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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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How was your experience using Linux in college? (midwest.social)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

I've been using exclusively Linux since high school, and now I'm doing a PhD in math. It's always been pretty smooth. I used to have a separate Windows rig for gaming, but don't really need it anymore, now that Proton works very well with most games. (I don't really play AAA games, so that helps.)

Coming to the point, for academic stuff, I mostly needed to use a PDF reader (Zathura and qPdfView), LaTeX, and some computation and graphing software (mostly SageMath). I sometimes needed to use DOCX files, but LibreOffice works well for that. Most other software I need from time to time are usually Linux native.

Also, many universities provide access to O365. I've used it in some rare cases where I needed to provide input in some collaborative document. But in most cases, I was able to convince my friends/colleagues to use Google Docs instead.

Unless you do CAD, or some creative work, Linux should be perfect for your usecase.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

I had a Maths Prof who used Mint so this kinda checks out

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

FreeCAD should be fine too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Blender and openscad works great also

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm surprised you use Google. I would assume people on Linux are avoiding big tech as much as possible. I personally don't use a Google account so I just use the o365 school account to edit collab documents

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

I dislike both. But since Google Docs is free, it's easier to use everywhere and with all kinds of groups.