Just added mint as my dual boot primary as a noob. Any sage advice or must get software?
Using backup lool for image disk as clonezilla/RescueZilla/foxclone just in case
disable fastboot in windows, that actually ruins the experience
LocalSend if you want to send files between devices on your local network. Works on (almost) all operating systems.
VLC video player
Redshift or F.Lux to reduce blue light at night.
GPick to see exactly what color a pixel is.
GHex for editing binary files (advanced).
Redshift or F.Lux should be unnecessary from version 22.1 onwards. It has a built in blue light filter now. Just search for “night light” in the settings and it should show up.
Make sure quick booting is turned off in Windows. It can mess up a shared disk otherwise.
VLC for multimedia
Syncthing to sync files across devices, it’s really handy
Firefox for browsing
OnlyOffice, it has a more modern interface than LibreOffice and better support of .***x files (docx, xlsx, pptx, …)
Thunderbird for mail services
FileZilla if you’ve got a ftp server
KDE connect to easily sync your phone and your PC. You can do more than sync, you can control one from the other, etc. Give it a go. There is also a fork called Zorin Connect which might or might not be better suiter for Mint.
For additional softwares that may or may not be useful to you : Krita, GIMP, TexStudio, konsole, Blender, wine, steam, proton-GE.
is GE proton necessary or just an additional to gaming?
It’s additional but has many fixes and optimisations.
I can’t live without TOR Browser. Open a Terminal and follow these instructions on how to install:
https://itsfoss.gitlab.io/post/how-to-install-tor-browser-on-linux-mint-22-21-or-20/
Echoing VLC as a must-have as well.