Installed Linux Mint… now what? (recommendations)

[QueriesNTheories]

Hi all!

Managed to get Linux Mint Xia installed and working on my external drive last night, after lots and lots and lots of reading about how to partition my drive correctly, and where should my root and home should go, and how much swap do I need and all that other stuff. I would be a fool to say I hope I don’t need to reinstall, I know I will at some point, but I still hope I don’t need to!

Had a brief scare when booting up without my Linux drive connected today as GNU Grub turned up instead, but I learned I just needed to enter “exit” and I’d get back to Windows (and the delightful Bitlocker screen, joy (sarcasm)). I’m assuming if I had the drive plugged in I’d get the bootloader instead?
Probably should have made a system restore point from the Windows side before I started… oh well, hope that doesn’t become a problem later! ^u^;

Anyway, any recommended things I should do now I have the system going? Checked for updates and drivers already, not sure what to do about an antivirus/similar protection system over here either, and how often should I back up/what do I back up… mainly just wondering about recommended programs/applets and other good practices, especially for security.

Thanks in advance

[zonk]

The main thing that new users coming from Windows need to learn is that software generally doesn't come from websites but from the package repositories for your distro. You should use the package manager that comes with your system to install software and resort to web downloads only when it is not available from the repositories.

Software in the repos is vetted by the package maintainers for your distro, patched for better compatibility with your system, and cryptographically signed to ensure no funny business happens during transmission. It is for this reason that most GNU/Linux users don't even bother with antivirus. If the software in your distro's repositories is compromised, you are in any case doomed.

As for what software you ought to install, my personal philosophy is not to install things until I need them. Less is more, and simplicity makes it easy to rebuild if for some reason you decide to jump to a different distro or need to reinstall your OS for some reason, so unless there are specific things you want to do and you're looking for recommendations, you shouldn't go looking for programs to install unless you feel a need to solve a certain problem.

[Crazyroostereye]

Why was it so difficult to install and Partition the System? Doesn't Mint offer a Partitioning Wizard in their Installer? or was there a different Issue?

With Security on Linux there isn't much to do. As long as you, as zonk put it, don't Install things from Untrusted Source. And primarily Install the things from your Distros Repos or Flathub. You shouldn't get any Malware when you keep to that rule.
Also, a recommendation don't copy Commands from the Internet without knowing what they do. As they might want you to remove the French Language pack. And you wouldn't want that .

For Backuping the same rules as on Windows apply. Backup your Important Files that you defiantly don't want to lose. And maybe the .config folder, as that includes the Settings of most Programs. So you can easily restore your Settings at least. For Backup Software I would refer to this Blog Post

For Programs explore, there are many Tools that you might find Interesting. Go through you Software Center and click on what catches you eye. And Install what you find neat or useful.

[QueriesNTheories]

Why was it so difficult to install and Partition the System? Doesn't Mint offer a Partitioning Wizard in their Installer? or was there a different Issue?

It's not that it was difficult per se, it's just I needed to be absolutely 100% sure what I was doing when I did it ahaha ^u^;
It's a new 2TB drive; I wanted to be certain I wasn't gonna mess things up y'know? So I just took my time reading and learning about what Linux really needs to run, and what's just good system practice. As far as I could gather, root and swap were essential, and a separate home partition just made sense. Everything else to me seemed either optional/the system would take care of it/i'll just generally figure it out later.

For Backuping the same rules as on Windows apply. Backup your Important Files that you defiantly don't want to lose. And maybe the .config folder, as that includes the Settings of most Programs. So you can easily restore your Settings at least. For Backup Software I would refer to this Blog Post

Noted! I like the sound of Pika Backup, will give it a go

Less is more, and simplicity makes it easy to rebuild if for some reason you decide to jump to a different distro or need to reinstall your OS for some reason, so unless there are specific things you want to do and you're looking for recommendations, you shouldn't go looking for programs to install unless you feel a need to solve a certain problem.

Keep it lightweight, keep it simple, got it.

Thanks for the advice guys

[DedRoll]

I don't have anything to add just gonna observing this post from the corner 'cause i'm also planning to dual boot linux mint