Yes.
While the ZorinGroup states that users can install XFCE if they want, this means that users that do so will Not be Officially supported.
This is akin to Gnome responding to user requests with suggesting that they do it themselves. It is not really an offer of freedom - it is just carefully worded to appear that way.
I find the statement that Gnome is as efficient as a light desktop like XFCE4 to be questionable, at best.
Words chosen for use, like "sunset the edition" may seek to underlie what is actually written. I prefer to read beyond the words and read the whole picture.
In this statement, ZorinGroup has opted to limit official support and backtrack on what their previous statements have offered. To me; I understand that many users will hesitate to change what ZorinGroup provides.
This is a statement that asserts a Dominant D.E. for GnuLinux systems, limiting users rather than working toward the best interests of the End User and rather than listening to User Feedback.
What has made GnuLinux successful (and beautiful) is the modular nature of it and the Variety and Diversity in user choice. We are living during the time of watching that be "sunset" by the developers while they slowly and neatly push us into fulfilling what they want instead of treating the End User as the End Goal.
It serves the best interests of the developers, even as they try so hard to convince us that it is best for us.
IBM has been very proactive in pressing for the adoption of Wayland protocol.
In spite of Wayland lacking the functionality of X and being unready for full release. They had to patch it with XWayland just to make it work, then blamed everyone else for all of its problems. This push has still been successful in even end users being convinced that they need to advocate for this.
Serving corporate interests and developer interests is the exact reason that so many of us sought to move away from Microsoft Windows OS.
We did not make this move only to end up on Microsoft - Linux Edition.
Zorin OS 17 Core was a bit of a shock in that it is easing the user into forcibly accepting Flatpak; which ZorinGroup publicly supports.
It also defaults to Wayland. Though each and every one of us Nvidia users cannot use Wayland. It comes with the buggiest Gnome Software, yet. It comes with a newer version of Gnome which has led to threads asking where their features have gone, why is it laggy, why is it crashing.
And Zorin OS 17 was the roughest launch of a Zorin OS release that I have ever seen. It has been plagued with problems from crashing, missing features and functionality, lag and stuttering and display issues. We are to accept that Zorin OS is "better" with these issues than the existing long term stable D.E.?
Is this a believable claim?
Or are we being shepherded into feeding corporate interests?
When we combine this with the very lengthy release cycle of Zorin OS (far more lengthy than is reasonable or acceptable. Looking over the Zorin OS repositories and estimating by the speed at which I code or transfer with git and launchpad on my own projects - I would estimate that I would have the packaging in place easily within about three months. Even if I assume personal delays or extensive testing and that I am taking my time, not rushing - it would never add up to a year and a half); The ZorinGroups long lasting and never changing lack of communication; the long standing vaporware of proposed releases that do not materialize (Zorin Grid) or materialize so late as to raise too many questions (Zorin Upgrader - a feature other distros have had for years, now); given that it takes them unreasonably long delays to respond to anything...
I have been growing more and more disenchanted with Zorin OS over the past several months.
This announcement, for me, marks my complete departure from Zorin OS. They have pushed this fanboy too far. I, for one, am more than tired of spending daily time covering for them and making up excuses for them and their delays and their lack of communication.
They even told us moderators to put members who are unruly on ignore rather than be able to moderate the forum recently. Are they that out of touch? Moderators simply cannot ignore disruptive members. That is simply not how reality works. We have spent a great deal of time and effort to develop this place into a safe area where members avoid the elitism and sluggish snail paced responses. We did this. For free. Not them.
I did download Zorin 17.1 Lite and load it up with Ventoy to look at it. It would not boot.
I had to divert to Safe Graphics. Then it booted in poor resolution.
I poked around a bit, was unimpressed and shut it down.