Opinions on usage of Linux at college?
Posted by TheTurkPegger@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 88 comments
I used to use Linux a couple of years ago on my Dell G15 and it was absolutely wonderful (Arch with KDE), so you may be wondering "If you were happy about it, why are you even asking this question".
Well, first of all I was not at college back then, and now I use a different laptop (Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 14IMH9). I'm not concerned about connectivity between devices or what programs I can run on Linux, but I'm concerned about the PowerPoint and Word documents that I send to my professors every week. I'm studying to become a teacher, thus you may understand why these documents are so important for me. Sometimes, I'm literally graded based on these documents.
I'm afraid that a Word or a PowerPoint document that I send to one of my professors may not be compatible with Windows. For example, an essay that I've written on my Linux laptop may not work on my professor's Windows laptop for some random compatibility issue. I don't think that there will be any problems on my side, but rather on my professors' side because I don't think that none of my professors, except maybe one of them, have any idea about Linux let alone having used any distro at any point in their lives.
Also, sometimes I have to do presentations and/or give lectures, so I'm scared that the projector that I have to use may not work with my PC for some random reason.
So, I would really appreciate it if you guys could help me with this situation.
ThatRedDerg@reddit
Can’t say for your school, but I can’t remember a turn-in in college that did not accept a pdf. Lots of students used LaTeX. (This was an engineering school, tho).
The main issue comes from exams. Many schools will have you use a lockdown browser or something to mitigate cheating, and they’re not compatible with Linux.
PseudorandomNoise404@reddit
The school probably has a computer lab you can use for situations like that.
wildcarde815@reddit
and a good chunk are going back to hand written 'no phones' tests.
DoubleOwl7777@reddit
mine was always like this. a professor explained it to us recently. if they used computers, theyd have to grade it based on if the code compiles 100% perfectly or not. if it doesnt you fail. having the students write the code on paper means they get a lot more leeway concerning grading.
baronas15@reddit
Have you ever used your own hardware during an exam? Usually you just show up in a computer class and use theirs
ThatRedDerg@reddit
I have, lol
Depends on the professor/university rules/etc. this was during Covid so that may explain it. I know paper exams were regaining popularity post-covid, but there were definitely still times we did exams on our computers in-class.
baronas15@reddit
That's interesting, I finished in the "before times", didn't know it was a thing
meditonsin@reddit
The CS department at my uni was PDF or go home and almost everyone uses LaTeX. One of the mandatory intro classes teaches LaTeX, and some classes provide LaTeX templates for assignments.
TheTurkPegger@reddit (OP)
All of our exams have always been physical. However, they do make us write essays as a way of examination.
My school does have a computer lab that I can use though.
TheseLeague6698@reddit
this
fr projector thing is real pain
doey77@reddit
Might depend on the school but when we had those exams they had lab computers for students without the ability to use a personal computer
DoubleOwl7777@reddit
my college actually encourages using linux. but i am studying computer science.
rabbit_in_a_bun@reddit
As long as you have network, you have office 365 in your browser. My workplace uses that and my Firefox is okay with it.
Matheweh@reddit
I coursed two degrees using LibreOffice, and while I can't be completely certain the documents I sent were displayed correctly, no one complained to me about it, so you'll probably be fine.
TheTurkPegger@reddit (OP)
Oh, that's great. Yeah, the HDMI port works flawlessly.
wildcarde815@reddit
Remember you can also use PDF as your document format if the professors accept that, the whole point of that format is it looks the same everywhere.
KeesterFeester@reddit
I just wanted to offer another option. If office compatibility is that big of an issue you can create a windows virtual machine and install office on it then use local send to move your office files from the VM to your linux desktop if you need them on linux. That's how I currently use office on my Dell g15 with fedora. You could also dual boot. Just make sure you use two separate drives.
matt95110@reddit
Use the online version of Office.
TheTurkPegger@reddit (OP)
I've thought about that as well, but I find it to be sluggish.
wildcarde815@reddit
edge browser dedicated to just MS tools, it runs reasonably well. But obviously not native, sadly you can't run office in wine either.
matt95110@reddit
Get a better computer?
