I do not understand Linux. I do not understand terminal. Logically I should be using the more popular, easier to understand, financially backed operating system. The pattern used to be 1 bad windows release then 1 good release. XP was good, Vista was bad. 7 was good, 8 was bad. So I expected 10 to be good. And it just wasn't. And the thing is, it never got back to how amazing XP was for it's time. 7 was good, but it felt lacking. It should have been better. I didn't switch from XP until the very end. And then I think I went another year or two unsupported. Until finally that PC died, and then I bought a Windows 7 PC almost into the days of Windows 10. And used that until 2023. I still use the PC hardware, but now I have ZorinOS. Which is fine. I almost know how to do things after 2 years. I still can't figure out installing Audacious. Keeps telling me the package requires dependancies, but won't install them. But day to day browsing, and various other tasks I get by reasonably well enough.
So you'd think I should have stuck with windows, but FUCK THAT SHIT!!! I will pay for a good operating system. I don't care about the money. What I care for is a minimalist UI, with a start button and a task bar. Clock in the lower right, along with a shortcut to various other toggles, like bluetooth, wifi, display settings, ect. and next to the start button should be 3 shortcut program buttons. Right now I only have two. Firefox and the file manager. I need to right click the taskbar to have a context menu to give the option to start the task manager.
Zorin has all of that. It's been two years, so I don't remember how much of this I customized. I know for the first month I STRUGGLED. Then I finally got things the way I like. I know my current task bar is a mod. My setup feels very Modern day Windows XP. Except instead of "Start", my start button says "Fuck", because it makes me giggle that I can do that. All in all, I feel functional in someone elses home. You know when you stay with your friend on the other side of the country? And you're there for like 2 weeks, and by day 10 it starts feeling like you kinda sorta know your way around everything in the house? But maybe you don't know how to work the stereo system to work with the TV. So you just watch it with the TV speakers. That's how I feel with Linux. I can get things done, but I don't feel at home.
So when I see microsoft headlines like this, where it's just straight up bullshit, I feel bad for those who still use windows. Then suddenly Linux starts to feel a lot more like home than Windows does these days. So good job Microsoft. You legitimately drove me away as a customer, and continued to keep me at bay simply by existing as you currently are.
Wait......were we all not already on the same page about that? Am I supposed to gasp here?