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How was your experience using Linux in college?

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.

leopold ,

I was doing computer science and we were asked or recommended to use the following pieces of software:

Didn’t really have any problems using Linux. Might be different if you need other software, tho.

Zangoose ,

I’m a CS student and Linux was great for all of the programming classes. For any classes that were more writing focused you can still use the online versions of MS office/Google drive. I’m assuming there aren’t any programs you’ll need specific to psychology but that is sometimes a problem with some STEM majors like engineering

The one problem that kept me dual-booting on my laptop was OneNote. I like taking notes using a pen for some classes (and my laptop has pen support) and nothing I tried on Linux even comes close in my experience. I tried obsidian + excalidraw plugin, along with xournalpp, but nothing came close for the way I take notes.

BCsven ,

Linux was just being invented when I was in college… But if your profs want certain files traded as MS documents Windows will make your life easier. While docx is opened/saved by LibreOffice etc, there are formatting things that can trip you up like default margins, missing fonts (on either end of use) this means what you send somebody may not open and look as intended (even if the issue is actually on the MS user end). It makes things frustrating unless they only want pdf. Also powerpoints get wonky too.

possiblylinux127 ,

Turning in a docx is very bad practice. It is best to convert to PDF for both security and compatibility. Docx are never going to render properly in the browser.

Spiralvortexisalie ,

Many of the online dropboxes for assignments render docx (and pdf files) and many instructors will want the docx for the metadata display (ie author, time taken to complete assignment, etc).

possiblylinux127 ,

The metadata is very easy to spoof and it pretty much arbitrary. Docx isn’t a standard format in practice if you are using Word. It is sort of fine with other programs but PDF is best.

Spiralvortexisalie ,

Docx is the literal default format for Microsoft Word for almost 20 years now. PDF can be whatever, but if it is not what you were instructed to turn in, thats a failure no matter how close to your original intent it renders.

Lrobie ,

I had a great time. I studied electrical engineering and my department had moved from using Matlab to Python which made my life a lot easier. There was one class where we had to use a Matlab library but I was able to use Octave with the library. There weren’t any other programs we had to install there weren’t compatible with Linux. A lot of classes just required a web browser, no additional software, so no issues there.

superkret ,

I was forced to. I had no money and needed a PC for my studies.
A roommate gifted me his old desktop with OpenSUSE.
For at least 2 days I googled various forms of “how to install programs on Linux” and got more and more frustrated, cause all I found was stuff you had to compile yourself, or things called “packages”. But I didn’t want “packages”, I wanted programs.
On the third day I found the YaST package manager and was immediately blown away by the fact you could search, download and install everything you need without hunting it down on various websites.
That was 20 years ago. Been on Linux ever since.

nexussapphire ,

😄I don’t want packages I want programs. That’s like a Mac user saying I don’t want programs I want applications. Booting up a Mac and saying where’s my god dam exe, why doesn’t anything work.

No offense it’s just funny.

lethal ,

I studied Computing Sciences and switched to Linux in my second year. I’ll skip the computing science specifics, but my overall experience was really good.

First of all, know that when you install a Linux based OS on your laptop, that you are fully responsible to make sure it works. In a BYOD exam, I had to unzip virtual machine hard disks and import them, and something went wrong. I ended up not being able to do the first try of the exam. So be sure you know how to get around and do whatever you need to do, even the specifics.

I tried to make MS office work on Fedora and got it to work using WinApps. However turning on and off a Windows virtual machine all the time you need office takes time. I found it not worth the hassle. LibreOffice can save documents in .docx format, however, there are some compatibility issues where documents don’t look the same on your/your group’s end. I have stuck to OnlyOffice which looks very similar to Windows and has very good compatibility. If you want to live edit with friends you can use Google Docs or the web version of Microsoft Office.

My university is invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, the administrators disabled the use of third party mail clients. I had to use the web client of outlook. Minor inconvenience but one to take in to account nonetheless.

If an app is not available you can always create a web app from the web browser so you can get the web version.

If you run in to an application you need, but is not available as a package of your distribution (deb, rpm, flatpak, snap, appimage etc), you might be able to translate it with Wine, an application like Bottles should make this quite easy, as long as it’s a simple application. Worst case scenario you need a Windows VM and install it in there.

If you need more specifics let us know. Good luck on your journey!

ipacialsection ,
@ipacialsection@startrek.website avatar

LibreOffice has opened every DOC(X) the school has sent me, albeit imperfectly, and all assignments are turned in as PDFs, which I usually make using Markdown and LaTeX. I have had to use Office 365 for collaboration, but only about twice a year, and that runs very smoothly in Firefox. On one occasion I tried to collaborate with CryptPad, but it didn’t work as well as I hoped.

Most computer labs at my uni run Windows 10, rarely 11, but a lot of the science labs run Linux.

The most frustrating thing has been the lockdown browser used for some exams. My university library has computers I can borrow for exams, but yours might not, and they detect VMs, so you might have to dual boot for that.

clark OP ,
@clark@midwest.social avatar

Oh yeah, I didn’t think of the lockdown browser. I’m in Sweden, so I should only hope our education has come so far that I’ll be able to borrow a spare Windows computer.

variants ,

If computer has a removable drive you could just get a second drive and run windows on that if you really need to for some reason

ipacialsection ,
@ipacialsection@startrek.website avatar

If my American university has a system in place for students that don’t own Windows, I would not be surprised if yours has a better one :)

BilboBargains ,

I got no pussy

gerdesj ,

It didn’t exist!

baldingpudenda ,

Currently in college. They are agnostic as it’s all turned in on PDF files, quizzes on browser, etc but my online classes require I install some root kit program to make sure I’m not cheating and it detects if it’s on a VM. I talked to IT and they let me borrow a laptop with windows. Slow as hell, but I only need it for the online tests so 4 times a semester.

kionite231 ,

It is pretty good actually. I can install every programming language compiler/interpreter in Linux and everything just work fine.