TheTurkPegger@reddit (OP)
I mean I'm not talking about performance issues but rather the whole "flow" of the website, and wdym get a better comuter, lmao. I'm a student dude
matt95110@reddit
I’m using Office online right now and it’s not sluggish at all.
pinchaques@reddit
The online version is alright for simple writing tasks but anything complex like adding graphs, pictures, links etc. has caused some problems that don't exist on the app. The online version completely lacks some features.
Anecdote: I tried to write my thesis on online Office but it kept ruining the formatting. Even simple things like page numbers and table of contents were a pain to get working as intended.
TheTurkPegger@reddit (OP)
The website version particularly was sluggish for me. Maybe the problem wasn't the website itself, and I've never had any performance issues with that computer (except the one we're talking about). I've never used it again though, so I'm not sure
7lhz9x6k8emmd7c8@reddit
We're talking about a Microsoft software. Slopped to hell before AI did it.
7lhz9x6k8emmd7c8@reddit
Use it to check and fix the result produced with LibreOffice/Collabora Office/whatever you choose.
Also, don't send docx/pptx/odt/odp. Send PDFs.
MaybeTheDoctor@reddit
Write your stuff using onlyoffice locally on your laptop, and then do a final check with online office before you send it.
TheTurkPegger@reddit (OP)
Yeah, that's a good idea
ThatsALovelyShirt@reddit
Use LibreOffice to make the majority of it, and then import it into online MS office to verify the format or fix any issues.
mrnoonan81@reddit
You can get it in English too.
baronas15@reddit
Any reputable university / college will give an MS365 subscription if they expect you to make such documents. These institutions cost a lot of money, so they must provide everything to do the job.
I used windows during those years, because there were a bunch of obscure tools we had to install for CS, dual booting just didn't appeal to me. But if it was only word documents, I would have switched a few years earlier
ColonialDagger@reddit
Use OnlyOffice or online Office. I have never seen a college assignment not accept a PDF, anyways. I write big reports in Typst which compile to a PDF. Never had any issues, and even got complimented by TA's.
i80west@reddit
I used Linux and Libre Office for years in a big corporation and I occasionally found that Windows users using MS Office had issues with documents and diagrams I sent them. Occasionally Power Point would move a line that was fine in Impress. Fonts are different in documents, although they usually get mapped to reasonable replacements. I got around it by sending PDF files instead of docx etc. But that's no good if the recipient wants to edit and show mark-up comments. I'd worry in college that some class might require a Windows-only application that you can't substitute for on Linux. Some apps have web equivalents but some don't.
Razathorn@reddit
I did it in 1999 on a 486 laptop using gcc for programming class and word perfect for linux, so... unless they have specific windows software requirements where you have to use your own system, I don't see why not. Have to evaluate specifically for your situation.
thephotoman@reddit
You’re in college. It’s time to put Word away and learn LaTeX and start sending things not as readily editable MS Office files, but as more published documents.
As for PowerPoint, LibreOffice is typically Good Enough.
stewie410@reddit
My boss requires that I provide all documentation both internally & provided to the wider company in
.docxformat; because he personally uses Word.Because of that, I've come up with the "workflow" of:
gfmto some other directory, with attachments in a relative./attachmentdirectory.pandocto convert to.docxWhile I've never gotten any complaints about formatting displayed in MSO Word, I know they happen. Unfortunately, the only way to avoid a rendering problem would be to open the document in MSO Word and check.
In your shoes; I would probably do the bulk of the work in LibreOffice; and a final compatibility check in MS365's web apps -- if nothing else as a sanity check.
NeoliberalSocialist@reddit
The way I dealt with not using Microsoft Word was using OnlyOffice and saving directly as a docx file still. Seemed easier/less clunky compared to using docx with LibreOffice.
nisper_ia@reddit
Hi, I'm also studying to be a teacher. If you're very concerned about Word formatting, the best thing you can do is use OnlyOffice (its compatibility is extremely good) or export your files as PDFs, which is the option I use. I stopped using PowerPoint years ago and now I use Canva.
