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In this article let us have a look at 2 very popular distros Linux Mint and Zorin OS and see where each distro shines so that you can pick one that best suit your needs!

For those of you in a hurry, here is the short version of the answer.

The Short Version Of The Answer

What are the differences between Linux Mint and Zorin OS? The main difference between Linux Mint and Zorin OS is Linux Mint is meant for beginners who are looking for the best workstation distro while Zorin OS is meant for users who need the best WINE support for using windows apps

The table below highlights the important differences between the 2 distros

	Linux Mint	Zorin OS
Organization Name	This is a community-driven distro based on Ubuntu and Debian focused on providing an easy to use and stable operating system. Organization Type: Community	Zorin OS is a distro focused on regular users (as opposed to engineers) built with the aim of providing a beginner-friendly opensource distro. Organization Type: Community
Expertise Level Needed	Beginner	Beginner
Based On	Ubuntu and Debian	Ubuntu
Target Use-cases	General-purpose Distro. Best Use-case: For use in a workstation Other use cases: any use case that needs stability and ease of use, but not the latest software packages.	General-purpose Distro. Best Use-case: Good first distro for switching from Windows or Mac Other use cases: Gaming, Content consumption, workstation
Software Support	9/10 Out of the box software: 4.5/5 Software Repository: 4.5/5 Since Mint has versions based on Ubuntu LTS and Debian Stable, there is very good software support of about 30,000 packages	7.5/10 Out of the box software: 4/5 Software Repository: 3.5/5
Hardware Support	8/10 Official driver support: 4/5 Support for older hardware: 4/5	8.5/10 Official driver support: 4/5 Support for older hardware: 4.5/5
Hardware Resource Needs	Middleweight	middleweight
Support	7/10 Paid support: Not available Community: 4/5 Very good online community support Documentation: 3/5 Enough documentation for beginner level use	5/10 Paid support: not available Community: 3/5 Documentation: 2/5
Ease of use	9/10: Easy All multimedia codecs and Proprietary drivers work out of the box	8/10 Easy
Stability	9/10: Very stable Stability is one of the main focuses of this distro	8/10: stable Based on Ubuntu LTS hence Zorin OS is stable
Release Cycles	Fixed Release: Usually a month behind Ubuntu’s LTS releases	Fixed Release Release schedule: There is no strict schedule, the features and bug fixes are rolled out once they are ready.

The graph below summarizes the table and compares the 2 distros and shows us how they compare with each other on various factors (Higher the points the better that particular feature is in a given distro)

That is just the short version of the answer, let’s go ahead and look at the longer and more informative version and learn more about the similarities and differences between the 2 distros.

The Linux Distributions World

The word Distro is short for “Distribution”. Since the Linux source code is open for everyone to see, large communities started evolving to bring together Operating Systems suited towards specific needs/goals.

These “specific needs/goals” include, but not limited to the following.

producing documents
writing programs and creating software
editing pictures, videos, audio, and multimedia-production related works
store sensitive information by securing the operating system so that no one can hack into it or
just browse the internet and consume media.

Say a community of people just wanted to browse the internet with their computers, then there is no point giving them the software to write programs in. Thus since every community’s needs and goals were different these communities started distributing built images of this operating system with all the essential tools installed. These prebuilt images are called distros!

If you wish to know more about the reason behind the presence of so many choices in the Linux World, I suggest reading the article given below.

Reasons Behind The Existence of SO MANY Linux Distros: An Analysis!

The Main Factors of Comparison

The factors mentioned above are just a small list of 100s of factors that differentiate distros. If you are either switching from some other OS to Linux or you are in the process of choosing your next Linux distro and you are confused which one to choose, you need to have a look at these top 5 decision-making factors

Factor#1: Good Match with your Particular use-case
Factor#2: Support for your favorite software
Factor#3: Hardware Support and Proprietary Driver Support
Factor#4: Your level of expertise in Linux
Factor#5: Hardware Resource Needs

I have written a separate article explaining these factors which you can find in the link below

Top 5 Factors To Choose Between Linux Distros!

Let’s have a look at each of these important factors and see how Linux Mint and Zorin OS compare against each other.

Factor#1: Good Match with your Particular use-case

By use-case, I mean the type of work you are going to be doing on your computer. The Linux distro world originated because of the difference in use cases.

Linux Mint’s goal is wildly different from that of Zorin OS’s.

