Your first week with Ubuntu: a complete checklist.

You installed Ubuntu. The desktop looks unfamiliar. Everything is in a slightly different place. Your muscle memory is wrong. Your fingers reach for a Start menu that doesn’t exist.

Take a breath. The first week is the worst week, and then it’s never bad again. Here’s the day-by-day plan I’d give a friend.

Day 1: Just live in it.

Don’t optimise anything. Don’t install anything new. Open the apps that came with the system and use them.

• Files — your file manager. Looks like a folder. Click things.
• Firefox — your browser. Should already have your bookmarks if you signed into a Firefox account.
• Thunderbird or the built-in Geary — your email. Add your Gmail or Outlook account.
• LibreOffice Writer — your word processor. Opens .docx files.

That’s a full working day on day one. Resist the urge to tinker.

Day 2: Make the desktop feel like yours.

Open Settings → Appearance. Move the dock to the bottom if you miss the Windows taskbar. Pick a wallpaper you don’t hate. Change the accent colour.

The point isn’t to make Ubuntu look like Windows. The point is to make Ubuntu feel like your computer.

Day 3: Install the apps you actually use.

Open Ubuntu Software (the orange shopping bag icon). Search for what you need. Click Install. Done.

The ones most people grab on day three:

• Chromium or Google Chrome — if you prefer it over Firefox
• Spotify, VLC, GIMP — your usuals, all there
• Zoom — works perfectly on Linux
• Visual Studio Code — if you write code

Day 4: Update the system.

Open Software Updater (it’ll also bug you about this — that’s normal). Install the updates. Reboot.

This is the equivalent of Windows Update, except it takes a few minutes instead of an hour and never asks you to “restart now to finish installing important updates”.

Day 5: Try the terminal. Just once.

Press Ctrl + Alt + T. A black window opens. Type:

sudo apt update

It asks for your password. Type it (you won’t see the dots — that’s intentional). Press Enter. Watch the lines scroll by.

Then type:

sudo apt upgrade -y

This is the command-line way of doing what the Software Updater did on day 4. Same thing, different interface. That’s all the terminal is — another way to do what you already do, just faster once you know it.

Day 6: Move your stuff.

Plug in the external drive you used to back up from Windows. It should appear in the Files app. Drag your Documents, Photos, Music across.

Sign into your Google account in the Settings app if you want your calendar and contacts to sync. Sign into Firefox to bring your bookmarks. Sign into your password manager to bring your passwords.

Day 7: Decide.

By now you know whether Ubuntu is for you. Three likely outcomes:

1. “This is great, where has this been all my life?” — Welcome. You live here now.
2. “It’s fine, but I need Windows for one specific thing.” — Install both. Pick at boot. Most people do this for years.
3. “I hate it.” — That’s a valid outcome. Try Linux Mint instead — same idea, more familiar-feeling. Or come back in a year; the desktop improves every six months.

What you do not need to do.

A few things the internet will tell you are mandatory but aren’t:

• Install an antivirus. You don’t need one. Desktop Linux isn’t targeted the way Windows is.
• Defragment your drive. Linux filesystems don’t fragment the way NTFS does.
• Customise the terminal prompt with ASCII art. The default is fine. You have permission to ignore every “rice your Linux” tutorial.

Bonus: the keyboard shortcuts that pay for themselves

Found this useful? We’re publishing more beginner guides over the coming weeks. Back to all resources →