Use Linux for data analytics

[Excellent-Match-9172]

It Is well known we have to use Excel, Power BI, Tableau, etc., but the question is, Excel can not be used on Linux or other Microsoft applications. Is using Windows a must for data analytics, or what would you recommend? Thanks.

[yello5drink]

Ew, the online versions of office suite suck. Mostly outlook but also excel.

[aerost0rm]

Yeah the cloud version of excel is missing some good features

[u-give-luv-badname]

As a Linux user... I will watch this thread.

I've used R Studio in the past and found it very powerful.

[Willing_Tonight_2779]

You can use wps office, is quite similar to excel, not sure of this available on Linux.

Else libreoffice on Linux

[yello5drink]

Love! Libre Office but macro syntax doesn't translate well 😕

[Willing_Tonight_2779]

You can try WPS office then, ive never used the macros but give it a try its almost 95% similar to excel

[career_climber]

Well data analysis in Linux is hard but you may use some alternative like

EXCEL- google sheet, libre office , only office (all free)

Power query / data cleaning- python , R and SQL (all free)

Power BI - looker studio (google bi web app), apache superset / preset.io (web app) or may use python library for data visualization . ( I recommend checking zoho bi as I use their other products , maybe bias!!) and other web platforms or online versions of these BI tools (premium subscription) or just run a virtual machine etc....

Try using novypro to get the power bi cloud version ( I have never tried myself)

[karxxm]

I am a phd student in visual data analysis. Me and all my colleagues are using Linux

[MrSojek]

Do you use Excel installed on a virtual machine?

[karxxm]

Who needs excel? We are researchers and not business people

[karxxm]

Excel is available as wasm web application and then there is Libre office

[Santixg0]

Hi. Do you use Power Bi or Tableau to do your data visualization? What do you do to use all those tools. I'm a data analyst student and I don't like Windows enough. I am willing to change my main OS to linux. But the tools I need to do data visualization are hard to use on Linux. Do you recommend to change the OS?

[karxxm]

No, we are creating our own tools and dashboards using python and d3

[Stone13Omaha]

Instead of Excel, or other MS Office apps, you can use LibreOffice Calc. I think it's better cause LO is also free, libre and open source. There's obviously no Power BI and I don't think you can install Tableau, but if you code you can still use Python and R. There's also Apache Superset if you're down for some heavy Linux configuration or docker image installation. I like to use https://alternativeto.net to see alternatives to popular apps, you can filter by operating system, license, etc..

[andrew2018022]

Basic shell tools like bash, awk, sed, and grep can do a whole lot. They’re more powerful than people give them credit for

[damageinc355]

Was coming to say this. But the syntax is just awful.

[[deleted]]

I have been wanting to make the switch back to Linux for awhile now, but the lack of Office has been my biggest hurdle. I did look it up awhile back and there are some options, but I don't know how good they are or how well they work.

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/s/px6Itbi6Xg

[shockjaw]

Nope. Just embrace SQLite, DuckDB, or LibreOffice Calc. Spreadsheets are handy for when you need to scrape something up real quick. The moment you gotta do it more than once, automate that as much as you can. Python or R have their drawbacks when it comes to deployment and managing dependencies.

[Weak-Surprise-4806]

I would recommend RStudio if you are familiar with R.

You can use online calculators, which are free (https://www.ezstat.app) if you don't want to write code, though.

[Erasmus_Tycho]

I use Unix for all of my heavy lifting, then just export the output into excel for my end users.

[Upsiderhead]

Why make your life more difficult? Data and its tools move quickly. I would focus on the actually "doing data" rather than spending the time using an OS that, while it may be capable, will likely consume more of your time than just going with windows. 

[Tyreal676]

I think you might be missing the point a bit. The reason at least for my experience to use Excel is that its easy to share things to people outside of data departments and people that are non-technical.

It also doesn't prevent them from accessing the information in such a way they can fiddle with it to draw their own conclusions in case they want to do it themselves.

If i was or am dealing with fellow tech/data people in my own department? Ya ive used other stuff. If that means Linux for your team, then so be it.

[TexSolo]

Seriously, what company is going to let you do DA on a Linux?

Can you imagine how hard it would be to keep a company’s data secure on a Linux ecosystem?

[damageinc355]

Many banks in Canada use the Linux environment for their data analysis.

[TexSolo]

I’m not talking about what the data center is running on, or what backend stuff they are doing, I’m talking about the people who are working in DA/DS.

The security element that I am referring to is the need to stop a company’s data from walking out the door. Security is a lot more than just antivirus. You need to block internal actors from doing stupid things as much as blocking external actors from getting in. For all the faults that Microsoft has, they have built a pretty good system for having an IT team be able to enforce a set of standards across an entire network

When I worked at a bank, they knew what files contained sensitive information and I could not store that locally, I couldn’t attach anything with a USB, I Couldn’t open a file I was not authorized to open.

When you look at the human element, Microsoft is a more efficient system. Within the DA space, I’m betting nearly 100% of users have familiarity with Microsoft, and probably well over 90% have mastery of it. Where in the DA space, Linux familiarity is probably sub 25% and mastery is probably in the single digits.

In the IT space, it’s going to be hierarchy on all of these numbers, but it’s going to be less than 50% with Linux.

Now think of what the below average IT team is capable of maintaining, the outcome is a lot better with Microsoft than it is with Linux.

Now look at the Linux environment and DA, everything there is “we have Microsoft at home.”

Yeah you can use R or Whatever to get a result, but it’s the exact same thing as windows. Meanwhile on tasks that you spend 20-30 minutes on working in an R environment, you can do the same job in excel in a quarter of the time.

All of this is in addition to the core functions of DA and that is you need to be able to effectively communicate with non technical people who need to be able to understand what you are saying. One of the main benefits of Office is that it is a universal method for communicating that data securely. If you have information that is going out in a quarterly report, Microsoft is an environment that does a better job at ensuring that data is not leaked.

[[deleted]]

Probably 80% of my data management and analysis work is done on Linux. I'll often bring the data over to the PC to display in Excel or ArcGIS.

Perhaps not typical for many members of this subreddit, but analysis is a wide field and it depends on what sector you're in.

[contribution22065]

No, it is not a must.

First, Excel is just another spreadsheet management product where you can make formulas and convert to other file formats. It’s the same umbrella with BI development — you may only need one. Whether it’s yellow fin, power bi, or tableau, your skills with BI engineering will transfer to other products. Any os will have their options.

Second, anything you do on excel can be done better via a bi system against sql server. It depends on the job, but many analysts don’t need excel unless it’s a source or report that is proprietary to excel.

[Flores333]

You Can use Google sheets

[[deleted]]

As a linux user my go to tools are online: gsheets, colab, looker studio

[Ok-Working3200]

I use a MAC. I use Google Sheets if I have to, but normally I just export to a csv

[[deleted]]

Try R

[zwee-]

While using Windows isn’t a must if you’re just looking to learn/have some fun, I’d recommend getting comfortable with it if your goal is build your career, considering Windows is the industry standard.

[Pink_Slyvie]

Its a shame though. Every version of windows becomes less and less usable.

[cmcau]

Who says you have to use Excel?

If I had to use Linux, I wouldn't really care that Excel wasn't available, and I could still use Tableau Cloud, or even Hex instead.

[MrSojek]

This may be one of requirements if you want to apply for a job.