Firstly, thanks @337harvey for your comments and of course everyone else.
From my experience, any OS I have installed using UEFI requires 500 mb as far as I know. That doesn't bother me much though. At the moment I'm debating if should install ZORIN with Windows 10 as a dual boot option or just remove Windows 10 from my laptop and install it there. My move to Linux will have to be a transition. I have found most of the software I need to replace all the ones I have on Windows which is a good first step.
Gaming will be a bit harder to do. I'm a flight and space sim fan and a big problem is finding drivers for the joystick I use, VKB. That is the part that has always been a pain and has nothing to do with Linux not being able to do it but lack of support from the developers. I can't blame them for say, they follow the money.
I'm really hoping (and I know this will sound familiar) that Windows 11 is going to motivate people to move away. The reason why I think now is different from before compared to the Vista era well, Linux came a really long way. Progress has been ENORMOUS in terms of applications, productivity (office apps), the desktop with GNOME and KDE, we are looking at an ecosystem that can really be used by someone who only does emails, productivity stuff, web without the need for Windows and feel right at home.
I've stuck with Windows because I thought Microsoft had changed since Satya and while that may be true to some extent, they are not back with their same old tactics and many will be caught in the web of this new Microsoft vs Google battle that is about to be reignited. Suffice to say, I had enough. Sure, there are Microsoft techs I do like, I enjoy Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code, I love C# and the .NET CORE Framework, but all those are not open source and can fully be used under Linux.
It is really time for Microsoft to stop pushing their own OS. A waste of time and effort. I hope those who will be faced with upgrade issues because they can't go 64 bits will realize they do have other options out there. What an incredible waste of material.
One thing is clear for me since I started to install my own server systems, stuff like OPNSense for my network management, using Debian for servers, Nethserver for DNS redundancy, etc, why would I waste so much money on Windows Servers when I can get things done on Linux just as easily if not easier in many cases? I used to think Linux was intimidating but that is just because I didn't sit down to really take a look at it and really taking the time. And it is not true that the Linux community is arrogant. I mean some are not helpful but the same is true for many other communities. There are many people out there willing to help.
I feel I am going way off topic here but just wanted to voice this out hopefully helping some people or someone who is open to something new and look for alternatives to consider their / is options. In my view and from my perhaps small but growing experience, there is NOTHING we can't achieve with Linux and we would all benefit from a common base.
That being said, I did try POP_OS yesterday and while it is fine, it is really using the native GNOME approach which I do not like as much as the flexible UI choices ZORIN offers. Another point for me is, POP_OS is developed by a company while ZORIN is community based. Now why is that important for me? A company can disappear while a community working on stuff there will always be someone around to pick it up. I realize this arguable but I would bet any day on OPEN SOURCE stuff over proprietary or company based stuff if there is a choice out there. If there is one thing OPEN SOURCE has shown is just how we can get things done when we unite out best talents without all the BS of the proprietary stuff.
