I gotta agree and include myself on that one.
Started using linux mint for around 2 weeks before switching to Zorin and wasn't a huge fan of how it looked. It was alright, just not too appealing for me. Zorin does look really nice to me, and I'm guessing part of it is because it reminds me a bit of Windows 7
Oh, this may be my mistake for only having used linux for one month, but I thought Synaptic was only for uninstalling, updating and repairing packages, i had no idea it also worked like a software store.
Thanks a lot for the info, this will be really useful
The reality is that Linux has a user base that is much more computer literate than Windows does. It is therefore much more common to appeal to that literacy of the target audience when it comes to ask them to do something. It's not even a question of whether it's better or more efficient to do things this way anymore, it's a established convention.
But you absolutely can use a Linux system without ever touching the terminal prompt.
I would argue this is not necessarily a good thing honestly. But I was in cmd quite a bit on Windows (no where near as much as Linux though). But it has been quite a while since I have used Windows daily
But I will argue all day long that
sudo apt install firefox
Is easier and faster than going to the internet, finding an exe, and installing it and liable to come with other stuff you do not want.
I will say for this argument what I have said other times on this forum. If you are on a beginner friendly distro then Linux is not any harder to operate than Windows or Mac. It is just different
I use MacOS (mostly for Apple's excellent M1 hardware) and Zorin and I VASTLY prefer Zorin. MacOS makes some things that should be very simple extremely complicated.
This right here was my biggest gripe about installing on Windows. Having to go find some .exe file of unknown source.
This relates to why I avoided it as noted above,
but also to that on Linux, our sources are secured and vetted.
This does not mean that there are no sources that are secured and vetted on Windows, but that on Windows, it is a lot easier to get packages that are not. And Windows is the primary target for MalWare.
I remember when I first got into Linux and tried to install Google Chrome... it did not end well and probably delayed my transition to Linux for a couple of years 
What happened? As long as I can remember Google-Chrome came as a deb package you installed kinda similarly to a Windows exe. But I believe it is only packaged this way for Fedora/openSUSE and Ubuntu/Debian
Agreed, another thing that is nice is the "Updater" does not only update your OS but all of your applications as well.
As far as needing to reboot after an update on Linux I would say it is about 1 in 6 updates. Maybe less I have never paid that much attention. The good thing about Linux though is it does not need to "Configure" the update for 10 minutes, it simply just reboots.
For me it is typically during a kernel update of Nvidia update
I have mixed feelings when it comes to this. There are many variables. I kinda feel like Linux is more likely to give an issue but it is also typically an easier fix. is that fair?
Another thing I will note is I think Linux has closed the gap tremendously the past 5 years or so. I always feel weird referring to "Linux" like it is a singular entity. Different things are true on different distros
I don't remember exactly but I couldn't find it for some reason from the terminal and after a while I was furious I couldn't get something so seemingly simple to work. In retrospective, it seems like such a small issue... good times!
Ah, I wonder if you did not know that it typically is not in the default repos? Especially not in the past.
I know for sure the few times I did install it I download the deb and it automatically installed it and added the Chrome repos to the system. But I am probably not a reliable source on this over time as I have never really been a Chrome user.
Just adding the link to download the RPM/DEB for anyone who happens upon this. Though it is arguably a little less useful now that there is a Flatpak of it
I am not going to go from personal experience on this because it seemed like I was troubleshooting Windows often enough when doing so was like pulling teeth.
You could be right that it was less frequent. I am further biased by participating on this forum - whereas on my own Zorin running machine, I very rarely troubleshoot issues of my own. It's rare. But I am exposed to all the issues other people encounter on Linux, here.
And when I first started on Zorin OS, it seemed like I was troubleshooting several times a day.
And on this forum, users post issues that sometimes, we never do figure out how to fix.
I do not know how often that occurs on Windows Help Forums.
For your own personal computer?
I guarantee it happens sometimes for sure. With the lack of control Windows gives you sometimes it is simply easier to work around an issue as well. MacOS can especially be a pain in this regard.
@everybody (lol)
One thing I will never argue with is there are pros and cons to every desktop operating system.
Yes, when I first switched over, it was quite a trying time. For everyone.
Not a smooth transition...
But it taught me a lot.
It's difficult to argue with a speculative point like that. But just to say, after W7 I became increasingly dissatisfied with Windows, so searched for an alternative. I hoped to find such an alternative in the Linux ecosystem, and although I found several I could use (Ubuntu, Mint, Zorin), none of them felt as clean, coherent and polished as W7.
