Zorin setup

[TheJaredWilcurt]

General OS Setup

This first section would be applicable to anyone

1. Remove the default browser.
   • Brave is 10000000% spyware. Easily the worst possible browser you could use. So absolutely remove that shit.
     • sudo apt purge brave-browser brave-keyring
     • sudo apt autoremove
     • sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-*.list
     • rm -rf ~/.config/BraveSoftware
     • rm -rf ~/.cache/BraveSoftware
     • rm -rf ~/.local/share/keyrings/brave-browser*
   • If the default browser is Firefox, they sell your data
     • You can uninstall it from the store, but this command is a more complete removal:
     • sudo apt purge firefox -f
2. Install a browser that respects you via the store:
   • Try Waterfox, Floorp or Ungoogled Chromium. Those are the only 3 browser's I'd recommend that actually respect you, and are easy to use.
   • Waterfox is the best current browser however you'll need to go into settings and search for "Block" to disable their shitty Ad Blocker.
     • It actually allows ads through by companies that pay Waterfox money, so it's an ad blocker that doesn't block ads
     • It's made by the extremely untrustworthy folks behind Brave
     • It uses more memory and is slower than just installing UBlock Origin
     • There are theoretical benefits to having an ad blocker that is built in at the browser level, it's a damn shame that the one Waterfox uses is complete ass. You are much better off disabling it and using the much more trustworthy UBlock Origin.
3. Settings > System > Avatar
4. Open Zorin Appearance
   • Start with the 2nd layout
   • Theme: Blue, Dark
   • Icons - Dark Reversal Orange
     • https://www.pling.com/p/1340791
   • Effects: Enable Animations, disable rest
   • Desktop: Zoom, enable all, standard
   • Windows: Centered, Super, Attached, Titlebar buttons: Right, Double: toggle max, Middle: none, Secondary: menu, click to focus, do not raise. Advanced Window Tiling settings:
     • Disable this entire option if you are going to use WinTile (mentioned below)
     • Hide indicator
     • Disable Snap Assistant, disable tiling system, disable span multiple tiles, disable auto tiling, disable auto resizing complenting windows, Enable restore original size, Disable snap assistant window menu, enable alt+tab of tiled windows.
     • Enable Screen Edges and Drag to top
     • Disable window suggestions
   • Interface: Zorin Menu (unless using Arc Menu), off, off
5. Wallpaper
   • https://i.imgur.com/rSxpVtb.jpeg
6. Taskbar settings
   • Style: intellihide off, 0, 0, override on, 70, dynamic on (all windows, 100)
   • Position: Apply to all mon, bottom, 48, 100, left. All visible except Show Apps Button.
   • Behavior: all checked, ungrouped (160, off, off), preview (on, 200, on)
   • Action: no clue, keep orig: off
7. If you want to screen cast your display to a TV that supports it you can install GNOME Network Displays.
8. Install WinTile extension. Then open "Extension Manager" and change the setting to use 1 row.
9. For laptops: Install dconf-editor go to /org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/power/
   • lid-close-battery-action > Uncheck use default > set to 'nothing'
   • lid-close-ac-action > Uncheck use default > set to 'nothing'
10. If you want to set some programs to launch on start up install "Ignition" from the store.
11. sudo apt update && sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer
    • This gives you common Windows fonts, only needed for software that expects you to have them, like some Windows programs.
12. Linux is dumb and has 100 different packagemanagers. Use .deb whenever you can. Flatpak and Snap are universal and both mostly work, but sometimes have issues.
    • Install Gear Lever to control apps that use .appimage universal format. Lets you update them and install them like a normal app.
    • Install Flatseal to better control flatpak apps. For example, if you install Waterfox with a flatpak, it won't be able to open local .html files correctly. To fix this, use Flatseal to allow Waterfox access to the file system. This will create a new user profile for Waterfox that is not sandboxed.
13. Disable multi-touch gestures, like pinch/zoom or 3-finger-swipe to show all windows. It keeps 2 finger scroll, and 3 finger middle-click.
    • https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/8066/disable-gestures-wayland/
14. Unfortunately NO operating systems give you control over how rounded the corners are on the windows. However, this is Linux, so if you want something done, you can just do it yourself.
    • Create ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css and ~/.config/gtk-4.0/gtk.css and put this in it:
    • * { border-radius: 4px; } decoration, window { border-radius: 0px; }
    • Reboot for changes to apply.
15. If you want an emoji picker when pressing Winkey+. (super+period), run ibus-setup > emoji tab > delete the "Super+." setting. Close the window. Install "Smile" from the store. Then in the OS Settings > Keyboard > View and Customize Shortcuts > Custom Shortcuts > +
    • Name: emojis
    • Command: flatpak run it.mijorus.smile
    • Shortcut: Super+.
16. You can also add a keyboard shortcut to turn the "Night Light" off.
    • Name: night light
    • Command: gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.color night-light-enabled false
    • Shortcut: Alt+F11
17. Install "Mission Center", then create a custom keyboard shortcut for ctrl+shift+esc and have it run flatpak run io.missioncenter.MissionCenter
18. If your scroll speed is too fast, use wsf-gui and set everything to something like 0.2 or 0.5
19. If you want better start menu customization, you can use ArcMenu
    • This is a fork of ZorinMenu, the default start menu
    • https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/3628/arcmenu/
    • ArcMenu Settings > Menu > ArcMenu Layout Tweaks > Default View: Pinned & Frequent Apps
    • Below is my settings file if you want it, to load it:
    • Right-Click > ArcMenu Settings > About > Load

