You can’t be sold on Linux. Anyone ‘sold on’ or ‘lead to’ Linux isn’t going to stick with it. The desire to learn to use and be productive with Linux is purely an internal one. Selling you on it would be like trying to push you into a religion. For this, you need to sell yourself on Linux. Install it, run it, make it your daily system for a few weeks or months… then you can decide if it is for you. The questions you’ll need to find answers to are, but not limited to:
Will it run the software I need? You mention PDF’s… Viewing non-encrypted PDF’s is no problem. For encrypted PDF forms that I’ve seen from some government sites, I needed Windows or Mac to fill them out reliably. I was able to do some within Wine, but that wasn’t stable enough to depend on.
Be aware there are desktop choices. Linux comes in many flavours, some can present and work similar to a Windows desktop workflow, some more similar to Mac (but not quite), and some are just either heritage UNIX styles or just Linux unique. Finding what you prefer can take some trial and effort.
I suggest Linux distributions that offer disk encryption (and be sure to use it). If you were my lawyer, I wouldn’t want the documents we share to be left around un-encrypted anywhere.
Check out some Linux periodicals, as well. They can help wet your whistle with reviews on various Linux distributions and often some introductory articles on software and How-To’s. If that kind of thing interests you, you’ve already half sold yourself on Linux.
I’m a selfhoster, I setup a home assistant VM and Cosmos Cloud running a bunch of Docker containers, all setup using Cockpit.
Easier, and better looking UI than Proxmox. Also this setup enabled me to use Docker instead of LXD and save on one virtualization layer, which as a beginner every layer adds complexity.
It has been rock solid, it has better hardware support than Debian due to the faster release cycle, only drawback is the lack of documentation or tutorials in comparison to Debian which has a colossal community.
Old Thinkpads are your best bet, especially for linux support. I scored a new T14s gen 3 for $300 earlier this year, and like a year earlier got a T14 gen 1 for $200.
The Intel Thinkpads should have great support and upgradeable ram, the newer AMD ones sadly have soldered ram.
I think it is very interesting in terms of the easy deployment of specific environments, and in terms of writing recipes for new packages.
Having said that, outside of these two rather niche areas for home use, I think it is rather unintuitive and offers no real advantages over more established players that offer a more polished experience, like Fedora for workstation and gaming use.
Dev work is not specific enough. Pip is a nightmare because it just wanted to modify folders that were read only and you never know what it wants to do to your system. Your experience may vary depending on how much the language package manager assumes about your system. If you’re in a container, it will work perfectly, though
Firefox just works, and I installed Steam from nixpkgs and it worked after enabling a few settings. Then I just enabled Proton on every game and it works okay, with a few weird bugs sometimes (although I blame Gnome for messing up alt tabbing sometimes)
First start using ardour gimp inkscape libreoffice and blender on windows, then dual boot or use a VM to install Linux and start challenging yourself to use it for real stuff when you can. You may eventually realize you’re using Linux much more than Windows, like when you boot into Windows and every time require a bunch of updates. Eventually your windows will be so out of date you remove it entirely or start using a windows vm.
Depends on what you do. I take care of this .Net 4.2 backend project which is not compatible with Linux in any safe way. For years I used windows and tbf I enjoyed it, but I am back to Linux and I use a VM with Windows on it to run the project on Rider. I have a setup which allows me to use the backend in this VM and the front-end, database and all rest is native on Linux. It works well for me with the downside of RAM usage, but I designed this laptop with this kind of use case in my from the very beginning so 64GB of RAM I have enough room to run the VM and everything else I need and steel have a snappy environment. I like it better this way, Linux has evolved so much in the past years I am honestly very impressed.
Unfortunately alternatives for everything don’t exist. Adobe products, CAD and certain games just will not run under wine. I tried dual booting, but it became too much of a hassle to have to reboot my computer 4-5 times a day
I have the HP envy 360, I have the Ryzen 5000 series not Intel. I’m a software engineering student that also leans heavily into the enthusiast side in terms of any kind of software, and I haven’t ran into anything I can’t do with this. I don’t game on it though so I can’t speak to that, I use other hardware for it. The touchscreen works well, I picked up some styluses for it that have different tips based on what I’m doing and I’ve done anything from note taking to art. I also fold it for watching YouTube and stuff sometimes or reading. The battery life is pretty good, if I’m doing heavy stuff i usually have to plug it in before I hit the end of the day. Lightweight stuff I’ve had it last a couple days.
The laptop comes with windows 11 but I have a dual boot setup. It runs fantastic in Linux or windows, this thing is a little powerhouse. The only issue I had on install of linux (I’m using debian) was that it didn’t recognize my wifi adapter but it wasn’t a hard fix. Otherwise it just feels fantastic to use. Its light, sleek, and stylish in a modern way if those are bonuses for you. Feels good to type on, and has an aluminum case. Other than my steam deck it’s probably my favorite piece of tech I own.
Depends on what you use. I’ve used Linux for 6 years and I’ve never needed any windows exclusive app. I still do have a laptop that’s running windows for just in case. I literally only open it once a week or so to update it, that’s it. For my use case, Linux has everything.
