Awesome! Linux Mint's welcome page should have given you directions to setting up the built in firewall. If you really want an antivirus, ClamAV is a good one for Linux. However, whether you need one on Linux is actually a complicated question: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=358408
Really depends on your use case, at the end of the day. Good luck, and let us know if you have any questions!
The sha txt file should've been available alongside the iso file from the mirror you downloaded it from. Honestly, as long as you used one of the mirrors that the Linux Mint website provided, you should be perfectly fine.
Poe's Law and the lack of /s strikes again!
Get to know people in the hot sauce community (it exists!) and then you can ask person-to-person!
Veilid is a peer-to-peer network and application framework released by the Cult of the Dead Cow on August 11, 2023, at DEF CON 31.[1][2][3][4] Described by its authors as "like Tor, but for apps",[5] it is written in Rust, and runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, iOS,[6] and in-browser WASM.[7] VeilidChat is a secure messaging application built on Veilid.[1][4]
Veilid borrows from both the Tor anonymising router and the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), to offer encrypted and anonymous peer-to-peer connection using a 256-bit public key as the only visible ID. Even details such as IP addresses are hidden.[4]
You "need" them because the society we live in is built around them. It's the same reason you are forced to learn how to mask - you "need" to mask to survive, to put food on the table, to have a home and a bed to sleep in. This world is commanded by the manipulators, shaped and molded by the manipulators, and if you don't have the skills to swindle your drop of money in the form of a grant in research or investment into your company, your project just dies. Everyone hates it (except the manipulators), but that's just how things are at the moment.
Looks at Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, etc
Sure you were, Ivan. You get extra potato. What? I did what you said, enlist in NATO forces. Aren't ya proud, silly little vatnik?
Don't know how it's going to go for you, but Mint has been going really well for me gaming-wise on an Alienware with Nvidia RTX. Pretty much all the Steam games I care about work, and all my Blizzard games through Lutris. All through simple GUIs, and if you like the Windows feel and setup, there's a Windows 10 theme you can try out, and tutorials on how to get a Windows style mouse cursor too. Again - all up to you, but it worked really well for me and is amazingly customizable. Just... remember to do Timeshift backups regularly, just in case. You never know if you'll need one.
Found the CSAM apologist.
Thanks, kind stranger!
Looks like you needed to actually @ the bot, but here's your late reminder. Unfortunately Loops got postponed about a week due to Meta being a-holes and naming a different thing Loops, but they should hopefully be up next Sunday.