- Zorin OS has accumulated one million downloads in the last month
- That’s since Zorin OS 18 emerged the same day Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 10.
- It seems to suggest that many Windows 10 defectors are heading to this Linux distribution, but we need to be careful with the numbers here.
A critically acclaimed version of Linux is apparently doing very well in terms of attracting defectors from Microsoft’s desktop ecosystem following the end of support for Windows 10.
Tom’s Hardware discovered that the Zorin OS developer has once again been bragging about the number of downloads it has racked up, after version 18 of the Linux distribution reached 100,000 downloads in just two days after its release.
However, it has now reached one million, as they tell us in a blog post: “We are delighted to announce that Zorin OS 18 has amassed 1 million downloads in just over a month since its release, breaking all previous records.”
The Zorin developer further notes that, according to his data on these downloads, 78% of them come from Windows PCs, suggesting that a large portion of these people are migrants from Microsoft’s operating system to Linux.
So, in about five weeks, there will be a million more recruits for Zorin OS, right? Well, no, not exactly, and I’ll discuss why below, but it’s still an impressive number that has racked up in just over a month since Microsoft stopped officially supporting Windows 10.
Analysis: An impressive achievement, with some caveats
While Zorin OS may have had a million downloads since version 18 of the distribution was released, exactly the same day Microsoft dropped official support for Windows 10, that obviously doesn’t reflect a million Windows users fleeing to the Linux hills.
We’re told that 78% of downloads originate from Windows PCs, so in theory that’s around 780,000 people, but just because Zorin OS has been removed from the internet on a Windows PC doesn’t mean a person is migrating from Windows to Linux on that computer. A person in this boat may have multiple PCs, for example, and they may be downloading to one machine to install on another (non-Windows system). Or they might be curious about Zorin, maybe enough to download it, but not bother installing the OS (or give it a quick test and give up).
You get the point anyway: there are a number of possible reasons and scenarios for a download that don’t necessarily translate into a new Zorin user in the future, or necessarily mean that a person is abandoning Windows just because the Linux distribution was downloaded on a Microsoft PC.
Still, it’s a fair bet that this represents a large number of Windows 10 deserters who don’t want to upgrade to Windows 11 (or can’t due to stricter hardware requirements). Especially considering that one of Zorin’s strong points is that it is designed to be friendly to these defectors, with a Windows-like desktop environment. Note that we rate the ‘Lite’ version of Zorin as the best Linux distribution for those with an older PC, and that may well account for quite a few of these migrant operating systems.
How many might stick with Zorin in the future is another question, perhaps, but for now, Zorin OS is winning long after the sun has set on Windows 10. And that’s despite extended support being available for Microsoft’s operating system, allowing for an extra year of use until October 2026, it should be noted, and all of this may give Microsoft something to worry about in that regard.
Certainly, if this type of activity continues, and does so more broadly outside of Zorin, it will be interesting to see if we hear from other Linux distributions with similar stories of beefed-up ranges in the coming months.
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