How to install ROS2 on ZorinOS

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According to zorin.com/os/details and wikipedia.org/Zorin_OS, Zorin OS 16 is based on Ubuntu Focal (ie: 20.04).

ROS 2 Foxy would be the last version of ROS 2 for which binary packages would be available.

If it's sufficiently "close" to Ubuntu Focal, you could try following the installation instructions for that version of ROS 2. You may have to override the OS various ROS tools (try to) detect. See #q200319 for an older Q&A about ROS, rosdep and ROS_OS_OVERRIDE for Zorin.

Note:

• no guarantees (it could be that Zorin OS has changed key parts which would make it incompatible with the packages built for Ubuntu)
• Foxy is just about end-of-life, meaning it will not be updated any more

As an alternative to installing ROS 2 natively, you could consider using the official Docker images (ros:foxy, ros:humble, ros:iron (no UI) and osrf/ros2:foxy-desktop and osrf/ros2:humble-desktop with UI).

I'm trying to figure out which would be the better platform to ROS2, either on Windows with WSL(Windows Subsystem for Linux) or on the Zorin OS (version 16)

if you have the choice between a WSL install or a native one (dual boot fi), I'd always go with a native one. It's going to be much less hassle, and will let you focus on figuring out how to work with ROS and your robot(s), instead of getting WSL to work.

(WSL can work with ROS and ROS 2, there are many people who use it. However, if you're just starting out, I would probably recommend to not complicate things by including WSL in the list of technologies to master)