Turns out the reply in my thread telling me the best way to combat not caring about Linux is to care about Linux was absolutely correct.

I picked up a laptop, installed Linux Mint Cinnamon, and I’m already obsessed. I haven’t had this much fun with a PC in a long time and it’s just a cheapo Dell Inspiron 3520.

  • Wren@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    26·
    1 year ago

    the best way to combat not caring about Linux is to care about Linux

    I want this written in a ‘Live, Love, Laugh’ script and framed

  • Sadbutdru@sopuli.xyz
    15·
    1 year ago

    The longer I spend on Lemmy the more tempted I am to give Linux another try (had an old desktop with Ubuntu 10+ years ago, but never really got the hang of it fully, can’t remember the exact details but not everything worked properly).

    What holds me back is I’m in the middle of an engineering degree, I need to be able to collaborate easily on documents with word, share folders with OneDrive etc because that’s what everyone uses. Even signing into the uni’s portal-type thing is managed through your MS office account and authenticator app. And also I don’t have a lot of spare time to fiddle around getting things to work and ironing out wrinkles, even if that only needs done one and it’ll be fine in the long run…I need to be able to get on with my work reliably (maybe over Christmas I will have a bit more time to do setting up stuff).

    Can anyone convince me ask these worries are unfounded? Can you still easily interact with the MS universe, or are there ways around this?

    My poor wee laptop is already full to bursting with MATLAB, stm32 ide, etc so I don’t think I’d be able to partition and dual boot…

    • letsgo@lemm.ee
      21·
      1 year ago

      Your best focus at the moment is your degree, including during the holidays. You can Linux fanboi all you like after you’ve graduated, unless you’ve got some really strong personal convictions that push you in that direction, and it seems you haven’t otherwise you’d already be there.

    • LemmyHead@lemmy.ml
      10·
      1 year ago

      I’d discourage you from formatting and using Linux (as a long time Linux user myself). Keep your setup for your education because that’s most important. If you can, get another device to install Linux on and learn how to use it that way. It’ll also be very beneficial for your career

    • Sadbutdru@sopuli.xyz
      6·
      1 year ago

      Thanks everyone for all the helpful replies. A lot of people mentioned the office webapps, personally I’ve always detested these. Things like keyboard shortcuts for sub/superscript and support for IEEE referencing were not available as far as I remember, and in general they were more minimal than the desktop version and so slower if you needed to use many features. I think the consensus is I will stick with Windows for my uni work for now, but I can try out onlyoffice, and use a bootable USB to start learning more about Linux for later on down the road. Cheers!

      • Gianni R@lemmy.mlEnglish
        61·
        1 year ago

        Sounds like you’re entrenched. If that’s the case, don’t look at Linux until you’ve accepted that things aren’t going to be identical to Windows & there will be drawbacks to your workflow as well as benefits

        • Sadbutdru@sopuli.xyz
          3·
          1 year ago

          I wouldn’t say I’m entrenched, I’m happy to learn new ways of doing things as and when appropriate.

          On the other hand, although I would like to migrate to Linux, it’s not one of my top priorities, and it sounds like the drawbacks in compatibility when submitting documents into university systems and working on group projects would outweigh the benefits for now, for me.

          But I look forward to working towards never learning what windows 11 is like!

    • cocaine_hegel@lemmy.ml
      3·
      1 year ago

      You can easily interact with the MS ecosystem by using the office 365 webapps. I personally prefer using onlyoffice as it’s got very good compatibility with ms formats. Teams even has a functional Linux-native client. Don’t forget to install the ms corefonts though!

      I seem to remember there was a way to mount your OneDrive folders to your local linux filesystem but I don’t use that service.

    • festus@lemmy.caEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      I’d hold off then as I would expect you to need to iron out wrinkles with regards to collaborating with others in the MS universe.

    • xavier666@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      List all the essential softwares you are using. Some of them will work natively (Teams, Matlab), some will need minimal tinkering and some would need alternatives (MS Office).

      Based on what you have and what you want to do, Linux may (or may not) be a good choice.

    • ThatGuy@lemmy.world
      1·
      1 year ago

      I had a similar issue and honestly I would just recommend worrying about it later. Don’t force it, just try it when you have some free time.

      I started off with dual boot to play with Linux and jump to windows when I need it. Then eventually to full Linux once I realized I never actually needed it to do all my work.

      I recommend Linux mint as its the most similar to windows and is built for new Linux users. I tried Ubuntu first and the experience was pretty bad, but I learned much quicker in mint and had a much better experience right away.

  • EpicFailGuy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    162·
    1 year ago

    Good investment Jez,

    Now get yourself a mechanical keeyboard.

    a nice keeb is a must have! They have some cheap ones on amazon for 20 ish or so. The really nice ones cost almost as much as the laptop XD

    • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      If anybody’s new to mechanical keyboards get a Keychron. Lots of models to choose from.

      Just one gotcha, don’t get it directly from Keychron, their support and returns are terrible. Look up local resellers on their site (“where to buy”) or as a last resort buy from Amazon. If you’re in the EU remember that you can easily purchase from a reseller in any other member state.

      • CafecitoHippo@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Just got a Keychron Q5 Pro and love it. It and the Zoom98 were the only two that had layouts that would really work out for me (wanted a 96%/98%) since I need a numpad and wanted a volume knob instead of just media keys.

      • EpicFailGuy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        I actually have a Keychron and an amazon clone (royalkludge) and I gotta admit that the RK is 95% of the way there for about half the price

        Even more important still … the RK has 2.5GHZ whereas the Keychron only has bluetooth for wireless …

        Personally I hate having to press a key and wait a couple of seconds for Bluetooth to resume. The USB adapter solves that

  • jjhanger@lemmy.world
    14·
    1 year ago

    I’ve become very impressed with LM. I got 2 family members’ laptop going again with that. Nice choice.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    141·
    1 year ago

    Oh noez! Now you’re actively feeding the Linux propaganda machine!

    Congrats! Hope you enjoy your new device.

  • GenBlob@lemm.ee
    12·
    1 year ago

    I love seeing stuff like this! I think anyone who is used to windows should try Linux out on a cheap laptop and see how they like it.