The first thing you're missing is backing everything you want to keep up in a separate location.
For 4, yes, Linux supports NTFS (what Windows uses) and just about every other filesystem you'd see.
For drivers, almost everything is in the kernel; that is, you don't have to do anything, you just get them with almost any distro.
The common exceptions to that are NVIDIA graphics drivers, for which the free ones are usually insufficient, and Intel wifi chips, which have proprietary drivers.
When you're installing, the installer should give you give you the option, when partitioning, to create a LUKS encrypted drive. You should do this; it's easier to encrypt your disk now than it is after you've installed this. This requires a separate /boot: the bootloader doesn't know how to encrypt the disk, so you need to put Linux on a separate unencrypted partition so you can boot it and decrypt your /.
The first thing you're missing is backing everything you want to keep up in a separate location.
For 4, yes, Linux supports NTFS (what Windows uses) and just about every other filesystem you'd see.
For drivers, almost everything is in the kernel; that is, you don't have to do anything, you just get them with almost any distro.
The common exceptions to that are NVIDIA graphics drivers, for which the free ones are usually insufficient, and Intel wifi chips, which have proprietary drivers.
When you're installing, the installer should give you give you the option, when partitioning, to create a LUKS encrypted drive. You should do this; it's easier to encrypt your disk now than it is after you've installed this. This requires a separate
/boot: the bootloader doesn't know how to encrypt the disk, so you need to put Linux on a separate unencrypted partition so you can boot it and decrypt your/.deleted by creator