The Status of Linux as a Gaming Platform. . .

Well, another problem area is that silly "charms bar". They've moved too much of the control structure to it, and then placed it so that it pops out when you don't want it, and it's damn near impossible to find when you DO want it. It's like taking the steering wheel and pedals on your car and moving them to the trunk... then rigging the trunk lid to pop up at random when you roll the windows down, and not open at all when you hit the actual latch.

I had to get rid of the tiles, too - and uninstalled the "apps" that ran them to boot - and get the add-on button from a third party to make it functional again, and then convince it to boot into the desktop instead of that silly start screen. This is one of the problems with Windows 8 - one should not have to "fix" the operating system right out of the box.

Installing programs was a pill until I got the start button back - they'd install, but then I couldn't run them because I couldn't find anything to start the programs with. Microsoft screwed the pooch when they did away with something as important, integral, and central as the start button, IMO.

Yup, I likes my Zorin! that's what I'd recommend for folks who are most used to Windows. Ubuntu used to be my go-to, but when they went with that stupid Unity desktop interface, I was done with Ubuntu in a big fat hurry. I did, at one time, install a working desktop over top of Unity to make it functional, but again, I don't think I should have to fix my OS right out of the box just to make it functional, so modern flavors of Ubuntu fail miserably in my personal usability index - they may even be below Win8.

Mint is good - that's what I ran after Ubuntu abandoned their users and before I discovered Zorin. To make matters better, the last time I checked you could download 2 different distros of Mint, which differed only in the user interface. I liked that - it gave the users more choice and more control with a lot less hassle.

What do you mean Zorin "blocks direct access to root"? I've never had any trouble running commands as root with sudo from the terminal. It's really not a good idea to be logged in as root if that's what you mean - that negates a whole lot of Linux's security value when you do.

In Zorin or Mint either one, you may have to occasionally update the software repositories in the terminal, or some obscure software packages may need terminal to install them, or some settings may need terminal to tweak them - if you want them tweaked - but by and large you're right, most folks won't have to mess with the terminal any more.

Plus, both come with a fairly decent assortment of preinstalled software to get started right out of the gate with, and minimum fuss to do it.

I'd agree that direct root login is an un-necessary risk (unless properly secured in a few other ways as well, restricting down to a real fine level), at least for a production server. I'm spending a lot of time in the text .conf files and just shy of getting into the kernel with some stuff on local, isolated servers tho. sudo works, but its not 100% direct equivalent, either.

I'd also add that the linux distributions I have for strictly local reasons are convenient in other ways, aside from root login, that would make any admin on a production system scream and quit on the spot. lol... (You know they allow 2 digit passwords during the initial install phase? heh...and there is indeed a mystery behind the number 42!).

Then again, I'll admit I'm techie with this stuff now beyond what the makers of Zorin are really marketing to. Personally? I'm still using CentOS (now sans GUI) on the laptop and seriously considering falling back to Fedora 20 as something a bit more like what I'm comfy with for specifics. I've even considered the blasphemy of alias'ing commands to the old MS-DOS 3.2 set for ease of use from my engrained childhood learning. I'll be spending hundreds of hours in that command line this summer, and the basic, common command set overlaps so much as to make that possible. :)