ganamant, cinnamoncoffee,
And if someone turns their family and/or friends on to a Linux Distro, guess who they will be coming too with questions!!!!
You become their "support person"... probably for FREE! And if you can avoid unpaid service calls just by having the Linux system set up to look and work as much like Windows as possible, that's a GOOD thing.
People come to Linux for different reasons. Some hate Windows simply because it's NOT Linux, and for them, I guess Linux looking like Windows is some sort of heresy!
Others hate Windows because Microsoft is a powerful corporation that is doing what is best for itself, not necessarly the users.
Others hate Windows because it's MALWARE BAIT.
Others hate Windows because they seem to have a tradition of a really bad esthetic sense that they want to impose on Windows users. I think it goes back to that flag-like Windows logo that's the three primary colors plus green.
I think that set them up for the garish color scheme for Windows 8
I hate Windows for the last three reasons.
The thing is that Microsoft has deep pockets, and they've done a lot of testing. Sometimes they've learned useful stuff that way. I'm convinced they probably tested the (traditional) Windows user interface on people of a variety of ages, and discovered that aging eyes do better with certain things than others..... things like colorful icons and things that look three dimensional. If a Linux distro then tries to do something just for the sake of having a different look and feel from Windows... there is the danger they are shooting themselves in the foot.... they may be going for a look that Windows tried and DID NOT work for a significant number of users.
So being different from Windows just to be different from Windows to me is a dangerous thing. Most Linux distros don't have the ability to do nearly as much usability testing, and the testers are all volunteers, which means they are probably already Linux users, so they can't really be unbiased. Also, now that Microsoft is trying to make Windows WEIRD... making Windows look like XP actually makes it DIFFERENT from the present repulsive Windows thing that Microsoft is foisting on people. And the fact that there are still people using XP in spite of support being pulled has two basic reasons.
1. There was nothing wrong with the User Interface.... shocking as it seems, Microsoft does get some things right now and then! And XP wasn't even all that garish!!!
2. Millions of users have had their brains totally programmed over the course of XP's nearly 14 year lifespan to respond to the visual cues XP gave them. Not giving them the visual cues they need guarantees they won't be using THAT flavor of Linux.
I personally like the esthetics of Mint.... although I liked them better around the time of Isadora! I think Zorin goes too far in the Windows-lookalike thing. But I think every Linux distro that aims to be user friendly should have at least one theme easily available that looks XPish enough to satisfy someone like Cinnamoncoffee's father!
The irony is that people who want Linux to look different from XP basically have the same motivation Microsoft had in designing Windows 8 and Window 10-
"Let's be different just to be different!" In order for it to seem NEW, they wanted the new Windows to look different from XP and Windows 7, they totally ignored all their previous usability testing, and came up with something that was just "new"... but definitely NOT improved!
I customized this computer to look aesthetically nice and to be usable. It resembles windows XP. I know that linux allows various special effects and Ive tried them but I like clean and simple things more. So I dont use any crazy themes or effects because i dont like them, not because Im philosophically opposed to changing how the OS looks 
)
and it lasts since 3 years with many problems
