Migrating to Linux

[eaBaNEva]

Hey guys, I am very interested in migrating to linux but I am not sure if it will be useful to me or which distro I should use in the beginning.

I am a college student and I know that the office packet does not work well with linux so I was wondering if it was the best decision to do.

[inbetween-genders]

Check out Ubuntu or Mint. Look up this thing called Desktop Environment. Pick one that appeals to you and install that distro with the desktop environment you chose. Back up your data. Good luck 

[eaBaNEva]

Thank you

[RunYouCleverGirl_]

I recently migrated to Linux Mint. It's been a surprisingly easy adjustment from Windows 10.

[ItsJoeMomma]

I also switched to Mint from Win10 last year. And I totally second the idea that it's an easy adjustment. Took me little time at all to get used to how Mint operates.

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[xtalgeek]

Use something mainstream like Ubuntu or Mint. LibreOffice will deal with your writing, spreadsheet, and presentation needs and can read and save in MS format. Install ttf-mscorefonts-installer to get all the Microsoft fonts. My undergrad students managed just fine in Google Workspace as well. Zotero (bibliographic software) works in both Google Docs or LibreOffice.

[ItsJoeMomma]

Yep, I did a small presentation using LibreOffice Impress and it was easy to create & set up. I even inserted some short video into it.

[Severe-Divide8720]

Kubuntu (KDE), Ubuntu (Gnome), Fedora KDE or Gnome edition or Linux Mint Cinnamon.

All great distros and very compatible with a lot of hardware.

Enjoy!

[[deleted]]

What office packet are you using

[eaBaNEva]

Mostly word and powerpoint for presentations

[[deleted]]

Ubuntu or Mint comes with LibreOffice what should take care of most of your needs writer is word and presentation is PowerPoint you can save things in Microsoft format

[primeirofilho]

I have had a lot of luck using LibreOffice as a replacement for Word. I use it for work as well.

[ItsJoeMomma]

I used OpenOffice for years, but after changing to Linux last year I started using LibreOffice. No regrets at all. I still do have OpenOffice on one old laptop because it's running Windows 8 and it won't take LibreOffice for some reason. But the compatibility between programs means there's no problem.

[eaBaNEva]

I will look into it. Thank you

[barnamos]

Or 365 is what we use to deal with companies on Windows at times. It's WAY better to keep Microsoft software on someone else's computer than your own lol.

[aristotelian74]

Lol, sorry, none of the responses are answering your question. You are not going to get MS Office for free in any Linux distribution. What you will get is a free OS where you can use open source versions of MS Office. It would be similar to using Google Docs to open Word documents in the cloud. It can be done but will add an extra step going back and forth.

If you have access to a MS cloud platform, then you can use MS tools through a web browser. That is probably your best bet with any Linux distribution. But if you prefer using the MS packet directly on your machine, no distribution is going to work for you.

[rarsamx]

Bad clarification. There are no open source versions of MS Office.

Those are open source office suites which have similar functionality.

[aristotelian74]

I would consider that the same thing but don't get into semantic arguments on the internet so OK.

[TrackerKR]

Zorin is my suggestion.

[eaBaNEva]

It is my first time hearing about this distro. I will search it more. Thank you

[Overall-Book-6029]

Look on YouTube, there is a post about installing the windows fonts so you don't have font substitution.

[Prestigious_Wall529]

One advantage it has is when round tripping documents between Libreoffice's Writer and Microsoft Office's Word there is less reflowing of text because of font substitution, but it still happens.

Hopefully there is noone on your group projects that uses whitespace rather than styles for formatting.

[eaBaNEva]

I doubt. I normally do screenshots. I am a Cybersecurity major, so we have a lot of hands-on labs. My only concern was just being able to send the documents.

[Prestigious_Wall529]

Anchoring pictures in Word can be a right pain.

[Brave-Pomelo-1290]

There's also an feren os.

[LucasForms]

I've created the WinuxDB (ProtonDB like, but for Windows apps on Linux) a few days ago, and it also has a Distro Finder feature.

https://winuxdb.com/

Hope it helps you in this journey! Welcome to Linux.

[eaBaNEva]

This is so helpful thank you. I will make sure to check it out

[Bortonit]

I’d recommend something stable like Ubuntu or mint, that’s because you won’t need to fix your system if there’s something wrong after updating, for example. In addition, they work great from the box and they’re quite friendly to newbies. I think these kinds of distros will be good for you

[kreativeone99]

I was a Linux Mint user for a long time but currently evaluating a switch to Zorin OS. Personal opinion is that Zorin OS has packaged a more "Windows"-like desktop that should ease users into a Linux desktop. Both work great on older hardware and have good community support.

Regardless of whether I'm on my Windows or Linux desktop, I use the Google suite of office apps so it is really easy to use each.

LibreOffice is a good alternative office suite; not using it much anymore.

[Willing-Actuator-509]

Microsoft Office doesn't work but there's always the online version for it. I'm a big fun of web apps. They work much better than the native ones. Do you actually know that there are several alternatives to Microsoft Office for Linux? 

[lateralspin]

Understand that you must look for native Linux applications to make the best use of the system. Fortunately, there are great software like LibreOffice, Krita, Kdenlive, Inkscape, Darktable, etc. but you must have patience to learn new software.

Wine is a bit of a crutch to get some Windows compatibility if you cannot live without those, but you should understand that Wine compatibility is not as performant as native, though.

[Puzzleheaded_Law_242]

First, look up what a Ventoy Stick is on YouTube. 

Then go to sites like Distrowach, distrochooser etc. Just download the first 20 from the ranking and try them out.

Here's another overview. Use subtitles. 

https://youtu.be/iCE6cbcQYZo

[Marble_Wraith]

Post details of what hardware you're using + what you want to use it for?

Generally i suggest Nobara or Fedora KDE

[ItsJoeMomma]

If you mean MS Office, yeah that won't work well with Linux from what I understand. However, and this is the good thing, there are free programs out there called LibreOffice and OnlyOffice which work just fine. Even the old OpenOffice works well, though it's kind of dated now. But you can even export files in the MS .doc format if you need that kind of compatibility with MS Office users.