About xfce.
"If there is a weak point in the Zorin OS 16 Lite experience (in my testing) it’s GNOME Software.
I know: a resource-constrained computer is never going to run ‘modern’ tools like GNOME Software comfortably. But just opening the app maxes out memory, slows the entire system down. With so many software backends to plug into, Ubuntu repos, Flathub, and Snap store, the client takes an eon to refresh its software catalog on startup."
I agree with the reviewer here wholeheartedly. I did not know that Gnome had its reach even in 16 Lite when I was waiting for the release. It would be great, in my opinion, if the developers could de-Gnome future releases so it is truly Xfce. Of course I know they are extremely busy with other things. This would be future wishlist.
I have not read all the posts on this subject but a lot of them so I think I get the idea of what others think of Gnome. Whether Gnome is user friendly or not depends a lot on your background and how you use your PC. I have many many years of using Windows going all the way back to 3.1. I checked out Linux about 10 years ago and at that time I just didn't have the time to try and learn about repositories and dependencies and compiling and building in order to get a program to work. So I dropped Linux even though I didn't than and still don't like M$.
A few months ago I decided to try Linux again and found Zorin. I installed Z15 core and spent some time learning what I could do with it. Since it had Gnome that of course is what I used. I didn't know any better but found that coming from Windows, Gnome seemed fairly intuitive and pretty similar to W7 which I was pretty familiar with. So for me Gnome did what I expected it to do. From that standpoint Gnome was user friendly.
As I said I have a pretty extensive background in using PCs. I also worked on industrial machines that were computer controlled. Most people know them as CNC machines. So of course I am a tinkerer. I just hadn't bothered yet with trying any other DEs.
However yesterday Aravisian posted in another thread that Cinnamon seemed to work well in Zorin so I thought I would give it a try. I installed it and spent a few hours checking it out. I found that most things were just easier to do in Cinnamon than it Gnome. The menu is much easier to navigate. The options for what you can do to customize your system are much better than Gnome. Since I am a tinkerer I probably won't go back to Gnome. I may check out some other DEs but Cinnamon so far is looking pretty good to me.
I do understand why some people would rather use Gnome than a DE like Cinnamon. My wife is one of those people that just does not want a lot of options for how to do things. If there are three ways to go somewhere she only wants to know one way. Don't confuse her with more than that. The same way with her PC. Show her one way to open her email and no other. So for those kinds of people Gnome is probably better and more friendly than Cinnamon or some of the other DEs.
But for people like me that want to explore all the options Gnome is not the most user friendly. I don't think it is fair to claim that Gnome or any other DE is not user friendly just because it doesn't suit your personal needs.
Exactly. Cifta, thanks for narrowing right down on the crux of the issue. I would argue that all D.E.s are pre-configured (Usable out of the box) and that all are, generally, user-friendly. I do not believe that any D.E., be it XFCE, Cinnamon, KDE or Gnome, is The most of any of these claims.
To this end, I find it disturbing that Gnome is promoted this way while other D.E.'s are not promoted this way. Opinions are fine and they are relevant and important in how a user chooses their D.E. One person may Love what Gnome offers them while another does not. Just like themes, really.
However, the most important part of this is not in choosing your D.E. but in having the ability to choose your D.E.
That ability is dying.
It is dying because in having control over the Gnu ToolKit (GTK), Gnome is altering GTK to favor Only Gnome.
This means that all D.E.'s functioning on GTK are being turned into Gnome-Clones and if that is what they become (due to lack of choices by those D.E.s given the available toolkit), then it becomes more and more pointless to choose a D.E. other than Gnome.
This is Logical. Gnome wants to be on top, get the most share of the money. That is how all businesses work.
When Gnome is disproportionately promoted; it favors this outcome. When users like me speak up and then get hushed; called "gnome-haters" or "troublemakers" or other, this silences opposition instead of addressing the concerns.
If only it was as simple as users debating over which D.E. they prefer. It Is Not. It is that we soon, will not be able to debate that and our Choices will be:
Gnome
KDE
And that's it.
For some, they may not care. But considering how Gnome removes features that users rely on... in my own opinion... That is not the one I'd want to be stuck with. They act the most like Microsoft, they take without regard to user feedback and they are Domineering in their developmental approach. I cannot say "I do not like Gnome, so I use another D.E." if those other D.E.'s are deprecated and abandoned.
And that - is Gnomes Goal.
One way to assess the question posed in the thread title is to run vanilla Gnome with no extensions enabled for 30 days. I have not done this since gnome 3 was released. Extensions to add new or restore Gnome 2 functionality were introduced by third parties all most immediately after release. I suspect running Gnome without extensions as originally intended would an interesting challenge for those who rely on them daily.
As it would for many whether Gnome or not. One could use the same argument with any desktop environment they all have their plus points and minus points.
Not necessarily. Gnome hopes to disable / remove Extensions, considering them to be "hacks."
Other desktop environments do not consider plugins to be "hacks" and encourage their use.
This is a pretty big difference.
To get a pure Gnome experience try Fedora, it comes without Gnome Tweaks or extensions. It also has the latest version of Gnome. Extensions are not part of the the intended Gnome experience.They have never been officially supported and only tolerated to date.
Is GNOME slower than XFCE?
XFCE takes half the RAM, but still with a lot of features and customizability. KDE is midweight, Cinnamon almost as heavy as Gnome. But if you have a lot of RAM (4 GB and up) it probably doesn't make much difference. Your browser is going to slow you down more than your desktop.
