Nine months after the previous version, Zorin OS 16.3 has been officially announced. The 16 series of this operating system, which among its objectives is to attract Windows users, has already been downloaded more than 5.3 million times, which is not little for a Linux-based system that is not called Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and few others. The latest update includes new features that aim to improve the experience when using the computer.
Included in Zorin OS 16.3 is a long-awaited feature: Zorin OS Upgrader. This new update system allows you to update between releases and editions of Zorin OS without the need to reinstall the operating system. Translated into actual usage, this means you can seamlessly upgrade from Zorin OS 16 Core to Pro or from Zorin OS 15 to 16 while keeping your files, apps, and settings.
Zorin OS 16.3 allows upgrading between releases and editions
Zorin OS Upgrader it was a feature that had been in development for some time, but has now reached enough maturity to be tagged and released as stable.
Among the rest of the news, I think we can say that Zorin OS 16.3 is a bit of a continuation, and what they have done in the last 9 months has been to refine what already exists. For example, Zorin Connect now:
- You can run computer commands from the power menu in Android 11+.
- There are more controls when Spotify is playing on your computer.
- Automatically reconnects to trusted networks in the background on Android 10+.
- A themed monochrome icon has been included in Android 13+.
- Translations have been improved.
- Various improvements have been made to the app.
The developer team behind Zorin has taken the opportunity to update some packages, such as LibreOffice now using the 7.5 series. They have not given any other names, but they also say that they have updated the applications from the Zorin repositories to newer versions. The kernel remains the same as the Ubuntu 22.04 on which it is based, but with the latest security and stability patches.
Zorin 16 is supported until April 2025, which is three years of support after the release of Ubuntu 22.04. The different editions of Zorin OS 16.3 can be downloaded from this link.
Image: Zorin OS.