[__MatrixMan__]

> I'm a linux newb who jumped from Microsoft's world after getting fed up

Welcome to the dark side my friend, it's better here.

> If I said anything wrong, please correct me

Nothing wrong, but if you ever want to see if something is present without actually running it, consider these commands:

    ps aux | grep atop # is there a running process named atop?

    which atop # is there a runnable command named atop on the PATH?

And since you've referenced some Debian-derived distros, maybe also

    apt list --installed | grep atop # has apt installed a package named atop?

If it does contain something troubling, running the command to see if it was present might expose you to whatever the trouble is.