T'is very true .... I have 16 GB so very little slows down my Asus ROG gaming laptop but then I don't use powerful graphic type apps ....
My laptop came with 8 GB and before I even took it home after purchasing .... I took it straight to the authorized service center and had them install another 8 GB .... and it will do me for the time being .... and as it is now out of warranty if I decide to purchase more I can do it myself ......
People what using xfce with many years will be using that. Everyone liked a "toys".
This is something like a girls liked a dolls and boys liked a cars.
Sometimes is weird if we observation a some girls what liked toys a cars,soldiers or football. People don't like learning new things. Ok someone can sayed old windows 7 was best but in forward future now windows 7 is a legend and now we have windows 11. We cannot stop things what changing a worl and coming a new with fresh blood young generation. I remember big computers and now they all are minimalized. We are a slave technology.
Quite true..Things also depend on how different generations see it. A 12 year old may find something much easier than what a 40 year old thinks is difficult to understand and vice versa.
That is true. Our child when we are young was a toys and bicycle.
Old vhs casette,walkman,discman, simple headphones,atari,commodore with joystick. Some diy things.
Now mobile,tablest,ipads,mini pc, social app, internet everywhere.
Electrics bicycle,cars,scooter.
I have been reading through the back and forth in this thread after getting to a breaking point with Zorin 16, or perhaps Gnome in general.
I made the switch from Windows to Zorin in November after researching distros and coming to an agreement with those who praised Zorin as an alternative for Linux newbies.
I'm pretty tech savvy for a 68 year old and gave Ubuntu a try several years ago.
At first after installing and doing some minor tweaking to Zorin I was pleased with the result.
However, over time I've become increasing frustrated with a wide range of issues. Everything from trying to find an app that actually does what it says will do and what I would like it to do, to resolving errors that with the help of folks like Aravisian, French Press and others only to have them reappear with no explanation.
For example, I was unable to connect my Brother printer without assistance, and even now trying to scan a document involves a number of steps from the desktop. I can't just place the document on the scanner and push a button on the printer as I could in Windows.
It's frustrating searching this forum, YouTube and other areas for solutions to issues. Many times they involve opening a terminal and typing or copy/pasting "sudo yadda yadda". I'm always having to type in my password because every time I boot the computer I get a message about the key ring needing a password, which I type in every time but have no way to save it.
What's very frustrating is trying to import Windows programs. I've tried several apps that say they allow users to set up a Windows program, the latest being Bottles.
It was the only app that actually let me install MusicBee, but when I opened it in Zorin I could not access my music library and the program itself lacked any of the features in the Windows version.
I have a thumb drive with the Windows iso sitting on my desk. I'm debating about whether it's time to plug it in, or after reading about the Gnome issues in this thread, should I give another distro (the latest version of Mint is at the top of the list) and see if it's an improvement over my Zorin experience.
Sorry for being so long-winded about the isses that have built up over the past five months.
Cheers all.
You could give Zorin OS Lite a try, as well.
I have gone through three printers in the last couple of years - with scanner - never had any issues on any of the three different brands.
This is a google chrome issue. If using a Chrome-based Browser, this can happen. Brave, Chrome, Edge... Never had this happen with Vivaldi, strangely...
The usual fix is (using Chrome for this example with a sudo yadda yadda 
):
sudo nano /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop
For the Exec line, make it /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable --password-store=basic %U
Tap ctrl+x to exit, then the y key to say yes to save, then the enter key to complete the action.
There is much that can be frustrating when things do not work. Or work correctly.
And how different people can have different experiences.
When I was on Windows... All Software worked as it should. Occassionally, I had trouble installing software - or ran into dependency issues (.net framework is notorious.)
But Printers... I never could get printers to work on Windows. For over a decade, I struggled with that Device manager that merely told me no new drivers were available and I was left feeling ignorant and helpless...
The problem is some hardware are compatibility with some operating systems.
That why sometimes on some websides or specification hardware is what kind friendly some hardware peripherals working with that operating system. I know it could be a some tricky but for me this is clear economy business. I learning that with a couple years.
This is a google chrome issue. If using a Chrome-based Browser, this can happen.
I use Firefox, not a Chrome-based browser.
I followed your instructions to use sudo yadda yadda and it seems to have worked when I repeated the command in the terminal.
Let's see if it solves the problem across the distro.
I haven't picked up the thumb drive yet! 
Alright, so I was on my way writing this post but I had to leave for some work...seems like Aravisian has already addressed most of your problems.
Hmmm. I have read your post and to be honest the problems you listed were not GNOME specific. All of them were distro specific. Whatever you said, I had all of the same problems except for the printer issue. I think every linux users face some problems when they start their linux journey.
You can, however, try using mint which uses a different kernel version and may solve hardware issues. But, the terminal issue will remain. While most would argue that using the terminal isn't bad and that in some places it is actually better; I understand the problem with the terminal. I am not comfortable with the terminal very much and prefer GUI instead. That does not mean that changing distros will make life any easier. You will still need to use the terminal in all other linux distros for now. The same story is shared with windows apps. You will find the same problem in any other linux distro. Most windows apps are very hard to get to work in linux. I have practically givrn up and using alternatives instead.
What I am saying is that the issues you mentioned are not specific to GNOME at all.