[/]
arcmenu-extra-categories-links=[(0, true), (1, false), (2, false), (3, false), (4, false)]
arcmenu-extra-categories-links-location='Top'
avatar-style='Square'
context-menu-shortcuts=[['ArcMenu Settings', '/home/owner/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/arcmenu@arcmenu.com/icons/arcmenu-logo-symbolic.svg', 'ArcMenu_Settings'], ['Panel Extension Settings', 'application-x-addon-symbolic', 'ArcMenu_PanelExtensionSettings'], ['Separator', 'list-remove-symbolic', 'ArcMenu_Separator'], ['Power Options', 'system-shutdown-symbolic', 'ArcMenu_PowerOptions'], ['Show Desktop', 'computer-symbolic', 'ArcMenu_ShowDesktop']]
custom-menu-button-icon-size=34.0
default-menu-view='Frequent_Apps'
disable-scrollview-fade-effect=true
disable-user-avatar=false
distro-icon=17
enable-horizontal-flip=false
enable-standlone-runner-menu=false
extra-categories=[(3, true), (1, true), (0, false), (4, true), (2, true)]
hide-overview-on-startup=false
menu-background-color='rgb(30,37,41)'
menu-border-color='rgb(42,52,57)'
menu-border-radius=0
menu-button-appearance='Icon'
menu-button-icon='Distro_Icon'
menu-foreground-color='rgb(189,230,251)'
menu-item-active-bg-color='rgba(189,230,251,0.15)'
menu-item-active-fg-color='rgb(189,230,251)'
menu-item-hover-bg-color='rgba(189,230,251,0.08)'
menu-item-hover-fg-color='rgb(189,230,251)'
menu-item-icon-size='Extralarge'
menu-layout='Default'
menu-separator-color='rgba(99,99,98,0.56)'
menu-themes=[['ArcMenu Style', 'rgba(48,48,49,0.98)', 'rgb(223,223,223)', 'rgb(60,60,60)', '1', '14', '11', 'rgba(255,255,255,0.1)', 'rgb(21,83,158)', 'rgb(255,255,255)', 'rgb(25,98,163)', 'rgb(255,255,255)'], ['Simply Dark', 'rgba(28,28,28,0.98)', 'rgb(211,218,227)', 'rgb(63,62,64)', '1', '14', '11', 'rgb(63,62,64)', 'rgba(238,238,236,0.08)', 'rgb(255,255,255)', 'rgba(228,228,226,0.15)', 'rgb(255,255,255)'], ['Dark Blue', 'rgb(30,37,41)', 'rgb(189,230,251)', 'rgb(41,50,55)', '1', '14', '11', 'rgba(99,99,98,0.56)', 'rgba(189,230,251,0.08)', 'rgb(189,230,251)', 'rgba(189,230,251,0.15)', 'rgb(189,230,251)'], ['Light Blue', 'rgb(245,247,250)', 'rgb(18,51,84)', 'rgba(18,51,84,0.2)', '1', '14', '11', 'rgba(18,51,84,0.15)', 'rgba(18,51,84,0.08)', 'rgb(18,51,84)', 'rgba(18,51,84,0.15)', 'rgb(18,51,84)'], ['TJW-Zorin', 'rgb(30,37,41)', 'rgb(189,230,251)', 'rgb(42,52,57)', '1', '0', '11', 'rgba(99,99,98,0.56)', 'rgba(189,230,251,0.08)', 'rgb(189,230,251)', 'rgba(189,230,251,0.15)', 'rgb(189,230,251)']]
multi-monitor=true
override-menu-theme=true
pinned-app-list=['Files', 'org.gnome.Nautilus', 'org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop', 'Terminal', 'org.gnome.Terminal', 'org.gnome.Terminal.desktop', 'ArcMenu Settings', '/home/owner/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/arcmenu@arcmenu.com/icons/arcmenu-logo-symbolic.svg', 'gnome-extensions prefs arcmenu@arcmenu.com', 'Git Cola', '', 'com.github.git_cola.git-cola.desktop']
pop-folders-data={'Library Home': 'Library Home', 'Utilities': 'Utilities'}
prefs-visible-page=0
search-entry-border-radius=(true, 25)
searchbar-default-top-location='Bottom'
show-activities-button=false
show-hidden-recent-files=true
vert-separator=true
windows-disable-frequent-apps=false
windows-disable-pinned-apps=false

