So in attempting to install Zorin on a Plex server that had been running windows10 I have gone through 7 failed installs, replaced the sdd, the flash drive, then graphics card, and have gotten the operating system installed.
Now it runs slowly (when I click or move the mouse I wait a second or two before there is any response)
It tells me I am up to date but Firefox crashes every attempt to run it and so does the "app store".
Does this operating system actually work for ANYONE?
Due to my activity on the forum, I have noticed that there has been a slight increase in the number of users having some installation trouble and less optimized performance than Gnome (and also Zorin OS) advertises.
Microsoft Windows OS is readily informed and cooperatively worked together with by the hardware manufacturers.
GnuLinux is not.
One thing that all the recent woes seem to share in common is that very new pieces of hardware are lacking support.
This may be explainable, but it does not make your own experience invalid.
By detailing your experience and by outlining troubleshooting steps on your installation, you can help improve the situation, providing technical feedback that can narrow down what the problem is.
Given that you replaced so many components, tried 7 persistent attempts to install and when you did, got Crashes and intolerable slowness, I for one do not blame you one bit for feeling frustrated and fed up. That is Your Experience.
And through all of this, I did not read anything that said, that the OP disabled "Secure Boot" and "Fast Boot" in the BIOS. As long as those Windows only features are enabled, Linux will remain a nightmare for the user.
We literally preach these things in almost every thread asking for installation help. I am starting to think that we should have those recommendations mentioned on a system wide forum banner at the top.
I've never had any Linux distro act like that, where the mouse cursor lags behind the mouse movements. The only time I've experienced that behavior, was in a game, that required far too many resources then my system could produce, at my mouse lagged.
As soon as I got a new computer, my gaming issue with the lag was gone, because I then had modern gaming hardware, to produce excellent performance. But never have I experienced that issue just running an OS though!
I have seen this happen with One Desktop environment. And a search of this forum can yield several examples...
This often is caused by that D.E.'s shell experiencing errors.
Given the crashing the O.P. describes of applications - and the difficulties they had in installing the OS/Shell, it is safe to say that their error logs were getting filled alarmingly.