Let’s have a brief comparison between Linux Mint and Zorin OS in terms of goals, target users, and best use cases to employ these distros.

	Linux Mint	Zorin OS
Goal	To be a beginner-friendly distro with most things working out of the box with a focus on stability and user experience	To provide a beginner-friendly opensource distro.
Target users	Beginners looking for a stable distro with good GUI tools and are not into learning to use the command line.	Windows users who want to try out Linux and Linux users who want a distro for gaming.
Best Use-Cases to Employ the Distro	Best Use-case: For use in a workstation Other Use-cases: any use case that needs stability and ease of use, but not the latest software packages.	Best Use-case: Good first distro for switching from Windows or Mac Other use cases: Gaming, Content consumption, workstation

Factor#2: Support for your favorite software

If your main work involves some specific software or the latest versions of a given software then that becomes a decision-making factor for choosing a Linux Distribution. So before fixing on a given distro, be sure to google if that distro has official support for your main software needs.

The factors you need to be considering include the following

Out of the Box support: The software that the distro ships with.
Repository Support: The curated software that is available on the official repos
Type of release cycle: This decides the trade-off between up-to-date software and stable tested software.
Availability of Graphical Software managers
Package manager used: This can decide the ease of which you can install and uninstall software

Let’s see how Linux Mint and Zorin OS fair up against each other in the category of Software support

	Linux Mint	Zorin OS
Out of the Box Software	4.5/5: Proprietary drivers and multimedia codecs work out of the box, also all basic tools are included	4/5: The core edition comes with all the necessary software to start using the operating system straight away after installation and the ultimate edition (paid version) comes with a lot of apps preinstalled.
Repository Support	4.5/5: The official repo supports around 30,000 packages (at the time of this writing)	3.5/5: The official repository is growing, and since this OS is based on Ubuntu, you can use the synaptic package manager to install system packages
Type of release cycle	Fixed Release: Usually a month behind Ubuntu’s LTS releases	Fixed Release Release schedule: There is no strict schedule, the features and bug fixes are rolled out once they are ready.
GUI Software Management Tools	Available Ubuntu’s Synaptic manager and Mint’s Software manager are available for the end-user	Available Software center and Synaptic package manager
Package manager used	APT, snappy	Supports apt, snappy and flatpak

The bar chart below summarizes the table above. As you can see, Linux Mint is better than Zorin OS in terms of Out of the box software support. Linux Mint is better than Zorin OS in terms of Repository support.

Hence, Linux Mint wins the round of Software support!

Refer to the article below if you wish to learn more about package managers.

A Beginners Introduction To Linux Package managers: apt, yum, dpkg & rpm

Factor#3: Hardware Support and Proprietary Driver Support

Not all Linux distros support proprietary drivers officially. Depending on your computer’s hardware, you may or may not have open-source driver support from the manufacturers. This is especially true for hardware such as graphics cards and network cards. Hence it is a good idea to take “driver support” into consideration while choosing your next distro.

The factors you need to be considering include the following

Distro’s Policy of use of opensource vs proprietary 3rd party software
Official driver support by Major Companies
3rd party driver support from official repos
Support for older hardware

	Linux Mint	Zorin OS
Distro’s Policy	Proprietary drivers officially supported and are available out of the box	Proprietary drivers officially supported
Official driver support by Major Companies	4/5: There is no official support directly for Mint, but Ubuntu gets a lot of love from software, and hardware producers and Mint users benefit from those!	4/5, since based on Ubuntu LTS, the drivers provided by major companies like NVidia are made available for Zorin users.
3^rd party driver support	3^rd party repos available for installing software that is not up-to-date/available in the official repos	3^rd party repos available
Support for older hardware	4/5: has both 32 and 64-bit versions and has a good collection of drivers to support old hardware.	4.5/5: still supports old 32-bit systems

The bar chart below summarizes the table above. As you can see, both Zorin OS and Linux Mint got the same points when it comes to official driver support. Zorin OS is better than Linux Mint in terms of support for Older Hardware.

Hence, Zorin OS wins the round of Hardware support!

Refer to the article below if you wish to have a look at some of the top distros in terms of hardware support.

Best Distro For Software And Hardware Support: A Comparison!!

