For more knowledge & understanding, this might help:

“Learn the ways of Linux-fu, for free.” https://linuxjourney.com/

Good luck 🍀

Honestly, just play with Linux in a VM for a while.

For your sanity, I have several recommendations:

• Linux has a central location to install apps called package repositories. Those packages are well-tested and tend to be extremely safe, so try to install from there first.
• Sometimes, apps aren’t available from the main package repository, so you have to source them from elsewhere. To avoid some of the fear, you can try using a thing called Flathub. I won’t go into all the intricacies of how it works or why it exists, but suffice it to say, some of the apps there have a verification checkmark.
• Also, when installing an app, research it online and find the Git(hub/lab/ea) repository. Start by checking if it’s under an open source license like GPL, BSD, or MIT. Although not a sure thing (like the XZ incident, which was an isolated incident), half the time if it’s under one of those FOSS licenses means the app is legit. In addition, check to make sure the source code is actually there- repos with just an executable file and a readme telling you to buy something are red flags.
• Finally, don’t go running random commands online without first researching what it does (with manpages or the like).

I would recommend Googling the following and reading about these:

• Linux directory structure
• Linux package managers

A really good way to do linux is to play around and break things, but to have a backup you can restore from.

I don’t know about other distros specifically, but Mint comes shipped with Timeshift, which is easily configurable and can be set up to include your home directory. Make a backup on an external drive every now and again so that if you break everything, you only lose a bit of work instead of all of it.

Search engines are your friend. If you want to do something, look it up first (ex/ “How do I [x] on linux”) and read some of the answers. Don’t just go with the first option you see, and if it looks decent but you don’t understand it try looking up the commands it uses to find some documentation.

Learning linux isn’t something you can do as passively as you can with Windows, so take time to really try and learn things you’re looking to do.

And a good rule of thumb is that if you think your system should be able to do something, it probably can.