The VM Blog: Zorin Core
Zorin is a Ubuntu-like OS that is easier to use and gives you more bang for your RAM than Linux Mint. Zorin is more gamer-oriented as it includes tons of easy install games via Wine. And the best part is that instead of Firefox, Zorin comes with Chromium, the open source companion to Google Chrome (This can also be a downside - see "A note" to see what I mean).
STEP 1
Installing VirtualBox (Copy/Pasted from Ubuntu Guide)
Note: If you have already done this, you can skip this part. First, get the VirtualBox install file that is right for you. You can find it on my downloads page. Then, run the file and follow the instructions. It is highly recommended that you disable the networking and USB features, but they could be useful later on for some VMs. After the installation is finished, you should see a screen with a cartoon of a Windows butterfly and Tux (The Linux penguin) on the right side. Good? Alright, next step.
STEP 2
Enabling Hardware Virtualization (optional)
If you want a faster VM or support for 64-bit applications, than you should probably enable hardware virtualization. To do this on most Windows 10 (or Windows 8/8.1) computers, hold CTRL while pressing the restart button in the start menu. Your computer should boot into a menu. Then, press the "UEFI Firmware Settings" option and navigate to the security menu. Voila! There's your option! After that, you simply confirm your options and the PC should resume boot as normal. On Windows 7 and below, simply hit ENTER (or whatever it says at the bottom) while at the startup screen and follow the directions after the firmware button.
STEP 3
Downloading Zorin
This is the fun part! Go to the downloads page and select 32-bit if step 2 was a no-go, and 64-bit if you did it. Download takes a long time, so please do wait. Meanwhile, you can do step 4 (we don't need the download until step 5).
STEP 4
Creating a Virtual Machine
Now, launch VirtualBox and select "New". Set the two drop-down boxes to "Linux" and Ubuntu (Step 2 doers should see two options: 'Ubuntu (32-bit)' and 'Ubuntu (64-bit). Select the 64-bit option) and name the VM whatever you want. Click next and give it at least 2048 MB of RAM. Select to create a hard disk file, select VDI, and give it at least 10 GB of memory (Zorin can't run with just 8).
After you do that, confirm your selection and wait for the download to finish.
STEP 5
Installing Zorin
Now, select your VM and press start. Give it, about a minute, and Zorin should boot into a graphical interface. Choose install Zorin, this is just a VM and if anything goes wrong, you can simply create a new one. Zorin will give you install instructions. Go along with the installation but choose these: "Download updates", "Erase disk and install Zorin", and "Log in automatically". Zorin should start installing. wait for it to finish, then remove the CD by going to Devices > Optical Drives > Remove disk from virtual drive and reboot.
STEP 6
Guest Additions
To make Zorin easier to use, install the guest additions. To install, first go to Devices > Insert Guest Additions CD image and refuse the autorun. Then, open the "Terminal" application and type in the command "cd .." 3 times. Then, type "cd media", then "ls", then "cd" and whatever is returned, then type "sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run". If you get a error message, then type "sudo dnf install gcc" first, then try again. Wait for the Guest additions to install. Then, you should be able to access your VM much easier.
A Note
If you're on planning on using Zorin seriously, then you should know this. Zorin comes with Chromium, basically a version of Google Chrome with all closed source software removed, including Adobe's popular Flash Player, and at the moment, downloading it manually doesn't seem to work. If you are planning on playing Flash materials, then use another Linux distro and download Google Chrome instead of Chromium.