Factor#4: Your level of expertise in Linux

Depending on your level of expertise in Linux, the choice of the distro you need will vary. This is because of the following factors

Ease of use: beginner, intermediate, expert
Paid customer support: available, not available
Online community support: great, good, okay, not good, no support
Available Documentation: Great documentation, Good documentation, Okay documentation, no documentation

Let’s see the level of support available for Linux Mint and Zorin OS and see how they compare against each other

	Linux Mint	Zorin OS
Ease of Use	Beginner level: Extremely Easy to Use	beginner
Paid Customer Support	Not available, hence might not be the best choice for organizations	The buyers of the Ultimate edition can enjoy faster responses for support queries and they sell laptops preloaded with Zorin OS, but there is no paid support.
Online Community Support	4/5: very good online community support and forums. Also, solutions for similar problems on Ubuntu usually work with Linux Mint.	3/5 good: small yet responsive community
Documentation	3/5: Enough documentation for beginner level use	2/5 Okay documentation, focused on beginners’ tutorials

The bar chart below summarizes the table above. As you can see, Linux Mint is better than Zorin OS in terms of online community support. Linux Mint is better than Zorin OS in terms of Documentation.

Hence, Linux Mint wins the round of User support!

Factor#5: Hardware Resource Needs

This is an important factor if you are planning to employ Linux on a computer with limited hardware resources. This may be an old machine or a new one with less than stellar specs.

The factors you need to be considering include the following

Category: Lightweight or Middleweight or Heavyweight
RAM Requirements to have a snappy system &
Minimum processor requirements

Let’s see how Linux Mint and Zorin OS fair up against each other in terms of Hardware resource needs

	Linux Mint	Zorin OS
Category	Middleweight	Middleweight
Minimum RAM requirements	1GB (2GB recommended)	(Minimum) 512MB for the Lite edition
Minimum Processor Requirements	X86 32bit processor	(Minimum) 700MHz single-core 32-bit for the Lite edition

Refer to the article below if you wish to have a look at a step by step guide for choosing a Linux distro for your computer’s specifications.

A Complete Guide For Choosing A Distro For Your Computer’s Specs..!!

The Results!

Let us know go ahead and see the results of our comparison! Have a look at the Bar chart below.

As you can see Linux Mint wins in Software support, User support, Ease of use, and Stability.

Zorin OS wins in Hardware support.

There is a tie between the 2 distros in Hardware Resource needs.

I suggest you pick the distro that best suits you based on this graph. For example, if hardware support is more important to you, then pick the distro that has better support for your hardware!

Summary

To summarise the article here is the comparison table from the beginning of the blog again.

	Linux Mint	Zorin OS
Organization Name	This is a community-driven distro based on Ubuntu and Debian focused on providing an easy to use and stable operating system. Organization Type: Community	Zorin OS is a distro focused on regular users (as opposed to engineers) built with the aim of providing a beginner-friendly opensource distro. Organization Type: Community
Expertise Level Needed	Beginner	Beginner
Based On	Ubuntu and Debian	Ubuntu
Target Use-cases	General-purpose Distro. Best Use-case: For use in a workstation Other use cases: any use case that needs stability and ease of use, but not the latest software packages.	General-purpose Distro. Best Use-case: Good first distro for switching from Windows or Mac Other use cases: Gaming, Content consumption, workstation
Software Support	9/10 Out of the box software: 4.5/5 Software Repository: 4.5/5 Since Mint has versions based on Ubuntu LTS and Debian Stable, there is very good software support of about 30,000 packages	7.5/10 Out of the box software: 4/5 Software Repository: 3.5/5
Hardware Support	8/10 Official driver support: 4/5 Support for older hardware: 4/5	8.5/10 Official driver support: 4/5 Support for older hardware: 4.5/5
Hardware Resource Needs	Middleweight	middleweight
Support	7/10 Paid support: Not available Community: 4/5 Very good online community support Documentation: 3/5 Enough documentation for beginner level use	5/10 Paid support: not available Community: 3/5 Documentation: 2/5
Ease of use	9/10: Easy All multimedia codecs and Proprietary drivers work out of the box	8/10 Easy
Stability	9/10: Very stable Stability is one of the main focuses of this distro	8/10: stable Based on Ubuntu LTS hence Zorin OS is stable
Release Cycles	Fixed Release: Usually a month behind Ubuntu’s LTS releases	Fixed Release Release schedule: There is no strict schedule, the features and bug fixes are rolled out once they are ready.