You argue that I might be closed-minded ("looking through blinders") about what I want, such that I was rejecting perfectly competent solutions simply because they weren't exactly like W7. Well, I guess you might be right, but don't we all have an idea of what we're looking for when we go on the hunt for something new? It would be rare not to.
I will concede this: although I'm very open-minded about how a new OS looks and works, I am very demanding when it comes to polish. I think W7 was the ultimate desktop OS for polish, although a significant minority would say that about MacOS. The point is, both were the result of 30 years of careful, inch-by-inch tuning of the UI elements and design language.
That relentless drive by Apple and Microsoft towards the perfect UI for mouse and keyboard users requires a degree of long-term commitment and investment that only proprietary software can realistically hope to enjoy. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs owned those OSs in a way that Linus Torvaulds deliberately doesn't own the Linux user experience.
The Linux user experience is unpolished because there are dozens of distros all absorbing developer effort, with no mechanism by which careful fine tuning and polishing of the UI can reward all the effort expended.
Let's be honest: unlike in server land, Linux on the desktop is never going to generate lots of revenue, because what revenue there is is spread across dozens of suppliers, each with their own pet ideas and none of whom (I'll bet) have their own usability labs. Also, practically nobody specifies Linux when buying a new PC, so again, there's no real money to be had from desktop licences. And that's why Linux remains unpolished - because basically it's a server OS where the UI is far less important.
You were struggling to understand how to use it? Which Zorin version would this be just curious.
As you may know my first Linux distro was Yellow Dog Linux and I literally the only source I had to use it was a book. But once I got to a more user friendly distro (honestly can not even remember what it was) it clicked with me and I never really have looked back lol
Linux generates a caught a bit of revenue actually. But the goal of the "money making" distros is to get into Corporations through generating a large "desktop" userbase
I would disagree about the polish honestly. If your hardware is well supported and you pick a beginner friendly well put together distro there really is not much difference. I use Zorin and MacOS everyday and MacOS is not more polished than Zorin imo.
Absolutely correct - and I would suggest that that user base is far more tolerant of UI oddities than the less computer-literate Windows and Mac users.
This is a fact, but I have moved many who are not especially computer literate to Linux Mint/Zorin and they all love it. While their are distros that specifically caters to this group (Arch, Gentoo etc). I do not feel it is necessary at all anymore
Windows has PLENTY of UI oddities. I personally can not stand how they have some settings only in Control Panel, Some settings only in the "Settings app". It was so annoying always needing to Google where to find a specific setting
LOL I can imagine. It is more food for thought, not an argument nor a position. Worth wondering about but not much more than that.
Everything else you said makes a series of very good points of consideration.
I have often opined that Linux as a whole would be better served as a pay-for OS instead of being free cost distribution. There are good arguments to resist that as well. It is one of those cases of Human Nature where there are no good solutions, only compromises.
I see a lot of benefits in the very thing you point out as a flaw as well. Where you pinpoint developers lacking a mechanism of fine tuning, I see competition and a rich diversity in options. It is, by far, the one thing I appreciate most in Linux.
But there are admittedly times where that fine tuning fails. When a maintainer is doing a side project out of the goodness of his heart, he may not be as motivated to examine feature requests and bug reports.
It is one thing that we see as different in Zorin OS, which has a Pro Version: The ZorinGroup carefully considers feature requests and is quick to stamp on bugs.
And your points need careful examination in Linux. While I can offer an opposing p.o.v, they still remain valid and troublesome. You did not reach those points without reason - and you certainly are not alone in them.
Zorin Core. And yes, when I switched to Lite, I had a lot less troubleshooting. Part of my trouble was I needed to find a D.E. that suits me and my workflow. One reason why D.E.'s being diverse and different, is good and why no D.E. should assert dominance over the others.
Corporate interests: The bane of user desktop.
I certainly observe odd tolerance for a lack of polish in widgets that misalign in GNome D.E. What bugs me about it is I see PopTech articles constantly push the word "polished" onto these that readers accept at face value.
It Absolutely does. Especially now, since it is a hodgepodge of new UI mixed with old. Open Win11, look it over, then launch Device Manager and look that window over. It's... weird.
It is still using .rc (resource) files for only part of its appearance. And the theme is not consistent across apps.
You've missed my point. Now Windows has plenty of UI oddities; in fact it's a complete mess as that video shows. I am specifically talking about W7, which (though obviously not perfect) got bloody close for the mouse/keyboard usage model.