This week I received an email from Artyom and Kyrill Zorin, the founders of Zorin OS, stating that on July 1st it was already 15 years ago that Zorin OS 1.0 saw the light of day. For me, Zorin OS is one of the Linux distributions that I recommend to users who are curious about trying Linux for the first time. But also for people who want to use Linux for productive purposes and want a fantastic out-of-the-box experience right away, Zorin OS is a solid choice. To celebrate 15 years of Zorin OS, Artyom, and Kyrill Zorin have opened an archive with all major versions of Zorin OS, ready for you to download and try out. Go down memory lane with all historical versions of Zorin OS.
What is Zorin OS
Zorin OS has been on personal my list of most valued Linux distributions for quite some time now, and I use it on a daily basis on one of my productivity machines. I published many articles on Zorin OS, I created an extensive course, and I published my first book “Linux for the rest of us“, which is completely based on Zorin OS. So I hope this already indicates how much I value and support what the team is doing.
Zorin OS seems to be getting more and more popular. Linux-related websites, blogs, YouTube channels, forums, there is a lot of talk about Zorin OS. This is not that surprising, because Zorin OS offers a very nice out-of-the-box experience for all types of Linux users. With most other Linux distros, it is possible to customize it exactly to your own liking with themes, plugins, and apps, but if you are not a tweaker and you just want to be productive immediately after installation, then Zorin OS is a very nice and powerful choice, with the built-in Zorin Appearance switcher, built-in support for almost all known package formats, built-in support for running Windows applications, built-in database to familiarize you with alternative software, built-in support for connecting to your mobile phone, and a really beautiful UI, to name a few strengths.
Zorin OS 15 year – Download historical versions
And now Zorin OS has been around for 15 years. Zorin OS 1.0, released on July 1st, 2009, was the proof of concept to create a Linux-based desktop environment that could bring Linux to a much larger group of users and demonstrate that Linux was not just for techies. And the team behind Zorin OS has always stuck to this goal from then on.
“By maintaining a clear focus on simplicity and continuously improving Zorin OS over the years, we’ve been able to manifest this goal into reality. Today, Zorin OS is a powerful computing experience that has been enjoyed by countless people in homes, schools, businesses, and governments around the world.“
Source: https://blog.zorin.com/2024/07/01/celebrating-15-years-of-zorin-os/
I entered the Zorin OS world myself based on Zorin OS 15. When I read that there is now an archive available from which you can download and try out older versions of Zorin OS, I immediately became enthusiastic to take a look at all the older versions myself, to see how it progressed in time, from before I stepped in. In the archive you can get the following versions of Zorin OS:
- Zorin OS 1.0 (first released on 1 july 2009)
- Zorin OS Limited Edition ’09 (first released on 27 october 2009)
- Zorin OS 2.0 (first released on 1 january 2010)
- Zorin OS 3 (first released on 10 june 2010)
- Zorin OS 4 (first released on 17 december 2010)
- Zorin OS 5 (first released on 5 june 2011)
- Zorin OS 6 (first released on 18 june 2012)
- Zorin OS 7 (first released on 9 june 2013)
- Zorin OS 8 (first released on 27 january 2014)
- Zorin OS 9 (first released on 15 july 2014)
- Zorin OS 10 (first released on 1 august 2015)
- Zorin OS 11 (first released on 3 february 2016)
- Zorin OS 12 (first released on 18 november 2016)
- Zorin OS 15 (first released on 5 june 2019)
- Zorin OS 16 (first released on 17 august 2021)
You can go to the Zorin OS Archive page via the below button:
If you’re not yet a Zorin OS user and you want to first try out the most recent version, which is 17.1, you can go to the download page where you will find all available versions of Zorin OS 17.1 via the following button:
You can read my article “The new Zorin OS 17.1 brings nice refinements to an already fantastic Linux Operating System“, to see what this latest release has to offer.
Note: The Zorin OS team indicates that the older versions of Zorin OS available now in the archive, might not be compatible with newer computers and may no longer be supported with software updates & security patches. It is recommended to run them for non-production use in a virtual machine or via a live environment on a USB stick.
Read my article “How to easily run multiple Linux distributions on one computer with Boxes“, to learn more about using a Linux distribution in a virtual machine. You can also read the article “Install Zorin OS in VirtualBox” on the Zorin OS website, explaining how to run Zorin OS in Oracle VM VirtualBox.
Final words
I hope the availability of these old gems of Zorin OS makes you as enthusiastic as I am to have a look at what things looked like many years ago in Zorin OS. It is nice to see how things have evolved from a functional, technical, and UI perspective. I already know that I have no time to get bored for a while 🙂
Till next time.
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