How was your experience using Linux in college?

Wild Bill@midwest.social to Linux@lemmy.ml – 152 points –

This is aimed at students/ex-students that used Linux while studying in college.

I'm asking because I'll be starting college next year and I don't know how much Windows-dependency to expect (will probably be studying to become a psychologist, so no technical education).

I'm also curious about how well LibreOffice and Microsoft Office mesh, i.e. can you share and edit documents together with MOffice users if you use LibreOffice?

Any other things to keep in mind when solely using Linux for your studies? Was it ever frustrating for you to work on group projects with shared documents? Anything else? Give me your all.

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Just finished my Master's this year.

I belonged to the Department of Computer Science at a university in the UK so granted there's a lot of bias here:

I will point out a few observations, without going into much detail or reasoning:

  1. Microsoft's Office suite was a non-requirement. For collaboration, everyone was using Google's Office suite (Google Docs, Sheets) or Overleaf (Premium if we signed up with our university email).
  2. Around half (maybe more) were MacOS users, maybe 25-25% split between Linux and Windows.
  3. Lots of iPads, particularly in any Maths classes.

Anything else to keep in mind? Yes, that people are ignorant. Even in our CS department people used to actively avoid using Linux, a lot of people will buy Macbooks because of reasons I would attribute more to the demographics of CS students, i.e. primarily from Asian countries where Apple is seen as a economic symbol.

Be prepared for people to judge you (not saying they should, but that they likely will). If you want to avoid this judgement, get an Apple silicon Macbook Air or something. However, I commend you for going out of your way to learn and wanting to reduce your dependency on Windows. I think that learning to be comfortable with the machine will help you in the future, most likely indirectly.

Lastly, keep in mind that when we have discussions about privacy or Linux or not supporting big tech companies who we might not agree with (e.g. Microsoft, Google, Apple etc) it's never a binary problem. You might find that you will end up relying on teams for internal communication or that your university email is with outlook/office365.

Try and do your bit, but don't be too harsh on yourself. :)

Needless to say, if you're looking for a laptop that runs Linux well plenty of people will tell you to buy a used thinkpad (great from a value perspective), or if you'd prefer some of the new kidz stuff then a Tuxedo notebook.

Do not make the mistake of buying a notebook which doesn't have a reputation of good Linux support. I bought a HP notebook (can't quite remember the model number right now but can get back to you) and still no sound without manual kernel module patch :D

If you want to avoid this judgement, get an Apple silicon Macbook Air or something...

Or save a few bucks, buy whatever laptop in silver, cover the logo with a sticker, and use elementaryOS or theme your DE to be Mac-like.

(Great advice, btw)

If you want to avoid this judgement (being a Linux user)

We're here, we're queer, Linux is top gear!

If you want to avoid this judgement, get an Apple silicon Macbook Air or something...

Damn, me over here trying to flex my Chicago95-ass X201T to my classmates