TheTurkPegger@reddit (OP)
Thank you so much. I'm on Windows 11 right now and even I use Canva because PowerPoint is just so bad.
nisper_ia@reddit
That's one less problem, really. Again, if you're already used to the workflow of Word, the best option is to try OnlyOffice. It has a very similar UI, and as I mentioned, its compatibility with .docx files is excellent. I believe it's available in the AUR for Arch, although you can also get it via AppImage or Flatpak
QuillAndCraft@reddit
You could also use Google Workspace. It gives options to download in Microsoft Office format and you can also upload MS Office files to it and edit it.
Cautious_Boat_999@reddit
Windows VM?
UndefFox@reddit
Used Linux since 10th grade. Everything done in LibreOffice suite. Minor problems with rendering stuff the exact same way obviously, but nothing that prevented me from working at all.
As for formart. If you are sending formats that are supported by Windows office suite, then you shouldn't have any problems. If a file works on Linux but not on Windows or vice versa, then it's problem with the program itself, not the OS. Doubt it would ever happen since not fully supporting a file format, especially open ones, will be a very bad look for the program.
frankenmaus@reddit
College is for wankers. Use the money to instead hang out in Jamaica for a few years. Smoke some ganja and then see how the world looks.
TheTurkPegger@reddit (OP)
I'll start drop shipping and escape from the matrix instead
academictryhard69@reddit
are you the at the final stage of being a gentoo user?
computer-machine@reddit
I'd started Linux during college.
I'd upgraded from MSO to OpenOffice.Org a year before discovering Linux, so I'd just continued using that (following the fork to LibreOffice). When it mattered, I'd just send my professor a PDF to ensure everything was the way I'd left it.
Years later, at work, MSO started "supporting" the Open Document Format (ODF), with some laughable disclaimer. It said that saving to e.g. odw or whatever the Writer file format is could result in bad formatting and loss of stuff, due to its openness. For an open standard, that everything else is able to handle fine, because it's an OPEN STANDARD.
Anyway, LO can save to both MS and open filetypes (as can MSO), but I don't have much cross-testing, because I don't give a single wet fart about Microsoft at home, and work provisioned and administrated machine doesn't have (basically) anything but Microsoft products. At some point in the past I had locally controlled VMs for some things, and had installed LO and Krita to try to work around some limitations of MS products, but that's back in W10 days, before the AI enshitification of MS overall.
ottersinabox@reddit
if you go with libre office and if you need to send in pptx/docx, don't forget to use fonts that are also available on Windows.
Shikamiii@reddit
I used debian with kde during college (studying history) most software used by my college was open source. I had no issues with libre office since all my essays were sent as .pdf anyway (and .odt work on Word) . As for the projectors it works as another screen it shouldn't cause any issues. I don't know where you are from and what is your college policy on software but in french universities at least it wasn't an issue at all.
NeverrSummer@reddit
I just graduated and used a laptop also with Arch+KDE the entire way through. It doesn't dual boot Windows or have a VM. I also have no Windows PC at home. It was fine.
That said, I submitted precisely zero word documents as .docx or .odt the entire time I was at school. If it can be a PDF you're getting it as a PDF. I only ever presented slide decks. No professor ever wanted a copy of the file afterward, but if they did I'd have just popped the .pptx into web PowerPoint to check the rendering before sending it. Same thing with Libre Calc; I used it but never had to submit the files, just the final result papers that contained that data. If I'd needed to same answer: check the .xlsx in web Excel and send. Between those two solutions I never found office software to be an issue.
Now granted I got a degree where most of the research groups literally require you to install Linux before they'll accept you. Any professor you reach out to about joining their team is going to ask what OS you run, and all the computers in our building run Ubuntu, unlike most of the other buildings which are W11.
MrShrek69@reddit
Libre office is your best bet.
RAMChYLD@reddit
Take a course that requires you to use Linux.
I took a bachelor's degree in computer and information science. Had to use Linux on a daily basis.
