivers (Intel & AMD)

• sudo apt install mesa-utils + enter This is crucial for rendering graphics on Linux systems.
• sudo apt update + enter to check for updates.
• sudo apt upgrade + enter to apply the updates.

Update GPU Drivers (Nvidia)

• sudo apt update + enter to check for updates.
• sudo apt install ubuntu-drivers-common + enter to install the ubuntu-drivers-common package.
• sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall + enter to automatically detect and install recommended proprietary drivers for your hardware.

System Optimisation

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Settings to Improve performance, efficiency, and overall functions of your computer.

Install Ubuntu Restricted Extras

• sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras + enter
• This enables support for a wide range of multimedia formats and proprietary tools like audio and video codecs, Adobe Flash Plugin, Unrar and GStreamer Plugins on your computer.

Reduce Boot Time

• sudo systemctl disable NetworkManager-wait-online.service + enter
• This disables the network wait service, which can slow down boot times.

Enable Zswap

• echo "zswap.enabled=1" | sudo tee -a /etc/default/grub && sudo update-grub + enter
• This helps improve performance on systems with limited RAM.

Enable Fractional Scaling (for High-DPI Displays)

• gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features "['scale-monitor-framebuffer']" + enter
• After enabling fractional scaling, you can set the scale factor. This can be done through the Settings GUI;
• Open "Settings" from the application menu.
• Go to "Displays."
• Under the "Scale" option, you should now see fractional values available (e.g., 125%, 150%, etc.).

Install Apps & Packages

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ZorinOS comes with a built-in Software Store and here are packages with beautiful UIs that I use and recommend;

Firefox

• A minimalist, lightweight open-source browser based on FireFox with a vertical tab bar.
• Download from the software store.

Keypunch

• A minimalist app to practise and improve your typing skills.
• Download from the software store.

Diodon

• A simple clipboard manager
• Download from the software store.

Firefox Extensions

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Extensions designed to provide additional features to enhance your browsing experience for Firefox;

Bitwarden

• Simple, secure, open-source password manager
• Add to Firefox

uBlock Origin

• Open-source ads and trackers blocker
• Add to Firefox

ClearURLs

• This automatically removes tracking elements from URLs to enhance privacy.
• Add to Firefox

Adaptive Tab Bar Colour

• An add-on that dynamically changes the colour of your tab bar to match the colour scheme of the website you are viewing.
• Add to Firefox