Windows 10, Microsoft’s new flagship operating system that has caused so much consternation with Windows users over the past year, may have an open source Ubuntu based Linux distro competitor. Windows 10 has been fraught with issues, starting with forced and botched upgrades, wifi issues, blank screens, and blue screens of death. But the user interface sure is nice if it works right? Well there may be another option for a computer operating system that has the look and feel of Windows 10 but without the bugs, cost, and security vulnerabilities.

Enter Zorin: An Ubuntu Based Linux Distro That Looks and Feels Like Windows 10.

Zorin OS is a replacement for Windows and macOS, designed to make your computer faster, more powerful and secure.

“Zorin OS was started in 2008 with one goal: to bring the most advanced technology into the hands of everyone. We believe in creating a product which is open, so you can take back control of your technology and not the other way around. By maintaining a clear focus on simplicity, we’ve been able to create a powerful computing experience that millions of people love to use every day.”

Ubuntu Linux is the most popular Linux for the Desktop, and the folks at ZorinOS took that Ubuntu core and made it look like Windows. Mind you, the programs you run will have to be Linuz programs as Windows and MacOSX programs usually don’t run on Linux because the architecture is different. But there are many other open source programs that are designed to have the same functionality and replace their Windows and MacOSX counterparts.

For a Windows 10 lookalike operating system Zorin OS is promising.

Who is using Zorin OS?

The City of Vicenza, Italy is launching a pilot program which aims to migrate the municipality’s computers from Microsoft Windows to Zorin OS. Thanks to the performance, flexibility, cost and ease of use of the system, Zorin OS was selected to replace Windows on the municipality’s 700 workstations, serving 895 employees.

Are You Ready To Try Zorin OS?

You can download ZorinOS from Zorin OS Download Site

Finding a trustworthy computer repair shop is akin to finding a good honest mechanic. Most people when they bring their computers into a shop have the expectation that they are receiving honest well-informed answers to their computer problems. But unfortunately there are unscrupulous technicians who will invent problems on your computer in order to up-charge you for services you really don’t need. One hopes that they are being given honest answers but unethical behavior is pervasive in any industry where there is a naive customer and a dishonest business. You might expect this sort of behavior to be more prevalent at small independent shops staffed by greedy proprietors. So you might be surprised that actually you are at far greater risk of being duped by large companies that pressure their service techs to meet sales quotas and revenue goals.

Just this week OfficeMax was busted by Fox2 News in Boston and in Seattle by undercover reporters who were investigating a complaint made by an employee whistle-blower who alleged that OfficeMax was telling its sales associates to lie to customers about malware infections to drive up the cost of the repairs. He leaked, Officemax pushes each employee to meet sales goals for tech services, and each technician’s goals are posted for other employees to see.

“The program itself is mandatory. It’s not an option to not run the program. You have to run it on every machine that comes in the building,” he said.

When the diagnostic tests are being ordered, Officemax repair technicians are required to ask the customers about pop-ups, computer speed, virus warnings, and shut downs. But even one of the boxes is checked the software automatically returns a possible malware problem.

While asking customers questions about their computer is an important part of the diagnostic process, this gerrymandering of the software is really a sleight of hand to automatically recommend removing malware without actually testing for it in order to generate more revenue for OfficeMax.

OfficeMax may be the most recent company in the news for unethical and dishonest computer repairs, but they are not the first. Other companies such as Best Buy as also been in the news after they were caught lying to customers about unnecessary repairs and employee insiders revealed Best Buy computer techs overcharging, lying, and snooping through Best Buy computer repair customer’s personal files. It was revealed Best Buy employees were even trading these files and making fun of the customers personal photo collections.

South City Computer has a core commitment to maintaining the highest standards of ethics, accountability, honesty and integrity with its customers. We have seen firsthand the diagnostic and repair work of the big companies that have been caught, and a couple others that haven’t been yet. We’ve fixed “bad motherboards” with replacement power supplies, we’ve recovered data when our customers were told “the hard drive is dead.” We don’t make any assumptions about viruses or malware based on our customer’s self reporting. We actually spend the time to test and empirically decide based on industry best practices what we think is wrong with the computer and needs to be done. We recommend the least bit of service that will correct the problem. We do this because we do the right thing. And we can say from what we know about our local independent repair shop competitors is that they pretty much do the same things as us. You are far more likely to be bamboozled and overcharged at a big box store than at an independent local shop because we rely on word of mouth and repeat customers.

