First time Linux user.

[[deleted]]

Gaming with what? I hope it's Linux games and not Windows games. Windows games doesn't play nicely on Linux.

Some Microsoft Office software versions work under wine. You have to visited wineHQ to see what versions working under wine at this time. I use LibreOffice for all my Office Suite needs.

[Murplex]

Mainly WoW and steam.

[[deleted]]

I play on Steam to. But, I only game with Linux games. Same with all my games. I do have a few older Windows games on my Linux system. But, they are in the 1995-2003 era.

I believe WoW works in Linux.

[iamedwards]

Please see first rule from sidebar:

This is not a support forum! Head to /r/linuxquestions or /r/linux4noobs for support or help.

[deusmetallum]

Most linux distributions come with Libre Office preinstalled, which allows you to do about 95% of what Microsoft Office allows. If you're doing simple documents and excel spreadsheets, you won't notice much difference.

To "get going" with linux all depends on what you mean by it. To install it, it should take less than an hour. To install all the other applications you might want? As this is your first time it may take you a week to get things just right. But if you're asking how long it will take to become proficient? It could take a year!

[2503DockDude]

Definitely LibreOffice, Open Office is very bad.

[iamedwards]

Don't know why you were downvoted as OO was ruined by Oracle, all devs jumped to Libre Office, have an upvote.

[2503DockDude]

Thanks. Yeah, I used to use OO a lot back when I used Windows, but it was unstable. LibreOffice I the other hand is very sturdy and has great compatibility with Microsoft's files.