 So you've installed Linux Congratulations, that is definitely an accomplishment to be proud of I think that you have joined a fantastic Number of people who have installed the best operating system on the planet now I might be a little biased of course But I truly think that if you've taken the jump to switch to Linux full-time you have accomplished something fantastic But the question becomes Now what you've installed Ubuntu you've installed Arch Linux you've installed Manjaro Linux Mint Fedora whatever distribution you've chosen the question becomes once you've installed it you've surpassed the hard part What comes next? Well after you're done patting yourself on the back There are a few things that you should do or at least learn how to do and that's what we're gonna talk about today So today I'm going to talk about the five things you should do after you've installed Linux for the very first time So let's go ahead and jump in the first thing you'll want to do and this applies and actually all of these apply no matter What distribution you've chosen the first thing you will want to learn how to do is how to update your system There are usually at least two ways for you to update your system Sometimes three sometimes even more than that now That's one of the things you're gonna have to get used to on Linux is that there's almost always Almost universally. There's more than one way to do something and while that might frustrate some people It does give you some options based on your level of skill So if you are very used to Windows chances are when you update Windows it has popped up to tell you that there's an update and it does it for you For the most part, that's not how Linux works So you have to develop some skill in actually updating your Linux system. This doesn't mean that it's going to be hard It's just going to be a little bit different So for example the vast majority of new users probably update their system through their GUI software centers So if you're using Ubuntu, you're going to be opening up software clicking on the updates tab up at the top and then clicking on update all or whatever it happens to be That's the same on Fedora for the most part It looks pretty much the same if you're using GNOME at least if you're using a KDE based distribution Chances are you're going to use Discover or something similar like that if you're on Manjaro They have their own tool called PAMAC which will do updates for you and a lot of similar But arch based distributions also use PAMAC as well So again, how you do it is going to vary a little bit depending on what distribution you choose So that's why I've said the first thing you should do is learn how to do that And the easiest way to do that is to Google it to get on Google and search for how to update blank distro So if you're on Manjaro, how to update Manjaro? That will help you out and get you the instructions that you need in order to update your system Now one of the things that you're going to have to get over is get past the myth that is out there and That myth is that you never have to restart your Linux system because you do have to restart your Linux system from time to time And it's almost always after an update now now where it differs from Windows is that Linux will never force you to restart your computer You can do an update and then continue to use your computer for as long as you want weeks months years whatever you want Which you'll have to know is that your updates Specifically the updates to things like the kernel won't take effect until after you've rebooted rebooted your system So just know that you do have to reboot Linux from time to time in order if you want your updates to take effect So that's just kind of a mini tip there for you The next thing on the list of things to do after you've installed Linux is learn how to install applications Now this is actually fairly similar to how you update your system So if you are using Ubuntu or some other distribution that uses GNOME you're gonna probably use the software center to install software and You can do that very easily You don't have to worry about where that software comes from just open that application up find the piece of software that you Want and install it now obviously just like with Windows and Mac There are other places you can get applications from so you can get things from like flat hob or you can get things from PPAs if you know what those things are it doesn't really matter what they are now Just know that if you can't find the piece of software that you want in the software center Do some googling and you'll probably find out that the piece of software that you want or at least an alternative to the Piece of software you want is available somewhere for you to install It's just a matter of learning how to install those things So the easiest way obviously is through the software center But you can learn how to do things through the terminal So if you're using Ubuntu or an Ubuntu based distribution, you'd use apt if you're using fedora You'd use DNF or pack or Pac-Man if you're on Arch so like I said in the first one there are multiple ways of doing this and They are going to be different depending on what distribution you choose But once you've used Linux for a small amount of time and you've probably floated between different distributions You'll notice that there are some similarities So while the syntax might be different if you're installing something in a terminal the process is Almost usually identical No matter what distribution you're on there are obviously some exceptions to that But just know that for the most part Installing software works basically the same across all distributions except for the Specific so, you know you use GNOME software if you're on a version of GNOME You're gonna use discover if you're on KDE You're gonna use the terminal if you're more interested in using the terminal things like that now Moving on to the third one the third one is going to be a little bit more technical for the new user And I have a video on how to do this if you're interested in being instructed on how to do this But unlike Windows Linux does not come with a firewall for the most part There are some distributions that come with a firewall, but the vast majority of them do not now the easiest firewall to install is UFW it's called the uncomplicated firewall It's very easy to install very easy to set up and usually just set up and forget like it just you turn it on It turns on whenever you start your system and you're done You never have to even remember that you have it there And that's very similar to what you'd expect in Windows only Windows has one built-in from the start It's a GUI and From time to time it's going to ask you if you want to let this thing through the firewall That's not gonna be the same on Linux, but that's because it doesn't come with a firewall So I highly recommend installing a firewall. It'll just add that extra layer of protection to your Computer. This is especially important if you are a avid Internet browser. Let's just put it that way Again, I have a video on how to install and manage UFW I will link that in the video description below the next one is probably the most important part of using a computer No matter what operating system you're on you need to develop a backup plan and This is even more important on Linux Especially for new users because when you are a new user you're going to be messing around with stuff You're gonna be tweaking stuff and learning how to do stuff and just being a complete nerd when you you know Turn on your computer in the morning and you're