When I first moved to Linux, starting on Zorin, from Windows; It was a nightmare. The new and unfamiliar made it much harder to do anything, as I had to learn HOW to do even simple things before I could learn how to do the things that I wanted.
But in learning, I began to realize how dependent M$ had made me on things that do for me instead of doing for myself.
Programs, on ANY Operating System, tend to work and install better when the user takes full control of the process.
To install Apache Open Office, please follow this guide here to the letter:
Remove Anything you have installed with Apache and remove Libreoffice before proceeding.
I do not understand this. On my copy of Zorin Lite, I can right click in the file manager (Or use the menubar) and select "New Folder" using Nautilus, Nemo, Thunar or Caja. Can you please clarify what action you are taking and what the result is?
Some results may look strange just because an app developer used a different name than one you might expect. For example, the actual name of the app for "additional Drivers" is... "Jockey."
-shrug-
The Zorin Menu will always search- but if there are no results, then it will not display results. If you get no results on a search, then that means what you have searched for is Not Installed and you may need to check your installation.
On both of the above- I will admit I rarely ever use the Zorin App Menu. The Zorin App menu is simple and elegant, easily finding and navigating for common usage. But users that do a lot of customization or custom installations, I prefer a different and more robust menu. For Zorin Lite, I use the Whiskermenu. Adaptable and configurable, with a great deal of functionality.
I use Cinnamon on Zorin, so on that I use Cinnamenu (on the right monitor) and Stark menu (on the left monitor). Gnome (Zorin Core) sadly has less Menu options available, but maybe some Gnome Users can chime in.
If you have trouble with Installations - Please feel free to come onto the forum and ask. Installations on Zorin are generally very painless but as I said at the top of this post- when something is unfamiliar, there can be a learning curve there. Chances are, we can help.
the xkill function comes preinstalled with Zorin. If you need, you can use your Keyboard settings to set a keyboard shortcut to run xkill. For me, I have it set to ctrl+alt+k
Hitting that key combo turns the mouse pointer into a Target- which I then click on the offending window which Kills the Process.
Are you talking about Boot time? That is very slow if so and implies that drivers are looping until the system goes fallback. Usually, this is the Video driver. Do you have Nvidia card? You can start a thread on Boot time and we can try to suss out what is going on there.
The password deals with ROOT. Anything that access ROOT or installs to ROOT requires the ROOT password. I admit openly on the internet, though, My own root password is a four character easily typed string.
One workaround I use when I am in a hurry is I open a terminal, enter "sudo -i" one time, then launch apps that need root access as needed from that terminal session. They then launch normally without giving the PW prompt.
Admittedly, I only do this when hurried and dealing with a lot of ROOT access.
EDIT: I almost forgot- I once used a two character password on an installation of Zorin Lite: It was "pw". (I no longer use that- but yes, that can be done.)
Have you tried Samba?
If it sees it, that means you have every reason to be hopeful. As long as it sees it, it can print- as long as it knows which drivers to use. Normally, I open the settings and direct to CUPS. But on my other Canon printer, I needed to go to the Canon website, get the driver - install it- then open settings and tell it to look at that driver. At which point it was printing no problem.