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submitted 21 hours ago by Uair@autistics.life to c/linux@programming.dev

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@linux

Hello all! I recently got an old Dell laptop that had been repurposed as a Linux Mint machine. I was setting it up and fell at the first hurdle.

I tried to install ExpressVPN. The install package downloaded fine, but took two hours to extract and failed for "bad characters". I fiddled with it for a while and couldn't do better.

First, it's the VPN software for Linux desktop, since they didn't have one for laptops. Could this be the problem?

Second, do I really need a VPN if I don't torrent stuff? I just think of a VPN as a basic part of my security, but I don't really know.

And, third, speaking of basic security: do I need an antivirus on this?

Thanks for any help!

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[–] laprice@beige.party 5 points 21 hours ago

@Uair @linux
There are multiple different types of Linux operating system that are different in different ways.

The way to find out what you have is to open a terminal and type "uname -a"

It will show you what version of the Linux kernel you are running and cpu architecture you are running on.

If your expressvpn package was built for a different cpu architecture that would be the problem, or if it was packaged for a different distribution.

There are sophisticated vpn facilities built in to Linux kernels greater than 5.0 so user facing software that sets it up for you should not be that complex.