Mednafen is pretty easy to use - has a debugger and everything. Unfortunately I don't like any of the GUI/frontends for it, but I over came that and learned to use the honestly pretty handy keyboard shortcuts for everything. I set up a command that's associated with *.cue files, wherein I only need to double click on them to go. In my distro, I did this by:
1. right clicking on an iso
2. open with Other Application
3. select "use a custom command"
4. opening a terminal and typing "which mednafen" to get the path to the mednafen executable
5. which I pasted into the "use a custom command" text field followed by a space and then the single file name field code, which is "%f". More on those
here, ctrl + f "%f"Retroarch is something that has roughly the same end goal as Mednafen but a radically different way to doing it. If you can get Retroarch installed then you can't go wrong.
After dealing with the nightmare of Windows 10, I've decided to finally switch to Linux.
Next week I'm finally gonna get my hands on my new Dell laptop that uses Ubuntu Linux 16.04.
But I got some questions, hopefully not too many as I hope to get the thing up and running in one week.
My most important question is: What is the best firewall, antivirus, and anti-spyware for this OS?
ML: I don't know, I've never used any of them. Though I should probably use a firewall. I've never set up a printer and I dropped the network programming class: I know nothing about this.
Also, how do I install programs that I downloaded from places other than the Ubuntu Software Centre? I know it involves a command line, but I doubt its the same Windows command line of "CD [directory]" "[installer].exe", etc. I've been looking up some YouTube videos and the only clue I have is "sudo" something.
ML: Ubuntu is forked (derived) from Debian. Both use apt or some sort of GUI front-end for it to install programs, most of which come as *.deb files and are usually stored somewhere. Yes it is a huge pain in the butt to chase down software dependencies, but you get used to it.
Sudo I think is short for Superuser (admin) do. It's a way to get temporarily read/write/execute privileges for files and folders in your root (admin) directory, which is /. Contrast with su, which elevates the current terminal session to superuser (or maybe it just opens a new session as a superuser in the current terminal, I don't know which - same end difference though so who cares?).
Is WINE already included with this OS, or do I have to install it?
ML: You probably have to install it, ask on an official WINE support forum because the approved method of doing so changes once every few years. In 2012 it was Wine Helper, a bunch of bash (a type of terminal emulator) scripts. Be prepared for pain.
Also, are there built in media players into the OS already that let me listen to music and watch videos? If not, what Ubuntu Linux media players should I download and install?
ML: I use only VLC.
I also plan on using VMware to run a Windows XP virtual machine as some sort of "training wheels" until I get used to Linux. Is it preferable to emulate the 32 bit or 64 bit version of Windows XP?
ML: I know that VirtualBox only supports 32 bit emulation. No idea bout VMWare.
If you want to become a linux power user, read this book:
http://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.phpIt's free, and the dead tree version is cheap. It will hold your hand and walk you through everything you need to know to use linux as a woke af non-programmer non-sysadmin.
I can answer more questions if you have any.