LibereOffice should work fine if you work on it and export it to pdf. If you want to bounce between LiberOffice and msoffice then don’t expect things to go smoothly.

Any other things to keep in mind when solely using Linux for your studies Go for a stable distro like Debian, don’t install bleeding edge distro like Arch or Gentoo unless you really want to.

clark OP ,
@clark@midwest.social avatar

From what I have heard, the most beginner-friendly distros are Fedora, Mint, and Pop!OS, but I’ll be looking at and comparing Debian as well.

solidgrue ,
@solidgrue@lemmy.world avatar

Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) is a solid pick. All thenperks and integration of Mint, without Ubuntu.

…Ubuntu which, yes, is a Debian downstream. People have their opinions on it. It works. It has its nuisances, but it works.

ProtonBadger ,

I haven’t used either, just curious; what kind of difference is there between regular Ubuntu based Mint and LMDE? I thought it was mostly just more recent packages with the Ubuntu base?

solidgrue ,
@solidgrue@lemmy.world avatar

Functionally they’re no different. LMDE draws its packages from Debian (probably stable) repos while mainline Mint draws from Ubuntu’s. So yes, Mint will have overall newer packages than LMDE but it’s generally rare for that to affect your ability to get work done unless some new feature you were waiting for gets introduced.

Ubuntu is the Enterprise fork of Debian backed by Canonical, and as such have contributed some controversy into the ecosystem.

Ubuntu leverages Snap packages which are considered ‘bloaty’ and ‘slow’ by a plurality of people with opinions on these matters. They work. Mint incorporates the Snap store into their package management. You might just need to turn it on in the settings.

With mainline Mint you get new base OS packages with Ububtu’s release cycle, and the Snap store.

In the case of LMDE then, you can run a stable base OS on Debian’s rock-solid foundation, their release cycle, and still get your fresh software from the Snap store.

IMO, they’re the same for like 85% of use cases. I find I end up going to extra measures to disable certain Ubuntu-isms on my own systems that run it, effectively reverting it to Debian by another name.

As a student and occasional gamer, the trade off is having a stable base for your learning needs, and still be able to get the latest user desktop apps from Snap.

electric_nan ,

Depends on your school/classes. I had no problems. Last school I attended used MS for email etc. I got a discounted license for Office which I was able to access in the browser if/whenever LibreOffice wasn’t a good option.

possiblylinux127 ,

I tried to use MS office but Libreoffice is easier

82cb5abccd918e03 ,

My freshman year I had a windows VM, only for WeChat and MS Teams, but by 2nd year WeChat got Linux support and MS Teams can now run in the browser, so I deleted the VM halfway through 2nd year. Zoom can also run in the browser.

Also a good idea to make sure your microphone and camera works.

And don’t update if there’s a deadline coming up soon since it might break.

None of my professors required anything to be submitted as .docx. Every single general education class required PDFs for submissions, and programming classes were usually submitted by pushing to code to a Git repository. Group projects were all done in Google Drive which runs in the browser, otherwise latex usually worked (one prof even required latex). I never used LibreOffice, but I’m pretty sure it should be fine for PDFs.

Psychology might require a bunch of proprietary statistical analysis software that probably won’t support Linux. I would say a windows VM is best for that. Although R is fine on Linux. I was in computer science so none of my classes required proprietary software. In total over every single class I think only C, C++, Haskell, and Python interpreters/compilers were needed which are all free software. In some of my classes professors said they would refuse to help anyone on Windows if they weren’t using an Ubuntu VM. One even said he would subtract points if anyone asked a question about windows. One crazy prof said he would fail you from the class if he saw you developing in Windows instead of the VM. Also any classes that require Docker are going to be way easier on Linux. Some of my friends were electrical engineers and they had to use some big proprietary IDE’s for flashing binaries to micro controllers which didn’t support Linux, but they were using Windows anyways. Also any CAD software almost certainly won’t work, a VM is needed for that.

If you do use a windows VM or dual boot or whatever, make sure to pirate Windows 10 LTSC since it has the least default applications installed and will run faster.

possiblylinux127 ,

Don’t pirate anything as that is bad for all sorts of reasons.

phrogpilot73 ,
@phrogpilot73@lemmy.world avatar

I used nothing but Linux for my Master’s and am currently using it for my doctorate. I’ve been full-time on Linux for over 10 years.

I did find that OnlyOffice played better with MS Office than LibreOffice. I also use the school’s Office 365 that they provided me to open my finished files in the web version to verify the formatting matched. There was only one time it didn’t.

possiblylinux127 , (edited )

It depends on the college and the region honestly. Remember they are trying to prepare you for a job.

With that being said Linux tends to be pretty popular in high end especially in computer science. Mac OS and of course Windows also have a foothold. I would get into virtualization and distrobox (podman). Even if something is natively supported on Linux is best not to pollute your system with junk. Create separate environments for everything.

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