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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.

Peasley ,

I had no issues with compatibility, just made sure to save documents to older microsoft office formats in the hopes of avoiding issues.

I never had to use an exam browser or anything like that, I’d imagine you’d want to have a polite conversation with the instructor if that were to occur, perhaps they can make an exception or allow you to do it on a library computer

Collaboration was always over google docs, so there were never any problems working with others. My CS classes were all expected to be done in Linux VMs so that was sort of ideal. Other science/humanities classes were totally software-agnostic.

Omega_Jimes ,

I’m doing a CIS degree right now, and I did 99% of my first year on fedora. I did need a full windows install because some exams took place using a lock down software.

Honestly, the hardest part was remembering to boot into windows the day before so it could update and stabilize for the exam the next day

OhNoMoreLemmy , (edited )

Honestly, if you’re sharing office files you’re probably using office 365. This means everything is a web app first and therefore Linux compatible.

I tried using the desktop version of word on a Mac last week, and the latency was so bad on a shared document that I had to switch to the web app anyway.

Basically, if you just want to use Linux you’ll be fine. If instead you don’t want to use Microsoft, you’ll probably have lots of problems.

Microsoft have been brutally effective in getting their tentacles into academic institutes, and you’ll find that everything from email to logging into internal sites relies on an office 365 account.

nickiam2 ,

I had a cis major and I didn’t have issues using Linux all that often. One class we had to write code in VisualStudio, before the Linux version existed. My professor was fine with me using my own IDE as long as the code compiled on Windows, which it did after adding about 3 lines of code to the start.

If we had shared documents they went in Google docs, and libre office, (open office at the time) docs were exported as PDF before submitting. I also had a Windows 10 VM ready to go just in case, but rarely used it.

downhomechunk ,
@downhomechunk@midwest.social avatar

I used linux all through the years I should have been in college, but was instead a hopeless drug addict. I regret nothing!!!

…apart from the drugs…

…and not going to college…

witx ,

It was my college experience. Didn’t use anything else. No issues at all

delirious_owl , (edited )
@delirious_owl@discuss.online avatar

Most of the time it was not an issue. Occasionally a teacher gave us a office document that loaded a bit funky, but it never blocked me from doing my assignments.

Deliverables were PDFs, so it really doesn’t matter what you use.

I do remember having to learn some ghostscript command so that I could edit PDFs and stitch together a bunch of PDFs into one file. It was annoyingly difficult to edit PDFs back then, but I figured it out.

clark OP ,
@clark@midwest.social avatar

Forgive the stupid question but I just want to be sure. If I write a document in LibreOffice and use a bunch of fonts and fancy stuff, then send it as a PDF to a MOffice user, they will be able to see all the fonts and such?

delirious_owl , (edited )
@delirious_owl@discuss.online avatar

No question is stupid.

If the font is included in the PDF file, yes. This is how PDF is designed to work. The whole point is that PDFs should look identical on all platforms

clark OP ,
@clark@midwest.social avatar

Super! I won’t have any issue submitting assignments then. Only trouble of course would be live collaboration, but I can always use MOffice web-version for that.

delirious_owl ,
@delirious_owl@discuss.online avatar

Or etherpad

The_Zen_Cow_Says_Mu ,

It was 1993, so not super impressed, but I needed a tex distribution, and PC dos tex sucked. The best option was a Nextcube, but that was a little out of reach being as much as tuition. Or use the x terminals in the crowded computer lab (shudder).

But I was able to keep that slackware install up and working just long enough to get my thesis done.

artinel ,

Software engineering student here. Well we had a course about Microsoft excel but i used Libreoffice and almost got a full mark. There were no problem with lessons like Advanced programming (C#) and Data structure (C and C++) and few others with languages like python and php. There has been few courses that requires softwares that are not available on linux(Cisco packet tracer and Proteus) but wine solved the problem perfectly. Back in high school i even managed to run Visual Studio but it was hard tbh. I don’t know about what they teach on the other countries colleges but i think you should mostly be fine with linux and wine.

lnxtx , (edited )
@lnxtx@feddit.nl avatar

Ex CS student. I’m on 100 % Linux, even back then.
Huge advantage in the Linux/Unix, networking labs.

The main issues were Matlab (Octave is kinda ok, but must be tested before you submit your project),
FPGA simulator - Altera (no alternatives, but it can be run on a Windows VM),
3ds Max - must be run on bare-metal Windows (maybe GPU passthrough to a VM will work),
some old weird software,
C getch() on Linux.

No problems with MS Office, I can run whatever I want, just exported it to the PDF.
No heavy formatting in drafts helps with a group project.

anon5621 ,
@anon5621@lemmy.ml avatar

Not really :)) gist.github.com/…/f910701ea912f03b73a1d0895d213b0…

IrritableOcelot ,

MATLAB works fine on linux for me these days. Some weird small text on hiDPI screens, but its fixable. I’ve only tested on Debian based distros though.

Metype ,
@Metype@lemmy.world avatar

Almost everything was web based. Being in computer science i did have to write code and compile executables that my TAs running Windows could run; so it wasn’t perfectly smooth. There was also Respondus Lockdown, but I could borrow a laptop from the library to use it.

Integrate777 ,

It went great. I mostly had to submit files in PDF, which allowed any office software to work perfectly.

That is until covid came around and I had to do proctored online exams. The proctoring software doesn’t support linux.

Diplomjodler3 ,

I used UNIX on a greenscreen terminal at university before Windows was even released. There were no compatibility problems because nobody used computers outside of CS departments. And now get off my lawn, damn kids!

fernlike3923 ,
@fernlike3923@sh.itjust.works avatar

I would use OnlyOffice instead of LibreOffice since it has better overall compatibility with MS Office and overall better UX.

featured , (edited )

I’ve loved Linux for college. Studying CS and Math, graduating soon. Just know your requirements software wise and be prepared to find workarounds or dual boot if necessary. I never had to dual boot but I was able to use Google docs or the browser version of office for anything requiring office formatting or collaborative work. I also couldn’t download some testing software on Linux (respondus lockdown browser 🤢) and used a school desktop in the library to run that when necessary. I love my workflow though outside of those niggles and couldn’t ask for a better research and development OS

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