Zinc 22.04.1 based on Ubuntu 22.04.1 is now available.
Zinc is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu LTS with Xfce desktop. It is based on Xubuntu but aims to provide a more modern desktop with better defaults.
What’s New
AppImage Integration
AppImageLauncher is pre-installed for running and integrating AppImages with the system. Opening AppImage files from the file manager or web browser will display a prompt to either Run once or Integrate the AppImage.
Selecting Integrate and run will move the AppImage file into the directory ~/.appimage. A launcher will be added to the Application menu.
To remove the AppImage file, either delete it from ~/.appimage or right-click the launcher and select the option to remove.
WebP Support
Support was added to preview thumbnails for WebP files in the file manager and for opening WebP files in the image viewer.
Deb-Get
Deb-Get is included for installing software not available in Ubuntu’s repositories. For example, to install Google Chrome and some popular software run the following commands:
sudo deb-get install google-chrome-stable
sudo deb-get install vivaldi-stable
sudo deb-get install microsoft-edge-stable
sudo deb-get install opera-stable
sudo deb-get install balena-etcher-electron
sudo deb-get install spotify-client
sudo deb-get install skypeforlinux
sudo deb-get install webex
sudo deb-get install zoom
Nala
Nala is included for installing packages from the command line. Clicking the upgrade icon in the top panel will now run “nala upgrade” instead of running “apt upgrade” commands.
PeaZip
PeaZip is included as the default archive manager. Compared to apps like File Roller, Engrampa, and Xarchiver, PeaZip supports more archive formats and provides access to advanced options for the compression tools.
Terminator
Terminator is now the default terminal emulator. It integrates nicely with the Xfce desktop and will open in full-screen mode by default. Use the F12 key to show/hide the terminal. F1 is mapped to Xfce4-terminal and will open it in drop-down mode.
Nemo
- Executable text files will open in a text editor by default, instead of prompting the user whether to open or execute.
- Show Copy To, Move To, Make Link and Duplicate in right-click menu.
- Press F4 to open the current folder in a terminal window
- Press <Shift><Ctrl>C to copy selected items to opposite panel.
- Press <Shift><Ctrl>X to move selected items to opposite panel.
DockbarX
- DockbarX: Don’t reorder window list based on last-activated order
- DockbarX: Reduce panel width to 36px to create space to pin more apps
- Use Jammy repo for DockbarX
Download
This distribution is available as a free download.
| ISO File | Kernel | Desktop | Size | Build Date | MD5 |
| zinc-22.04.3-amd64-1.iso | 5.19 | Xfce 4.18 | 2.6 GB | 2022-04-30 | e5c188f39295fa9f8124710d2d44f755 |
Alternate download link: zinc-22.04.3-amd64-1.iso
A user manual is available at the following link: https://docs.teejeetech.com/zinc/
Donate
If you find this distribution to be useful, you can buy me a coffee using the link below.
Writing the *.iso to a USB stick (sudo dd if=zinc-22.04.1-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=1M status=progress) works as expected. However, for some reason the PC cannot boot from the USB drive: the BIOS freezes/hangs and the relevant boot option can not be selected through the keyboard. When the USB stick is unplugged the BIOS reacts to keyboard input as normal. Am I doing something wrong or is the ISO somehow corrupt?
Check if the ISO is corrupted with the following command:
md5sum zinc-22.04.1-amd64.iso31b46bcf8a370a62f6452a13c8f7d8cfUse Etcher to write the image. It will validate if the image was written successfully.
Most people use Ventoy these days. You to add all your ISOs to a USB drive and boot from it.
Ventoy did the work! Thanks for pointing me to this magnificent tool!
I’m now testing Zinc – it runs fine, though the login screen seems to force some screen resolutions that do not match the one of my monitor.
I checked the ISO, and it was OK. I’ll try an alternative method (Ventoy) and will report back. Hope that the distro doesn’t require UEFI to boot.
Hi Tony
Thanks for a great distro! Any chance you’re working on 22.10?
No. Changing the base of the distro every 6 months is a lot of work.
The next release of Zinc will be in Feb 2023 based on Ubuntu 22.04.2. It will include kernel 5.19 and Xfce 4.18.
I understand. If I change the sources.list to ‘kinetic’ repos, will it mess up the system you reckon?
You can try upgrading normally using Ubuntu’s software updater. It should work.
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/10/how-to-upgrade-to-ubuntu-22-10-from-22-04
Great, thanks! You’re a ⭐!!!
Doubly proud of your contributions as I’m also Indian (You created Timeshift, wow🫡)