This is just nuts. I admire your perseverance. I use Unetbootin for most Bootable media.
I hope it helps. I agree about the settings and you and I are Not Alone in that agreement. I have argued and argued with others that Gnome Desktop, geared toward developer options, is Terrible for someone switching to Linux. Both XFCE and cinnamon (I use Cinnamon) are much more organized, intuitive and user friendly. On Zorin Lite (XFCE) desktop, I use Whiskermenu instead of the default Start Menu
sudo apt install xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin
If you like, you can try it out to see if it helps you search programs (XFCE “app finder” helps a lot, too) and find things more easily. Can even theme it for uniformity.
Nvidia and Linux- If you could, check if you are using Proprietary or Nouveau Drivers.
You can check with a quick terminal command:
dpkg -l | grep -i nvidia
lsmod | grep nouveau
Installing on Open Source can get confusing because the Developers Often Assume too much about the user. And they often point the user in, frankly, the wrong direction. How often is it you look up some Open Source software and the installation page has some convoluted instructions for checking dependencies and how to build from source…Or offer you the Binary Packages independently… When The Thing is In the Ubuntu Repository and all you need to so is
sudo apt install _____
I dunno.
Right off the bat, try using synaptic as much as possible as your Installation Manager.
Open Synaptic- search for the package you want by name.
If Synaptic cannot find it, try your first Google or Duck search to be that package name plus repository. Then add the repository, run “sudo apt update” to ensure that repo does not give a 404 error, then run “sudo apt-get install” package name.
It usually is that easy and it is a LOT more secure than other options since Repos require keys.
Some things like Apache and Nvidia, though, are a different animal. Apache is Stubborn and Nvidia and Linus Torvalds hate eachothers Guts. The money is on M$ and Nvidia caters toward that direction and intensely dislikes ensuring that their code works with Free Open Source. And Torvalds likes to give Nvidia the finger- not just figuratively, either. Fortunately, Torvalds and his team are very good at keeping the Linux kernel patched to continue to cover for Nvidias shortcomings, in spite of Nvidia regularly and constantly patching their firmware.
As a new user of Zorin and Linux myself, I know that initial frustration very very well. During the first two weeks, I recall clearly stating on the ZorinGroupForum that I hated Zorin OS and thought it was the worst OS, ever (I was still using Gnome Desktop back then). Grumpiest Member of the board for a while. But that quickly changed and now, I have distro-hopped all over the place and tried about twenty different distro’s - some quite good - but always only install Zorin OS on my machines. It does get much better. I do not even install and use WINE anymore. I am fully integrated into Linux these days.
