Hello all,
I tried Linux few times ago for the first time, but at the same time I liked the experience and not.
Liked because feel it super customisable and felt if I have more knowledge about it I can do a good things and transform this in a great daily-driver (and nobody are spying me). And I didn’t like because I broke the OS multiple times since I was literally doing things I didn’t know - like delete things just because why not and because im dumb
I backed to windows because I need a specific proprietary software and because I feel it is kind a releaf for know how Windows works. However, my brain during this time is still thinking on Linux. “Lets go, you are capable to do it”
And, this time I catch my oldy-old laptop (has more than 10/15 years) and just created a bootable pen-iso with LMDE. Put it, install it and even with this laptop is more slow than a turtle, Im loving the experience. Why? Because of the first time I understand what I NEVER DO on Linux.
And because I feel , with more time and knowledge, I can make an excellent OS for my purposes. I’m understanding this is ultra customisable and I can do a lot of automation’s to work with my linux I can make this my daily driver. And this is the first time I feel this with Linux and dont want break this special thing with me and the beautiful penguin.
However, since I almost know nothing , I’m afraid to do things wrong and get a malware, spyware or break security measures of OS. I install a .deb file, but at the same time I’m afraid to install it lol. Yeah, this is dumb, but dont know. My brain is overwhelmed .
I saw the XZ backdoor and think if this happens, what I need to do, or precautions I need to make. I see a video about antivirus/scan system (like ClamAV) but dont know nothing about it. Dont know if this helps me or not.
Can you elucidate me? Can you put some calm on my brain to understand the good measures i need to make on my Linux experience?
And if you know how can i get more knowledge and understanding about the Linux System, I appreciate any advice’s , tips , tutorials , and so on …
Thank you and wish you a lovely day.
by very-dumb-linux-user-who-wants-achieve-great-things-with-it
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However, since I almost know nothing , I’m afraid to do things wrong and get a malware, spyware or break security measures of OS.
That right there is the traditional way to learn linux.
My advice is to make a disk image of Mint installed and configured the way you like it, then just reimage the laptop every time you break it.
Honestly, just play with Linux in a VM for a while.
For your sanity, I have several recommendations:
- Linux has a central location to install apps called package repositories. Those packages are well-tested and tend to be extremely safe, so try to install from there first.
- Sometimes, apps aren’t available from the main package repository, so you have to source them from elsewhere. To avoid some of the fear, you can try using a thing called Flathub. I won’t go into all the intricacies of how it works or why it exists, but suffice it to say, some of the apps there have a verification checkmark.
- Also, when installing an app, research it online and find the Git(hub/lab/ea) repository. Start by checking if it’s under an open source license like GPL, BSD, or MIT. Although not a sure thing (like the XZ incident, which was an isolated incident), half the time if it’s under one of those FOSS licenses means the app is legit. In addition, check to make sure the source code is actually there- repos with just an executable file and a readme telling you to buy something are red flags.
- Finally, don’t go running random commands online without first researching what it does (with manpages or the like).
I would recommend Googling the following and reading about these:
- Linux directory structure
- Linux package managers
For more knowledge & understanding, this might help:
“Learn the ways of Linux-fu, for free.” https://linuxjourney.com/
Good luck 🍀
A really good way to do linux is to play around and break things, but to have a backup you can restore from.
I don’t know about other distros specifically, but Mint comes shipped with Timeshift, which is easily configurable and can be set up to include your home directory. Make a backup on an external drive every now and again so that if you break everything, you only lose a bit of work instead of all of it.
Search engines are your friend. If you want to do something, look it up first (ex/ “How do I [x] on linux”) and read some of the answers. Don’t just go with the first option you see, and if it looks decent but you don’t understand it try looking up the commands it uses to find some documentation.
Learning linux isn’t something you can do as passively as you can with Windows, so take time to really try and learn things you’re looking to do.
And a good rule of thumb is that if you think your system should be able to do something, it probably can.
You can relax. If you install an Ubuntu based OS (v24.04 LTS for long term support) like Lubuntu or even Linux Mint you’ll have a pretty stable system with great hardware support and lots of online help.
And as long as you don’t mess with any files outside of your home directory and keep a regular backup of your system you’ll be just fine.
Also, there’s a lesson to be learned in our mistakes. In the future, keep a copy of files you want to delete but are not sure what they are for, before you actually delete them.
LMDE uses Debian repos which are very well tested, meaning stuff like the XZ back door will most likely not affect you because it is found before you get the update. ClamAV is not designed to recognize malware for Linux only on Linux, so not what you want in your case. My recommendation is to stick to distro packages (well tested) or flathub (sandboxed), which are available in mints app manager. If that isn’t an option try getting the software as an appimage, it isn’t sandboxed but also doesn’t have root access. Otherwise general rules apply: be wary of sketchy websites, use ublock with the malware filter list etc.
Tap for spoiler
You could potentially use distrobox to install a .deb sandboxed, but as it isn’t in the Debian repository or available as a .deb it isn’t something I would do as a beginner, even if there is no substantial difficulty in installing
I’ve been using Linux desktop as a daily driver for a little under 10 years now and I’m still discovering ways I could be doing things better. There isn’t some magic tutorial that somebody can give you here which will suddenly have you as competent with Linux as you are with Windows. Try things, break things, when things break, look into what you can do to fix them. Keep system snapshots and backups of your personal files so you don’t have any data loss if things go wrong. And snapshots are useful for unfucking a system that you’ve just fucked.
Sorry if you don’t want to hear this, but you kinda have to figure it out yourself. Thankfully, for specific issues and questions, there is a ton of material out there, and people are generally pretty happy to help.
Go to youtube and work through a few of these. …for dummies tutorials.