I don’t even have a single computer in my house with Windows on it anymore, and haven’t for years. Even the disused Windows 7 install I had sitting on an SSD gathering dust in a drawer has now been relegated to a disk image file.
You mostly don’t because Linux desktop is kind of a “collective delusion”. You either assume you’ll be using alternatives that aren’t compatible with your current applications and potentially deal with collaboration issues with users of such apps or stick with Windows.
If one lives in a bubble and doesn’t to collaborate with others then native Linux apps might work and might even deliver a decent workflow. Once collaboration with Windows/Mac users is required then it’s game over – the “alternatives” aren’t just up to it.
When it comes to distros I suggest you keep to Debian and use Flatpak to install software - this will give you a rock solid OS with all the latest version of the applications you might want to use. Flatpak apps can be installed from the GNOME Software “store” GUI which makes things really convenient.
Speaking about office, LibreOffice is great, however it isn’t as good as people like to sell it. Take for instance this simple documented I created in MS Word, side-by-side, it can’t even properly display a simple document with some headings and a few bullet points:
Things like that print screen and what is written on the article are the hard facts that people like to avoid and downvote, but it is what it is. Linux is great, but not in most desktop use case scenarios.
The LibreOffice stuff generally has a workaround, even if frustrating. Most general use stuff on Linux is fine (again, not without pain wrt interoperability with my other systems).
My issue with Linux is the stuff that just doesn’t run at all (software and HW). For niche stuff, you can occasionally find a halfway implemented bridge utility made by a well-meaning (and brilliant!) enthusiast, but, in my cases, it either doesn’t work or is too glitchy to be anything more than a effort to see if I can get it to run as opposed to doing the task I set out to do originally. Add to that the fact that your (paid) software and HW is explicitly unsupported and at best at a “you’re on your own” status, and it becomes a high risk proposition.
Make no mistake - trying to get stuff to work is fun in and of itself. I use Linux. It’s fun. It’s breathed fresh life into old machines. It was my daily driver for years. Etc.
Ultimately, I really, really wish more proprietary software and associated HW supported Linux. I’m happy to pay for stuff I need/want that is outside of the FOSS world. But until devs of commercial products recognize the value of investing in Linux, it’s a game of whackamole.
In meantime, I still try to get my stuff to work on Linux. It’s a much better OS, but to successfully run the stuff I need I am confined to Windows (with WSL) - unfortunately.
It’s not messed up, though. It’s just set to a different value.
If the exact amount of paragraph spacing is important to you, you can either set it before you print, share the file as PDF or use a proper layouting software. This isn’t a Linux issue, you should do the same when sharing a file with someone using MS Office.
Because opening a Word document in a different MS Office version than the one it was created with can also mess it up, but somehow businesses deal with that.
Your yardstick for a usable desktop system is “every detail and default setting in all software needs to be exactly the same as on the Windows equivalent”.
So by definition only Windows can ever be a usable desktop system. No matter how good anything else may be.
The amount of times I’ve had this argument in the office is untrue. I think the default values aren’t stored in the docx file or something like that, but when you manually set a value it does store it in the docx.
Then you have the whole proprietary blobs in a “open” standard to deal with.
The worst offenders are people who format with tabs and spaces and wonder why it’s all messed up.
It’s not messed up, though. It’s just set to a different value. If the exact amount of paragraph spacing is important to you, you can either set it before you print, share the file as PDF or use a proper layouting software. This isn’t a Linux issue, you should do the same when sharing a file with someone using MS Office.
You’re missing the point, if you get a document from a MS Office user you can’t simply view it or print it and assume the result will be what the user intended it to be. Same applies in reverse if you make changes to the document. This makes LibreOffice unsuitable and not a real alternative.
Your yardstick for a usable desktop system is “every detail and default setting in all software needs to be exactly the same as on the Windows equivalent”.
No, the problem is that most people on this post want it both ways, want to say that LibreOffice is 100% perfect and can fit 100% of uses cases and be used for collaboration and at the same time say stuff like you said “It’s not messed up, though. It’s just set to a different value.”. Its one thing or the other, not both.
And for what’s worth is shouldn’t be “set to a different value” because it breaks compatibility and LibreOffice say it does the best they can to ensure compatibility with MS Office formats.
You’re missing the point, if you get a document from a MS Office user you can’t simply view it or print it and assume the result will be what the user intended it to be.
You’re missing the point. You can’t assume that even if both use MS Office, either. Cause one of the users could have changed a setting, or use Office Online, or Office for OSX, or an older version, all of which aren’t fully compatible.
MS breaks these things all the time between versions too, without even telling you they’ve updated your Office.
Again, if layout of your end product is important, don’t share .docx files.
Again, if layout of your end product is important, don’t share .docx files.
I know a LOT of people who’ve been doing this since Office 97 and formatting holds across computers. And to be fair it seems to hold a lot better between older and newer versions of MS Office than with LibeOffice.
You guys want to have it both ways, first you’ll say that Office online is the ultimate solution for every Linux user that needs to collaborate with MS Office users and now this. lol
Every single docx file that I opened in a recent LibreOffice version looked exactly as intended. What features specifically are you talking about that dont work?
linux
Top
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.