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Developer stuff

The rest of this is my setup for programming related things.

1. Settings > Keyboard > View/Customize Shortcuts > search "Terminal" > set to WinKey + R
2. Install VSCodium via store even though you'll never use it
3. Install Sublime via .deb file from website
   • https://www.sublimetext.com/download
   • Customizing Sublime Text
4. Install git cola from the store
5. Tweak terminal colors
6. Add "\C-i": menu-complete to ~/.inputrc
7. Git stuff:
   • Auto fix git push needing upstream set
     • git config --global push.default current
   • Set a default merge strategy, I'm like 90% sure this is what most people use?
     • git config --global pull.ff true
   • git config --global user.email "TheJaredWilcurt@users.noreply.github.com"
   • git config --global user.name "The Jared Wilcurt"
   • git config --global init.defaultBranch main
   • Create SSH key file, run this, enter > enter > enter
     • ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "TheJaredWilcurt@users.noreply.github.com"
   • Start SSH Agent
     • eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
   • Add SSH keys
     • ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
   • Run this and copy the output to clipboard
     • cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
   • https://github.com/settings/ssh
     • New SSH > Title, Type: Auth, Key: paste > Add SSH Key
8. Install dconf-editor from the store
   • org/gnome/desktop/wm/keybindings/move-to-workspace-up
   • org/gnome/desktop/wm/keybindings/move-to-workspace-down
   • org/gnome/desktop/wm/keybindings/switch-to-workspace-down
   • org/gnome/desktop/wm/keybindings/switch-to-workspace-up
   • Remove the keybinding from both of these, so Sublime can use ctrl+alt+up/down.
9. To get Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab to work in the terminal:
   • gsettings set org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Keybindings:/org/gnome/terminal/legacy/keybindings/ next-tab '<Primary>Tab'
   • gsettings set org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Keybindings:/org/gnome/terminal/legacy/keybindings/ prev-tab '<Primary><Shift>Tab'

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Originally published to Dev To on 2025-03-24