this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2025
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you can always add eg. a swap file later if needed - apparently not as good as a swap partition, but it is more flexible. With 48 GB of ram I hardly think you're going to have issues, but that depends entirely on what do you do with the system.
Firewall isn't really helping the system against you, it's to block ousiders getting in - more or less.
install locations: if you just use what's in mint's repositories, you don't really need to think about it. Out-of-repository stuff like steam games etc generally live in ~/.steam or so. Or in some dedicated path you configure in steam/whatever.
As for snap/flatpaks/whatever, haven't used a single one. But in general: I'd favor the distribution's repos, if at all possible for installs. If the app isn't there, but is in snap... fine, I guess? As long as it's managed by some kind of package manager for easy install/update/uninstall. But having to manually download and install from a website? Rather not, that's when the maintenance becomes manual.
And of course, opinions are opionated. Your system, your rules. :P
oh with the firewall saving me from myself I meant if I download something thinking it's safe but isn't
Thank you! :) @Malix@sopuli.xyz
A firewall would not save you from that.
A firewall stops random incoming connections. But if you download and run something bad, that'd be an outgoing connection, since the malicious program is then already on your system.
Windows Defender warns you if a file seems malicious and then you have to accept a window to use it anyway or to keep it, isn't that also part of what a firewall does? I know it's silly and one should just do that mentally for every file but it's nice to have a reminder sometimes for sketchy files. Anyway, I was not asking specifically for that, just asking generally about virus protection and whatnot
Defender is antimalware/antivirus. There at least used to be a separate firewall in windows, but not sure if it's a part of defender or not.
Either way, "firewall" is traffic control, antimalware/virus is the execution guardian.
potato potato, I just meant some software thing to warn me when I have downloaded something sketchy and I should re-think my choices
Well, not really po-tay-toh/po-tah-toh. They’re 2 different utilities that do 2 different things. If you ask the wrong question, you’re not going to get the answer you’re looking for.
What you’re asking about is an antivirus. It’s been awhile since I messed with this on my Linux systems, but last I looked, ClamAV was most commonly recommended. You can probably search for “Linux antivirus” and find some recommendations.
Generally speaking, the earlier recommendations to stick with official repos is excellent. When you venture outside of that, you increase your administrative overhead because those manually installed apps won’t stay patched with a simple “apt upgrade.” That said, a well written cron job could keep them up to date for you.
As for where to install things, it’s personal preference. I prefer using my home directory. If that doesn’t work, my fallback in /usr/local, which is either its own partition or symlinked to the /home partition). I mention the partitions because having separate /home and possibly /usr/local makes it easy for these customizations you install to survive a reinstall. Backups will also help with this.
You have to ask yourself what this system will be used for. If it’s a daily driver that you want to “just work” I would stick to official repos, and minimize customizations. Windows makes a lot of choices for you. Linux expects you to know what you want to do.
Yeah but it seems like some people (not you) take it personal geez... Of course a "casual" will mix firewall with anti-virus, like...? I am literally saying I don't know shit.
Thank you for actually explaining things in a helpful and chill manner without getting so stuck about one word I use wrong while still being an understandable question.
You should try to avoid executing files that you downloaded from somewhere online, it's best if you canget it either from the system package manager( i.e apt ) or get it from flatpak/snap. If you have to get it from a website it depends on what the website is and the usual suspicious features. If you are unsure if something from github or similar is safe you can always google it first to see reviews from other users. Antivirus software like on windows is not that common for linux and most of the time it is enough not to run software you don't trust as sudo or admin as they don't have permission to change files without those.
I'm aware of the guidelines to follow to not download viruses, I was just asking if there's another line of defense like Windows Defender, I see now there isn't, thank you. The only things I download online are things I can't find in that store, things made by individuals and individually published... like Material Maker for example.
A lot of stuff on the stores and repos is mostly made by individuals
And I'm telling you a firewall won't do that.
It won't have anything to say at all about something you download and run.
It's a completely different security feature. It handles potentially malicious network activity. Not software on your computer.
and I'm telling you I didn't mean just firewall... I wasn't trying to be accurate or right, I was just asking a broad general question with a term that would get other people understand what it is that I want to know, not that I know exactly what a firewall does or does not do...
You understood what the question was about, did you not? That was my whole goal
Yes. But you didn't.
Knowing what something does is important.
If you install a piece of software expecting it to do something it actually doesn't, that can leave a security gap.
I wasn't just correcting you. I was making sure you knew that if you install a "firewall" it won't do the thing you're looking for.
As for an actual answer, most distros will already ask you to confirm if you try to run a random appimage you downloaded.
But you shouldn't need to do that in the first place. On linux, there's not really any need to go running random programs downloaded using your web browser, since you can just download software from trusted reposotories that aren't going to host malware to begin with.
Unlike on windows... You don't need to risk it in the first place.
Yeah the problem is that I understood the first time it was explained, no need to keep circling it over without answering the actual question I was asking about.. what you quoted from my comment was just me clarifying what I was asking about, not clarifying my (lack of) knowledge about firewalls.
Thank you for the actual answer!
I do have occasional need to download random programs from random websites because of my hobbies and profession, the first case being Material Maker from itch.io - that one is clearly safe with all those reviews and the public git, but it is a random program from the internet nevertheless, and the reason why I was asking about the placing of programs that I download manually.
Material Maker is on Flathub, the AUR, and on Snapcraft (not up to date, but you shouldn't use snap anyway).
No need for a manual install.
You'll find a lot of software is available via package managers. Linux people don't like installing anything without it being managed by a package manager so the installation and subsequent updates are automatic and occur alongside system updates. So when people find software they like, they'll go out of their way to package and distribute it for others as well
oh... I hadn't heard about any of those, thank you! Installing Flathub
Why would Flathub not be included with Mint? And how did you find it was in those three places? Did you look for it manually on each or is there a place that tells you where it's distributed? Because on their website the only thing I found was the Download link that takes you to itch.io or their github page that doesn't give any linux alternatives
edit: reviews in flathub say that there are some features that don't work and it's better to download from their itch.io page haha - it's not the first review I see saying that about flatpaks, so there are valid reasons to just download them manually like one would in windows anyway
Flathub and the AUR are by far the most comprehensive, and flatpaks works on a lot of distros. So I checked those.
They've also been getting their kinks worked out over the last few years and work much better than they used to.
That review you found is two years old and was for version 1.1. Current version is 1.4. Try it out today, if it's been fixed leave another review letting people know. It seems to work just fine for me, but I haven't used it before.
I seeee, thank you :)
I seeee, thank you :)