So, I'm not that understanding of linux. But I guess I can't call myself "new" anymore. I've been using linux since December. Although to be fair, I'm barely ever home. "Using" linux at this point mostly consists of opening firefox, and watching youtube.
I know "sudo" is "super user" "apt" is some kind of repository command, and then you type "install (program)"
But I've really taken to flatpack. I hate hate HATE the terminal. All I ever do is screw things up in there. I don't know what I'm doing. I just follow commands. "Just copy/paste this exact set of text". And then I have an error.
It's kind of like knowing 4x4=16. And all you do is memorize that line, as opposed to knowing that 4x4 is the same as 4+4+4+4. And knowing what 4 is. If you memorized 4x4=16, but get presented with 4x4-2, and you don't understand the core concept of numbers, you wouldn't know how to adjust 16 to 14, and know WHY it's 14. I'm just copy/pasting someone elses instructions.
sudo apt get firefox && -z, -r, -☆, -$, randop, redo, up.
That's probably complete jibberish in terminal, but it helps you (the experienced linux user) understand how terminal feels/looks to me. If I had a problem, and troubleshooting told me to copy/paste that to solve my problem, I would. That to me looks as legitimate as any other jibberish that would actually work.
Ok. Rant aside, lets start a civil war in here! I've been using ZorinOS, and I kind of like it. HOWEVER, I did spend a considerable amount of time tweaking it. It's finally how I want it, so I'm not messing with it. So I've never experienced KDE. I've only experienced GNOME. And quite honestly I don't know what that means. I know it has to do with the desktop environment.....but I don't know what would be different if I used another desktop environment.
But that brings me to a question I was told you just can't ask the linux community without blood being shed.
What's better? KDE? Or GNOME?
FWIW, perhaps you should reconsider if you should even use balenaEtcher.
Unfortunately, this does happen at times. Therefore, it's a good idea to be aware of alternatives. One such example would be Fedora Media Writer that you may install as a flatpak. Though, the most popular is probably Ventoy.
Unfortunately, AppImages aren't as reliable as one might expect. Assuming that your distro supports it OOTB, you're still often required to explicitly allow it to be run as an executable. Which is a good thing for the sake of secure defaults*. Granting it is simply done by:
FWIW, the aforementioned Ventoy does just that.