Software Install

[dollar19]

I am new to Linux mint. I installed opera as my favorite browser and bookmarks.
I next set up Thunderbird as my default email program and installed my address
book. I even managed to install skype. Everything seemed to be going just fine.
I shut the computer down. Later I booted up into Linux and found that all of my efforts
were to no avail. Opera and bookmarks, Skype and my Thunderbird address book
had disappeared. Could not find them anywhere. I have now repeated the installation
three times with the same results. How do you get these applications to stick around.

[xenopeek]

If you are running Linux Mint from a DVD or USB stick, those aren't persistent. Meaning, any changes you make a temporary and forgotten once you reboot or shut down.

If you were attempting to install Linux Mint from inside Windows, with mint4win, you need to finish the installation. It has a two stage installation; from inside Windows creating the virtual partition for installing Linux Mint. After you reboot, you still need to install Linux Mint to that virtual partition (actually is just a very large file on your Windows partition).

In all of these cases, if there is an icon on your desktop that say "Install Linux Mint", that means you are in fact booted from the Linux Mint installation image. You can use that to test drive Linux Mint before you install it, you can use it to install Linux Mint with, and you can use it as a rescue tool.