Truly - for youngsters - most have such flexible minds as to adapt to anything - so even straight Ubuntu is usually an easy thing for them to get into...UNLESS: If they've been exposed to the classic (pre-XP) weendoze, some may prefer that older type of desktop, in which case Ubuntu Mate is very easy to slip into their repertoire. There are also quite literally distros aimed at kids usages - but none of their names come to mind for me right now as I've given scant attention to those - just read a few reviews of them every so often. A quick search on "linux for kids" brought loads of results - there are a bunch of older posts mentioned in those results so I would suggest being alert for those which are fairly recent...also tried searching thusly: "kids siteistrowatch.com" (Tried making this correct but the site insists that : + d MUST be a smiley, sorry !!) But those results were uninspiring. Good Luck & Best Wishes !!
One more test, recently, showed they improved (v. 12.4 Ultimate) but not exactly well enough... Namely, problems with installation, then even if you sort it out - soooo sloooow, it hurts... Kids have no patience for this, so as you said, get a good basic distro and then...
I gave up on ZorinOS a long time ago...and later learned that System76 is just about as clueless as the Zorin boys. Most folks who will get into Linux are either total newbies (with lesser PC h/w) who need a good & free OS, or folks with intense distastes for what win-doze has become. iApple converts are very rare, & those who only have exposure to recent versions of win-doze are generally only interested in the latest stuff. From what I can tell, most folks who are way into the needs for fancy new h/w & s/w just scoff at Linux, generally (unless they are techies to the core who know how good it can be). But the Zorin boys have gone after the veeester (vista) & later crowd without bothering to slim down the bloatedness nor fixing their OS's legions of bugs. It seems they have altogether missed that their dedication to flashiness & pizazz hasn't increased their number of paying customers. How Linux distro builders can be so off-target about what Linux users really want & need is quite interesting. If some folks ever make a version that comes totally ready to imitate classic windows & based upon a really solid, easy to use source like Ubuntu or Debian, with a good s/w library 100% ready to use (like the old Ubuntu s/w center) - I think that one will gain loads of users pretty quickly. (As opposed to the chrome-ized and/or iApple-ized things that Unity proved to be a solid fail point.)
By sheer coincidence I had a chance to take a 'test drive' of ZorinOS 15.1 Ultimate. (It is based upon Ubuntu 18.04.x .) In some ways I can easily see the simplicity aspect of it as attractive - but then considering its $39 price...that stops me cold. My most valid comparison (of course) is of this distro vs. Ubuntu Mate, which I use every day. At the very top of my list is the notion of an OS one must buy that is supported by its two devs somehow - compared with U/M which has not only a very active, helpful community - but also easily fits the general Ubuntu profile well enough that solutions are very easily found when needed. ZOS seems to come nicely loaded with lots of stuff - but if one needs more s/w it points directly to the lame software store which is a real stinker, and I did not see any entry for Synaptic. Its settings app is very complete and well laid out - quite admirable actually as compared with the Control Center U/M has. The desktop settings are strange to say the least, with odd pictograms to choose from, and the classic desktop 'look' they used to offer has been 'modernized' away from the nice, very plain win2k look it had before. The panel has very limited abilities and options - as well as their Z menu - neither seems to offer any contextual menu to customize and/or edit for one's preferences. On the whole it is obvious that the Zorin boys have put alot of work into this distro - and I am glad to have tried it out without having to shell out its cost just to see that it is very cute - but definitely not essential. This distro demonstrates quite well why Ubuntu & its immediate children are so popular - it is just the power of community.
Launch iso: Zorin OS 16 Pro 64-bit: b43adb7f5b9f3b5305d16080812c7abb10608e52c148ee583b13efa8d01542e1 Updated iso: Zorin OS 16 Pro 64-bit R1: 1addffb6100a5ba340266b709b367ded7094aa563143dd98ba577aaf00498590
Zorin OS 16 Pro 64-bit: b43adb7f5b9f3b5305d16080812c7abb10608e52c148ee583b13efa8d01542e1 Zorin OS 16 Pro 64-bit R1: 1addffb6100a5ba340266b709b367ded7094aa563143dd98ba577aaf00498590
I am pretty impressed with how they made all those themes in 1 distro. I am really thinking to do a dual boot with this one.