{"id":224171,"date":"2026-03-16T08:04:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T12:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/i-tried-zenclora-a-hyper-fast-linux-distro-with-no-bloat-and-one-truly-standout-feature\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T08:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T12:40:12","slug":"i-tried-zenclora-a-hyper-fast-linux-distro-with-no-bloat-and-one-truly-standout-feature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/i-tried-zenclora-a-hyper-fast-linux-distro-with-no-bloat-and-one-truly-standout-feature\/","title":{"rendered":"I tried Zenclora, a hyper-fast Linux distro with no bloat &#8211; and one truly standout feature"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/zenclora-fast-linux-distro-zero-bloat-special-feature\/\">I tried Zenclora, a hyper-fast Linux distro with no bloat &#8211; and one truly standout feature<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/zenclora-fast-linux-distro-zero-bloat-special-feature\/\">https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/zenclora-fast-linux-distro-zero-bloat-special-feature\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-03-16 08:04:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.zdnet.com\">www.zdnet.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>    <span class=\"c-shortcodeImage_credit g-outer-spacing-top-xsmall u-block\">Jack Wallen \/ Elyse Betters Picaro \/ ZDNET<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Follow ZDNET: <span class=\"c-commerceLink\"><span>Add us as a preferred source<\/span><\/span> on Google.<\/p>\n<h3>ZDNET&#8217;s key takeaways<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Zenclora is a high-performing, beautiful OS.<\/li>\n<li>Based on Debian, this distro uses a tweaked GNOME DE.<\/li>\n<li>You can download and install Zenclora for free.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Typically, when I think of Linux distributions that are built for those without experience, I think of Linux Mint, Zorin OS, elementaryOS, Ubuntu, and Pop!_OS. It&#8217;s rare that I would consider an unknown distribution, especially one that doesn&#8217;t include a GUI frontend for the package manager.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Also: <\/strong><strong>7 things every Linux beginner should know before downloading their first distro<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But there&#8217;s always room for change, and Zenclora makes a good case for itself. <\/p>\n<h2> What is Zenclora? <\/h2>\n<p>Zenclora is a Debian-based Linux distribution that uses a customized version of the GNOME desktop, a unique package manager called Zen, and also includes the usual Debian packages (such as the APT package manager). <\/p>\n<p>Zenclora enjoys the stability of both Debian and GNOME to create a desktop operating system you can depend on. <\/p>\n<p>But what sets Zenclora apart from the never-ending list of Linux distributions? <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It includes a kernel optimized for performance.<\/li>\n<li>There&#8217;s zero bloatware.<\/li>\n<li>Its GNOME desktop looks like a combination of KDE Plasma and elementaryOS.<\/li>\n<li>Simple, user-friendly commands for installation.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s 100% open-source.<\/li>\n<li>Built for gamers and average users.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Also: You can try Linux without ditching Windows first &#8211; here&#8217;s how<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Out of everything, it&#8217;s probably the Zen Package Manager that makes Zenclora special. Yes, this is a command-line package manager, but that shouldn&#8217;t put you off. With the Zen Package Manager, you can find available packages to install with the command: <\/p>\n<p>zen list<\/p>\n<p>The developer is always adding more apps that can be installed with Zen, so at the moment, the list is somewhat limited. <\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re a gamer, you can get Zenclora ready by installing the gaming-pack like so: <\/p>\n<p>sudo zen install gaming-pack<\/p>\n<p>The above command installs Lutris,&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/zenclora-fast-linux-distro-zero-bloat-special-feature\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I tried Zenclora, a hyper-fast Linux distro with no bloat &#8211; and one truly standout&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":224172,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/a\/img\/resize\/9c1e30ef42ba6c95233c3c4f081165ff76959d51\/2026\/03\/11\/97d2ce58-1d9f-432e-8ac1-6ec52be5a131\/zenclora-is-a-linux-distro-with-zero-bloat-and-unique-tools-for-efficiency.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=675&width=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[91,71,110,79,167],"class_list":["post-224171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-linux","tag-debian","tag-linux","tag-linux-mint","tag-ubuntu","tag-zorin-os"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224171"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224173,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224171\/revisions\/224173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}