Thought I'd share my entry into Linux from Windows, it all started during with curiosity during lock-down with time on my hands. I have 2 computers so decided to put Linux on the older one. After watching various you tube clips about installing and deciding what software I needed off I went, and to be honest I was surprised how easy it was. I did a fair amount of Distro hopping at first with Linux Mint, Ubuntu Mate, MX Linux and finally settled on Peppermint for a good few months. Then I seen Zorin 16 was released so I had to try it and have been on it since August. Software wise I'm lucky in that my needs are not great although i'd used Microsoft Office and Outlook at work at Home I used Libre Office and Firefox/ Gmail for my email needs all available on Linux. For My Music collection found that Asunder, Puddletag, and Soyanora suit just fine.
Never once had I used the command line in windows and yet now I do simple things like updating installing uninstalling software using the terminal the one area that probably scared me the most. I realise all this is not unique and fairly tame but just wanted to say that after using windows since windows 95 there is a good alternative in the many fine Linux Distros with Zorin being one for normal users like me who just want to turn on their pc and just get on with what they want to do. It does take a bit of research to adopt Linux but it's not that hard if I can anyone can. The thing that keeps me on Zorin is the silly thing that it just looks so damn nice without a ton of customisation. It now turns out neither of my 2 pc's is eligible for Windows 11, I will keep windows 10 on the other as the wife is not fond of change but at some point at EOL for windows 10 it will be interesting what route we take.
Hi and welcome to the forum 
Thanks for this great write up!
(and I like your desktop 
)
Welcome to Zorin OS 16 woohoo! 
Have I told you lately just how much I love your story? Well, I just did, so good news for you. HEHE
What I found interesting was, an adventure that started on the basis that you were board, cause you had time on your hands, became you were serious, once you discovered how awesome Zorin OS was.
And it sounds like you did what a lot of newbies do, distro hopping. Don't worry, were all guilty of the rabbit hopping, its how we find out what distro we like most. So hippidy hoppody, easter was long gone, and you found yourself on Zorin OS.
You see, you got all the APPS you need at your fingertips, Zorin does everything that you need and more. You've witnessed how truly beautiful it is out of the box, that over Windows10 and Windows11.
And what you will discover as time goes on, you can customize it even further, with custom themes. Oh yeah, new things still await you in the future if you should choose to do so. But for now, I agree, I love your desktop, that background just make me wanna go there.
But of course if I did, I'd wanna stay, and never leave, cause who wants to be in the city when you got that? I say, heck with the city, lets bring Zorin OS to that place. Of course, if we discover a giant gorilla on that island, your on your own.
Alright, thanks again for your amazing story, it is in my greatest of opinions, that you are positively stellar 
That is also what I like about ZorinOS and confirms the Zorin Bros are fulfilling the needs of Windows refugees.
Yeah no problem Aravisian
Wow! your story and mine is very similar, @Dek .
I was fortunate that the first distro that I tried was Zorin and it became my permanent distro without any distro hopping.
By the way, how did you get the power button to show in the taskbar?
To be honest its always been there i just set date on the taskbar to not visable via taskbar setting under the position settings as i used the simple clock conky on the desktop. Hope this helps.
Nice story.
How did you place this clock on the desktop?
The clock on the desktop is a simple conky via conky manager.
@Dek Wonderful to hear another positive account in the transition from M$ to Linux with the use of Zorin OS!! 
Like you , many of us are finding comfort and freedom from the grasp of M$.
Welcome! Welcome! Lovely to have you aboard, @Dek ! Glad to hear how you are a quick and able learner and picking up Linux fast and Zorin 16 is one heck of a great distro! Like you and others, distro hopping is a Linux thing. lol I still use others for other stuff and just to try them out but Zorin 16 sticks with me as the best for one big reason, the support is the best! I like Mint too but Zorin support actually did make me switch to Zorin 16 Pro. Even though I LOVE XFCE and dislike GNOME but dang the Zorin bros make GNOME beautiful! But still waiting for that sweet sweet Zorin 16 XFCE (Lite) Pro! But so worth the wait!
Welcome @Dek !
Thanks for sharing and well done for finding alternatives to the Microsoft beast!
Distro hopping is indeed addictive, I have a quad boot desktop with 3 distros (Mint, RHEL and Ubuntu studio) and a dual boot laptop with zorin as my regular. Looking now to settle down into zorin on laptop and mint on desktop. Only use windows now as ultimate fallback when I need to use windows only programs.
Thought I'd give an update on how i'm getting on with Zorin. Of all the distros I came up with 2 that I really liked, Pop os & Zorin but I went with Zorin purely on the fact that I just like the look and feel, but the one thing that I really liked about Pop os was the Window tiling function. Then one day reading through this forum saw the tutorial about installing the Pop shell into Zorin followed it to the letter and now I have window tiling which makes me an extremely happy bunny and once again this forum has made my linux experience an enjoyable one along with the tip about installing wps no internet as opposed to the Flatpack version are 2 things I've already gleaned from this forum.
So thanks guys don't suppose I will contribute much to the forum as I'm still learning but I will certainly keep reading and keeping zorin on my machine.
I started contributing in order to learn.
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