I'm personally very uncomfortable with this decision. Unfortunately, this would directly affect Zorin OS, as well, since the base of this OS is Ubuntu.
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Ubuntu has previously done this, changing the Gnome Software Store to the Snap Store. It did not go over well and they ended up dropping that. At that time, Zorin OS was not affected by that decision as ZorinGroup utilized the .deb and apt utilizing Software Store.
This is an odd announcement, given that Canonical has stated that they are dropping all Snap Packages by Ubuntu 24.04. EDIT: Scratch that. That was an April Fools day joke.
Perhaps it is a last ditch effort?
Hard to say.
23.10 is an interim release, however and not LTS nor supported for very long. And Zorin OS is never based on Interim releases.
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What in the world is wrong with Ubuntu? However, Zorin OS is not just any old Ubuntu. In extreme cases, Zorin OS can stop being based on Ubuntu.
This is canonical's way to push what they created. Ubuntu is widely used and more used by ex Windows users, so the target base is used to controlled computer environments and companies. Most won't know, or care, to figure out a better, more light weight software management.
Red Hat has been attempting to do this for decades, canonical is attempting the same. There is no controlling company in the Linux world, we obviously don't want one but companies still attempt to find it.
I wouldn't worry. Linux is to diverse and so many have adapted versions that if any one company even starts to get close to Microsoft in Linux, the fan base puts them in their place. Look at red hat.
No company can beat the bottom line.. free can only help your business.
While this has a possibility to effect Zorin, there are other application managers and stores than what Ubuntu offers... making this a pointless effort by another greedy conglomerate. I doubt it will be difficult to customize the store by using a replacement.
Maybe it will have the effect of the Zorin's going with a pure Debian base or one that has fewer requirements for modification.
Since the source is still open source, it is possible to fork the repo and continue a different line of development. That means more work for the Zorin's, so the mitigation of their interest in pursuing such an endeavor. If there were more devs, maybe, but then they would also need partnerships for funding, meaning ads for us.
Either way, I'm not worried.
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When I used Ubuntu, I installed GNOME Software and used that instead of Snap Store.
I've seen worse, such as Red Hat making RHEL proprietary to non-subscribed users.
I'd love Zorin to go for a pure Debian base. Especially since the latest Debian seems really awesome to me. The latest Ubuntu LTS, however, sucks. Just my opinion.
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Wasn't the news about Ubuntu dropping snaps an April hoax?
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I have been had. I never noticed that publish date.
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I just started using snapcraft store about 6 months ago, I like that they have necessary dependencies bundled, for setting up a Folding at Home client. Of course I still love using .deb installs as well. Pure Debian would be doable.
I reading a corporation linux example Canonical or Red Hat. Cannot be trust! The debian and arch never gived a people some very drastic changing heartattack or headeach. 
Of course this is up to the user and their preference whether to use snaps, flatpak, appimage or .deb.
Many here will agree with me, though, that snaps and flatpak seem unnecessary. By packaging the dependancies, they may have made things easier, but every library on your system is duplicated. This increases the size of programs from megabytes to gigabytes.
The .deb of discord is a few hundred megabytes. The snap is nearly two gigabytes. Other software is more.
While I have the space, it doesn't mean I want it tied up in applications. I use my system for programming, research, data analytics and gaming. It's enough that games are so large that i have a dedicated external drive just for them.
It is up to you, but what are you most interested in? Ease of use, size on the drive, download time or staying away from having to type? Aptitude packages download and install in less then two minutes. Snap, some will take the better part of five just to download. Anywho
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I mostly agree. In addition, deb. packages often felt lighter and snappier (pun intended) to me.
But I will stick to my point, that deb. packages have caused me headaches, where flatpak and snap versions have not. Most notably Discord, Zoom, and Steam. I don't want to have to go through hoops to make them work properly, nor do I want to have to set up PPAs. I want to be able to apt install them and then they work, and done. Especially for the three mentioned ones, the deb. packages have not done that for me. Flatpaks and snaps have.
So to comment on you saying they're unnecessary: in my opion, they are (unfortunately) necessary in some special cases.
I don't care how much place it taken. It must be working for me.
In this technology we have fast pc, fast internet, fast hard disk nvme.
Besides not always software exist on .deb package.
If I would like go to back XVI century then propably don't care what is going on on internet and whole that world inside.
Many people don't using internet.
Very valid point; you should use the tools that work for you. Have you tried their web application instead? I personally never installed neither Zoom nor Discord, and never had any issues with them through the web, even with an ad-block enabled (with some tweaking to let the essential scripts load).
I must say though, I agree with 337harvey on this one.
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Sure, the web applications work. Just annoying, though. My Zoom deb. package was not on the latest version for the last several weeks, so it could not connect to meetings. So I was force into the web application. But the web application always had me manually copy the meeting password that was sent with the invitation link manually. Not a big deal, just annoying. But then with some meetings the password would just not work. This never happened with the desktop application. Which, again, was a deb. package, and not on the latest version, and thus could not connect.
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I've had the opposite experience, not worrying about the version its on because it was one package updated with the rest of the system, thanks to it being a deb.
Discord is the only software on my machine that doesn't automatically update and that's simple enough to install.
I used the Easily Reinstall guide to backup PPAs (y-ppa-manager) so I don't have to type them again. Installation is one command, reading in the file that contains all of the application names. It has been effortless and worked well for me.
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I also use the .deb packages for Zoom and Discord (and I use BetterDiscord) and they, nor their version numbers, never gave me any trouble. I use Zoom every single day of the work week currently.
User experience is really the determining factor. Some users have had better luck using the Flatpak for Steam.
This is why it is a good thing to have more than one option. Flatpak helped ease that.
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Do you recall having any issues due to version mismatch? I must say that is one really strange behavior. If it's intentional, it's a rather bright red flag about the quality of the product...
Btw, this all sounds oddly familiar, didn't we discuss this already in another thread? 
If I had, I would recall it. No, I never lost the ability to connect, make calls or anything else of the kind due to version mismatch on Zoom.
I have experienced an issue on two occasions where users with a different version had a different option available to them in a Zoom call.
But it had a very minor impact on the meeting.