AxenKing@reddit
Dual boot and format second/external drive to exFAT (or other filesystem compatible with both windows and Linux) for files used across both OSes. If no external or second drive, create a shared partition in exFAT for the documents.
pancakeQueue@reddit
I’d send in your assignments as PDFs, even if I was using Windows sometimes the formatting can change between devices. The bigger concern is if you can take online exams, cause now days testing solutions require basically full access to your device.
calidrymeister@reddit
Mint Cinnamon here! Zero complaints. You'll be fine, no need to overthink it much. LibreOffice allows you to export as .doc :)
Not sure on what you're studying, but I'm in Humanities and most of my exams are in paper. If you do have a class that needs exams done via browser (those locked down ones or something) then maybe you'll need windows.
TheTurkPegger@reddit (OP)
Thank you. I'm studying to become a teacher, hopefully. I actually feel relieved now that another person who uses documents a lot has positive experiences. My school don't use one of those lock down things fortunately. I think I'm going switch to Linux again after my finals
calidrymeister@reddit
I'm glad! We're in the same boat, also (hopefully) becoming a teacher. Good luck man! :)
academictryhard69@reddit
> (those locked down ones or something) then maybe you'll need windows.
seb exploit *cough* *cough*
calidrymeister@reddit
care to elaborate?, im curious
academictryhard69@reddit
you said locked down browsers, "safe exam browser" is a popular tool used in many colleges and universities for exams and what i meant to say is there an exploit sitting around on github publicly which one of my mates used to run SEB in virtual machine so that he could cheat. Not that i condone this though, its good to have knowledge.
calidrymeister@reddit
i love people that go out of their way to find exploits to cheat, i mean why not just study instead? still impressive :)
Turbulent_Fig_9354@reddit
I write all my college essays in markdown with obsidian and use pandoc to export them as .docx . I’ve never had any complaints.
GriffTheMiffed@reddit
M365 online. Your college will either provide ot free or give a steep discount. You are expected to use a browser, minimally, in a university setting. You could probably just look up the office of IT for your university and review the software suite provided.
You will be accountable if you aren't in alignment with the university program's computer system requirements, but that's just for the department to tell you to align if you can't figure out problems for yourself.
TheTurkPegger@reddit (OP)
I've never gotten any requirements in terms of operating systems, except that one program that doesn't work on IOS and MAC operating systems. So, I guess I shouldn't be a big problem
academictryhard69@reddit
your laptop is powerful enough, you could spin up a windows 10 ltsc (non evaluated so its legal) virtual machine and check compatibility of your documents that way?
TapEarlyTapOften@reddit
This right here - don't underestimate the power and flexibility of virtual machines. I work in one every day across multiple machines. I have 12 machines in between two rooms and only one of them is real (and it does nothing except expose a large 12TB NFS share).
academictryhard69@reddit
A Need For Speed Share? xD /s
TheTurkPegger@reddit (OP)
I was actually about to make a bootable USB stick to test it but wanted to ask Reddit first.
EnGardevoir@reddit
Most colleges have computer labs that students can freely use. You can test if your documents are compatible with word or powerpoint or whatever by emailing your document to yourself (as you would if you were submitting it to the teacher), then going to the computer lab and viewing it there with the Windows tools.
Worst case scenario you could also dual boot your system, do most of your daily driving in Linux, but have the backup Windows environment for any tasks that require Windows.
TheTurkPegger@reddit (OP)
I guess I can always use the computers at the library or in the computer lab, but that's the worst case scenario for me.
SystemAxis@reddit
Linux is totally fine for college, just don’t fully trust LibreOffice for important grading docs. I’d use Office 365 web or quickly check files in a Windows VM before sending. Also keep presentation PDFs on a USB just in case.
kopsis@reddit
Over 30 years as an engineer using conference room projectors frequently (often 10 - 20 times a week) taught me that projectors are evil and no matter what hardware/software you have, there's about a 10% chance it won't work. Always have a hardcopy of your presentation materials. And if your presentation can't be delivered at all without the visual aids, you need to re-think your presentation.
polycro@reddit
When required, I did all of my documents and presentation in Google Docs.