South City Computer makes the promise to its customers to do its best to diagnose computer problems and accurately estimate computer repairs, and when it makes more sense to recommend a replacement we do that even if that means we take a hit on the transaction. We have administrative and technical safeguards in place to protect our customers’ privacy. Our technicians don’t have to look through a customer’s file system because we utilize automated computer programs that blindly manage operations on customers’ data. Our employees are not paid bonuses or commissions on repair sales because we don’t want to incentivize dishonesty. We do not have any minimums or quotas our employees need to reach either.

South City Computer’s mission is “Being Awesome!” In order to live up to that we have to be better than the other guys. To us that means keeping our prices fair and not taking advantage of our customers’ naivete. You trust us to give you good advice, and it is our promise to deliver the best that we can provide

Historically Microsoft has been one of the most closed secretive companies when it comes to source code and other trade secrets. The motive behind this is to prevent Microsoft’s competitors from gaining an advantage in the market. This closed-source policy has created a captive market for Microsoft products, including vendor lock-in and golden handcuffs.

But as technology has changed and open-source Linux has grown to a viable competitor thanks the the diligent efforts of altruistic programmers and companies that sponsor development, Linux has begun to take a large enough share of Microsoft’s market.

Linux has been deployed on hundreds of thousands of servers and runs 80% of internet sites. It’s free cost, ease of access, complete documentation, and large network of professionals has made Linux the #1 operating system for websites, research, and technically savvy home users wanting a free operating system and nearly all free software.

As desktop Linux has grown in popularity among hobbyist home users and has started taking a foothold in the home desktop market Microsoft has taken notice. In fact, Microsoft has begun making applications available for Linux that 5 years ago would seem impossible.

After years of fighting against Linux Microsoft has come to embrace Linux and open source and has made that public by joining the Linux Foundation, “the organization of choice for the world’s top developers and companies to build ecosystems that accelerate open technology development and commercial adoption.”

The Linux foundation supports the development of the Linux kernel and funds open source development. The Linux foundation also provides an organization for companies, developers, Linux professionals, and individuals to come together to share ideas about promoting Linux and open source software.

By joining the Linux Foundation, Microsoft is changing its stance from fierce opposition to Linux and open source to supporting a platform and operating system to run its software. This will bring improvements to Linux and also help Microsoft maintain a foothold in the market for its server products.

Microsoft has announced that it has ported a beta version of its popular and powerful flagship product, Microsoft SQL server, to the Linux operating system. This public beta is free to download and try https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-vnext-including-Linux.

Microsoft has also announced its plans to bring its cloud application service, Azure, to Linux making its apps available to Linux users.

The changes are an ongoing effort by the Microsoft to adapt to the changing market and support Linux and open source in different ways that will benefit the consumer and users. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella first said in 2014 that “Microsoft loves Linux.”

Microsoft is joining the Linux Foundation as a Platinum member. It will join the company of other heavy hitter companies like Intel, Oracle, Samsung and IBM. The change in direction makes sense for Microsoft, given its open-source leanings of late. Jim Zemlin, the Foundation’s executive director, said that he expects Microsoft will intensify “its involvement and commitment to open development.”

We can see how Microsoft has adopted elements of Linux into its operating system by including a bash interpreter in Windows 10, and by making its flagship software product SQL Server run on Linux. While there has a been a long history of Microsoft fighting Linux and open source software, this change refelects the changing market forces that are forcing Microsoft to adapt. Microsoft says we are working on creating a space “where developers can come and work on making Linux more effectively interoperate with Microsoft products.”

This will ultimately benefit consumers as they may have the choice then of using Microsoft on the desktop, or saving some money by using Linux on the desktop with the full assortment of free software in addition to Microsoft’s commercial pay to play software. In this regard it could be a win win for consumers and Microsoft.