Tangent discussion about loyalty

Chat about Zorin
20

There is also a point you made about StarDock.
It was popular for a long time. It has declined, as changes in Windows created more difficulty in getting StarDock Applications to work.
And yes, a quick check will show I am a member... on StarDock forums.

However...
By Customizing, I am not referring to themes. Themes are a part of customizing - appearance. But customizing is much, much more than theming the base appearance.

Summary

Interface Layout and Behavior

  • Rearranging panel positions, toolbars, or docks (e.g., GNOME extensions, KDE Plasma widgets).
  • Tiling vs floating window managers.
  • Custom hotkeys or gestures to trigger actions or navigate.
  • Changing how menus behave (e.g., context-sensitive menus, global menus, HUD-style interfaces).

2. Input and Interaction Models

  • Keyboard-driven environments (e.g., Vim keybindings, custom shortcuts, or layers like sxhkd).
  • Mouse behavior adjustments (acceleration curves, button remapping).
  • Touchscreen gestures or stylus input configurations.

3. Automation and Scripting

  • Setting up scripts or hooks for repetitive tasks (e.g., auto-mounting drives, setting environment variables).
  • Daemons or services that respond to events (e.g., udev rules, cron jobs, user-created shell scripts).
  • Custom startup routines or login/session initialization (.xinitrc, autostart, systemd user services).

4. Application Behavior and Integration

  • Configuring how applications interoperate (e.g., using external diff tools in git, setting default MIME handlers).
  • Pipe and dataflow customization (e.g., dmenu, rofi, or fzf integration for launching, searching, and filtering).
  • Window rules — defining how certain applications behave (e.g., always float, open on a specific workspace, use a specific size).

5. Notification and Feedback Systems

  • Adjusting notification style, urgency behavior, or placement.
  • Audio/visual feedback customization (e.g., visual bell, logging rather than notifying).
  • System monitors and dashboards (e.g., conky, custom polybar modules).

6. System-Level Behavior and Resource Management

  • Custom power profiles, CPU governor settings.
  • Application sandboxing, containerization, or isolation schemes (e.g., Flatpak overrides, Firejail profiles).
  • Tuning memory, caching, I/O behavior (e.g., zram, swappiness).

7. Development/Work Environment Specific Customizations

  • Dotfiles management and configuration across systems.
  • IDE/editor configurations beyond themes — linters, formatters, extensions, language servers.
  • Version control integrations and custom commit hooks.

As you can see, that is no small list. Accessibility, workflow and user defined persistent needs define this broad range.

Interesting... I have only ever used the free version... Are they pay only, now? (Mine still works.)

This is valid. It may scare some, just as it emboldens others. And Zorins version of Gnome is far more tolerable than others...
But it does not fit all users and having a good fit for more users makes more sense to me.