Just wanted to reiterate with the OP how nice Solus OS has been. I too switched from Windows 7 alittle over two months ago, and it has been fantastic. With one exception (that was resolved), it has been extremely stable, lightning fast, easy to use, polished, and I've had no real compatibility issues. I'm very pleased, and have been spreading the good word.

I think right now I only have two things I'm sorting out, and I'd be appreciative of suggestions. I'm looking for a good web-browser that isn't Brave. I used to use Pale Moon on Windows. I'm also looking for a good Firewall/Antivirus. Right now I'm running some very basic security and would like to improve it.

    MrMagniloquent . I'm also looking for a good Firewall/Antivirus. Right now I'm running some very basic security and would like to improve it.

    Install UFW from repo. Very strict firewall at default setting. sudo eopkg it ufw

    it took me about 2-3 years after coming to linux when I realized I needed no conventional av/am suite. believe I had W7 and used a arsenal of tools like you. It's hard to get over how ingrained that is.

    edit: firejail is an efficient app-sandbox as well

      MrMagniloquent

      Nice to find a companion from old Windows 7 that also denied the step to W10 😀

      As for browsers, there are a bunch of good ones, lateley it depends on your taste which one to choose.
      I started to search alternatives that provide cloud bookmark management from scratch, because I still use Windows 7 and 2-3 other Linux distributions. This way will make sure I always have the same base of information at hand, whatever system I'm on.

      I found one Russian based 'Yandex Browser', equipped with cloud bookmark management and surprisingly good support, but unfortunately I was not able to find it for Solus right now, so I only use it on ArcoLinux and Manjaro.

      Vivaldi was already known from Windows and matured over the years, so I gave it a try. The UI is clean, nice and adjustable, it offers cloud bookmark managament and works without major issues so far. Updates every now and then provide more features. The bookmark system is a bit unique, but I managed to adopt me to it.

      From third party tab you can install Google Chrome, but I'm not sure how your data is opened to the company.
      The Brave browser seems new, fast and lightweighted, but I didn't test it too much either.
      Opera is ok, but others offered more to me.
      Tor is Tor and therefore has it's own target group.

      Your choice!

        Thanks for the replies. I would be happy with Brave if it weren't chrome based. At it's core, Chrome basically tracks everything, and despite Brave's original intent, I feel like they've gone dark side. I've been looking at Vivaldi & Opera, but I haven't tried them yet. Pale Moon was just a 64bit fork of FireFox though, so I may just go with that.

        I'm actually using UFW right now. I'm so used to intensively tuning my firewalls, that this bare-bones one just seems...peculiar. I don't have reason to suspect it as inadequate other than my inexperience with Linux.

          MrMagniloquent I would be happy with Brave if it weren't chrome based.

          Then you can be happy since it is not chrome based.

              kyrios It's a pretty thin line. Chromium can be compiled with an API key for almost all of the services that Chrome has access to, so I wouldn't say it's a given that it's necessarily better for folks in the anti-Google crowd. It may not "phone home" in the same way as Chrome's analytics, but Google still can see all of the API usage for Chromium. Brave made it pretty clear that they want to use those APIs when they announced the switch: https://brave.com/development-plans-for-upcoming-release/

              Unlike the current version of Brave, this new browser will have support for nearly all Chrome features and extension APIs, but of course without including any code that phones home to Google, or to the Chrome Web Store.

                I used Solus Budgie some time ago on an old iMac. After using Manjaro, I decided to come back here for a more stable approach to updates compared to the Arch-based distros. KDE fits my workflow. Solus KDE appears to be the most trouble-free Plasma distro I know. Kaos was also good, but the Solus experience is much more friendly.

                  Scooter I decided to come back here for a more stable approach

                  Welcome to the family!