newbie's wishlist, kind of.

[numbers]

so, as i'm yet again beginner, and as i'm, coming from windows, used to have certain tools there, not created by micsosoft, mind you.. i seek to find similiar counterparts in the Linux environment. i'm pretty sure there are several, but i don't even know where to begin and/or how to do what's needed to get them working.

--starting right off; as a very advanced file manager i used (still do) Total Commander:
split window,ftp, file compare, file find, tree/path copy, batch rename, pack/unpack archives, lister (quick file view), tons of other functions, one tool. (see more at ghisler.com) unfortunately he does no Linux port.
--next, a .mp3 player which does nothing else, must be capable of -only- playing music. someone wrote "smallplayer" few years ago for 64bit Win.
i dislike VLC, because it became bloated over the years.
--thus, for videos mostly, there was mpc (media player classic), is there something like it for Linux? it came with a set of plugins to pick from, codecs etc.
--what now, oh right. a browser. i did like Firefox. way less nowadays, because of the noise. before FF 4, you'd start with about:blank, and the browser did only that; start. FF now does several dozens of connections just upon launch, blank page (can't set about:blank anymore), even with every caching toggled Off, part of them to amazon, part to google, few to mozilla. trackers. also, they removed the "Never Do DNT request". that rq is a beacon. maybe Tor browser is a replacement, maybe some of you have a better idea.
--finally (for now) i'm looking for a firewall which can run paranoid (ask about absolutely everything that tries anything) and has a tray icon.. in Windows i used to have Comodo FW: set rules, block all and so on with just one rightclick. i want the "block all" right upon boot, and "rightclick-custom ruleset" when i want internet. Linux is noisy.
i know the eternal discussion about "you don't need virus protection in Linux, yes you do, no you don't" not joining in that. the FW i found in the "gameover" is something with .. howtosay... not enough buttons. maybe i find out how to install from a .deb and go with Comodo again, but that one is rather bloated, too. still, it can record a profile for literally every single thing's ordered action, from a GUI. that's what i like.
call me a spoiled brat. then again, i'm old :)

one final question; how the heck do i make Linux stay away from my CMOS clock?! :(

/walloftxt
p.s. thanks for the preview button!

[lami07]

Try this website :
https://alternativeto.net/

[paxmark1]

Postin your DE (desktop environment -whether LXQT, XFCE KDE etc...  >)    Depending on your de, some will pull in less dependencies.

videos  I have liked mpv for several years.  yes,vlc is quite bloated.  It is a complete
rewirit of mplayer.  It was wayland compliant  back in 2016. 

Palemoon is a less bloated freer bowser than firefox-esr. 
Firejail while not a firewall does some very nice things to isoloate things like browsers, etc.   

https://github.com/netblue30/firejail

iptables has been deprecated in favour of nftables.  Hopefully there is a gui somehwere.  Reading old info about iptables and implementing it will degrade you firewall.

peace out

[numbers]

thanks alot, that's something to dig through. found just a thing on first try at alternativeto, i'll go with double commander i think.
however, clueless me, i don't even know which package i have to get. even more to read up :)

right, Sparky Gameover with XFCE DE here, not sure if i go for stable or just buy more RAM, depending on game performance.
some day. 8GB isn't much, but x-mas closing in and grandkids are a death sentence for my wallet. i just can't say no to them.

..luckily i have one more month or so to "safely" use Win7 if i mess up too bad. then its support ends, and Gameover for good.

y'all have a nice weekend.