just gonna say this thing is new I'm gonna just you know discover as much about it as possible The problem with that and it's not really a problem is that as you go through and do stuff that's new to you You're gonna mess things up. It's just a guarantee. You know, your audio is gonna stop working You know, you're you're gonna mess up an application You're gonna delete something that you weren't supposed to delete it doesn't matter what that is But the point is is that eventually somewhere along the line something's going to go wrong You know either an update's gonna mess up or whatever And that means that you're going to have to have a way to make sure that you don't lose any data whatsoever now on Windows there are multiple different ways to back up your system. Just like there are on Linux Some of those things are built into the system So things like one drive are there on Windows and you might use that whatever you can use that on Linux if you want you can use one drive or Google Drive or Things like pCloud on Linux, whatever you want to do those clients do exist drop blocks is here, too there are also open source alternatives for those things or open source Applications that allow you to create your own local backup. So things like timeshift exist now for the most part timeshift has Transition to doing butterfest snapshots, but you don't need to know what that means It also still has something called rsync built in and that allows you to just to make basically make a copy Of whatever you want to back up to whatever destination you want to back up and it can be automated That's what timeshift does. There are other tools as well that allow you to do this So again, I highly recommend hop on Google how to back up Linux or apps to back up Linux perhaps and Find some options there for you to back up your data because that's very important because like I said You are going to mess something up eventually you don't want to be in a situation where you messed up your Linux distribution and That means you're going to lose all of your data. You don't want to do that now The last one on the list is more kind of highfalutin and I say this because it's not something that is necessary because I know a lot of people who use Linux and They never get involved in the community because they Either don't want to or they expect they have to develop something or they set to start coding or they have to start Growing a neck beard whatever happens to be they don't want to be involved in the community That's perfectly fine. And there's nothing wrong with that. You can you're free to use Linux however you want to use it But I think that you would be doing yourself a disservice by not getting involved in some way And that doesn't mean you have to go out and learn Python or C or Haskell You can do those things if you want to but you don't have to in order to be involved And I'm not even saying that you have to contribute to the community just go to r slash Linux on reddit and look through the posts and get involved in conversations go to the forms of your favorite distribution get involved by answering questions or asking questions or just reading even just get involved in The community as much as you feel comfortable with because one of the greatest joys I've had of Linux isn't actually using Linux and That's kind of saying something because I love using Linux But one of the greatest things for me over the last five years since I switched to Linux full-time is getting involved in the community I've made so many friends through the Linux community and it's just been amazing and even the people that I would you know Can't really consider friends. Just the average passers-by. I have fantastic conversations with and it just kind of Makes the entire experience so much better And it's not something that you really have an opportunity to do when you use Windows It's kind of different with Mac because there is an Apple community. You're everybody has there has spent thousands of dollars on Apple equipment and stuff like that and they've that kind of pulls them together into an Apple community and they can you know get involved in Like YouTube video community, you know, like youtubers communities and like logs and stuff like that for Windows It's Windows has become such a tool That there's not really a community there. Yes, there is but it's more of like an IT If you if you know what I mean with Linux the community is all over the place And it doesn't matter whether or not you're a new user or not, you know, you can get involved and just get into a community and Float around and you know have conversations with people who enjoy the same type of stuff that you do and you'll just meet So many fantastic people. Yes, you'll meet a whole bunch of assholes But that's the same as any community, right? It's just the nature of humans when you put more than three of us together one of those people is definitely going to be a Dick, you know, that's just kind of the rule of nature but for the most part you're going to meet so many nice people and it just kind of Enhances the entire experience of using Linux. So those are the things that you should do after installing Linux for the first time I think that those are the most important things, but they're not the only things one of the pieces of advice that I always give to new users is that I Really truly do think that you should not be afraid to break things when you're brand new at Linux One of the best things you can do is experiment, you know That's why I put on the list of backing your stuff up because if you try out new things and you break stuff You are going to learn how to fix those things. That's part of the fun part of Linux Is that yeah, you're gonna learn a whole bunch of new stuff just not breaking Linux But when you try to try out new things and move from here to there and move to different distributions and try out, you know different package managers and different audio interfaces and stuff like that, you know, you're going to experience problems and part of the pleasure at least from my point of view of using Linux is trying to solve those things and Maybe that's not for everybody. You just want a tool that you can use that is stable and just works That's fine. You're gonna find that in Linux as well You can use Ubuntu or Fedora or whatever have that experience and never break it But it when you do come up against a problem part of the fun part is at least for me is to learn how to Fix it and you know, maybe it's just because I'm a nerd, you know the glasses and the neck beard You know kind of give it away, but you know, I think that that's one of the greatest things about Linux is that you should just embrace the idea of learning this Wonderful operating system that has so many facets to it So that is the end of this video if you have comments about this You can leave those in the comment section below you can follow me on Twitter at the Linux cast You can follow me on Mastodon or any of my other social media networks Those links will be in the video description You can support me on Patreon like all of these fine people you can do so at patreon.com Slash the Linux cast of course you can also hit that join button there below the video That will allow you to support me here on YouTube if that's something that you're more interested in Thanks to everybody who does support me on patreon and YouTube. I truly do appreciate it I cannot begin to tell you how much It just makes me so happy that you guys find my content enjoyable enough to support me So thank you for watching. Thanks everybody for watching. I'll see you next time