RIPGoblins2929@reddit
Libreoffice, regular Office in a Virtual Machine, regular office on a dual booting machine (not great for laptop tbh), office online, google docs.
To be fair I tried Libre Office like 15 years ago when it was still called Open Office and my professors couldn't read my docs but I think it's improved since then.
_angh_@reddit
All docs I had to do on my course I did in Latex. Much better than any attempt of using ms word. My dissociation was written in there as well, as any other doc I made.
Any ppt presentation can be done on any free office you can think of. I like javascript one, which allow much more stuff to be presented, but you can use libre or whatever you want. You can always check the compatibility, but it should be fine. ppt is rather common file an it is handled well, and even if there are some issues, it will be just small missalignments, no teacher would care about.
Projectors are just external monitors. No issue there. And you have still a few months to see what's up.
mina86ng@reddit
Export to PDF and send as PDF?
I’m not a prolific public speaker, but the times I had given various presentations, I’ve never had such issues. Furthermore, I would expect the audience (including the professor) to be sympathetic to technical issues. If you’re worried about that, always prepare a PDF version of whatever you’re presenting and keep it on a pen drive so if all else fails you can ask to borrow someone’s computer.
TheTurkPegger@reddit (OP)
I could use PDFs actually, thanks. I'm not really sure how my professors' reaction would be in case of a malfunction because my field is not technical, except the integration of technology into education, and stuff like that. I guess they would just ask me to email them my presentation. Idk
wandering_melissa@reddit
most engineering profs are used to latex as you said but some still do use pptx and docx. cant say the same for social science profs tho.
Riponai_Gaming@reddit
You can use google slides as an alternative ig
captainstormy@reddit
I did it, but that was a lifetime ago. I graduated in 2006.
I'd expect you'd be fine running Libreoffice instead of MS Office. Whatever documents you work with at school will be pretty basic.
The biggest concern would be that these days classes will often use some sort of web portal or something for online tests. Those typically block Linux users from what I understand. Maybe someone that went more recently could shed some light on that. Those didn't exist when I was in college.
You might be able to use the computer lab for anything that doesn't work. Assuming schools still have them. When I went it was a big thing because laptops were pretty rare and even for CS students having your own desktop at home wasn't a given.
God this makes me feel old. And I don't say that type of thing usually lol.
Fantastic_Mirror_345@reddit
Most of my classmates and professors were using Google slides even during my graduate studies so I think that should no be a big issue. You can chk only office you want a Linux alternative for office stuff.
SecondPersonShooter@reddit
From a word/powerpoint perspective if youre using the online versions of office you shoulf be good. If the doc is a docx file it should work fine.
Some style options might be exclusive to Word vs say Libre Office.
From a presentation perspectice I have had no historic issues with a sinple HDMI cable on a projector or display.
The bigger issue may be with software required. For example if you do remote exams college might want to install anto-cheat software on your laptop thay only works on windows.
De_Clan_C@reddit
I can't give any advice about projector compatibility.
But I used Fedora all through college and just saved everything as a word doc and never had anyone say anything about not being able to access my submissions or had any compatibility issues. Just make sure it's saved as a word doc before you submit and you should be fine.
BranchLatter4294@reddit
Run the real version of Office in a VM if you really need it.
mcback321@reddit
is LibreOffice compatible with Microsoft Office files?
Gloomy-Response-6889@reddit
Software like Libreoffice generally default to open document format. MS Office can open these. You can save files in the MS Office document formats such as docx. Most distros allow you to install MS and Google Fonts. Using these will make it more unlikely for issues to arise. But really, exporting to PDF is probably the best way to share documents.
I personally have not had issues. It works most of the times just fine. I do have a small Windows partition just in case something does not seem to work. Then you can do whatever to resolve it in Windows within 5 minutes. I have not had to do this in 2.5 years.
You'd have to challenge yourself in the end. Just not trying will not get you going.
Tquilha@reddit
Just use Libre Office and then save your final work as MS format. I've had zero problems with that. Or even export your finished work as PDF.
Any HDMI projector will work just fine with Linux. Heck, even old VGA projectors work with Linux.