I’ve been using exclusively Linux since high school, and now I’m doing a PhD in math. It’s always been pretty smooth. I used to have a separate Windows rig for gaming, but don’t really need it anymore, now that Proton works very well with most games. (I don’t really play AAA games, so that helps.)

Coming to the point, for academic stuff, I mostly needed to use a PDF reader (Zathura and qPdfView), LaTeX, and some computation and graphing software (mostly SageMath). I sometimes needed to use DOCX files, but LibreOffice works well for that. Most other software I need from time to time are usually Linux native.

Also, many universities provide access to O365. I’ve used it in some rare cases where I needed to provide input in some collaborative document. But in most cases, I was able to convince my friends/colleagues to use Google Docs instead.

Unless you do CAD, or some creative work, Linux should be perfect for your usecase.

Just finished my Master’s this year.

I belonged to the Department of Computer Science at a university in the UK so granted there’s a lot of bias here:

I will point out a few observations, without going into much detail or reasoning:

1. Microsoft’s Office suite was a non-requirement. For collaboration, everyone was using Google’s Office suite (Google Docs, Sheets) or Overleaf (Premium if we signed up with our university email).
2. Around half (maybe more) were MacOS users, maybe 25-25% split between Linux and Windows.
3. Lots of iPads, particularly in any Maths classes.

Anything else to keep in mind? Yes, that people are ignorant. Even in our CS department people used to actively avoid using Linux, a lot of people will buy Macbooks because of reasons I would attribute more to the demographics of CS students, i.e. primarily from Asian countries where Apple is seen as a economic symbol.

Be prepared for people to judge you (not saying they should, but that they likely will). If you want to avoid this judgement, get an Apple silicon Macbook Air or something. However, I commend you for going out of your way to learn and wanting to reduce your dependency on Windows. I think that learning to be comfortable with the machine will help you in the future, most likely indirectly.

Lastly, keep in mind that when we have discussions about privacy or Linux or not supporting big tech companies who we might not agree with (e.g. Microsoft, Google, Apple etc) it’s never a binary problem. You might find that you will end up relying on teams for internal communication or that your university email is with outlook/office365.

Try and do your bit, but don’t be too harsh on yourself. :)

Needless to say, if you’re looking for a laptop that runs Linux well plenty of people will tell you to buy a used thinkpad (great from a value perspective), or if you’d prefer some of the new kidz stuff then a Tuxedo notebook.

Do not make the mistake of buying a notebook which doesn’t have a reputation of good Linux support. I bought a HP notebook (can’t quite remember the model number right now but can get back to you) and still no sound without manual kernel module patch :D

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.

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!

Big waste of time. Spent too much time troubleshooting to get it working on my laptop before I just said "fuck it" and installed Windows. There was way too much software compatibility issues and I was spending more time troubleshooting than I was studying. I’m sure Linux can work for some students but for me and the field I majored in, Linux is no bueno.

you can just dual boot linux next to Windows and switch to Windows when needed. I really like my linux fedora - way more than windows or macos.

What do i like about it?

• it’s very easy to work with multiple virtual desktops
• it looks way more beautiful and is more fun to work with
• extentions make it very customizable, e.g. in the top left I can see the title and artist of the current song playing.
• the feeling of of not being spied on, at least on the os level, I still think online is a lot of tracking
• the apps are open source and trustable and do just what they are suppoesed to do and nothing more
  • there is an app to download youtube videos (parabolic)
  • the audio player is very beautiful and minimalistic - I miss it on windows (amberol)
  • the app solanum is a timer app just for the pomodoro time management method. It helped me a lot
  • for notes I use Joplin, which does the job reliable. But I have to admit that I liked working with OneNote more, since it has more functionality and way better pen support.

Regarding office was my experience that MS Office is still better if you have to make an presentation or want to work at the same document at the same time. For basic office work LibreOffice is fine. I would use OnlyOffice if you want better compatibility with MS Office.

I booted windows only if I had to do a presentation or work with an Windows exclusive programm. But most of the time (around 90-95%) I used happily Linux Fedora. I use it for note taking, listening to music, browsing the web and reading & marking PDFs.

I use Firefox as my primary browser but it has sometimes problems with some videos. Then I switch to Brave which does not have those issues. I general I think Linux needs some time to get used to and wants to be discoverd. It’s not that difficult as it may sound but probably wont be a without some learning curve and looking some things up online. I recommend doing it since my user experience has been much better than on windows or macos - plus the privacy thing :)

Heck, I ran Linux on my college computers back in the 90s. It was just a thing you did. Ah, memories…

Anyhoo, it largely depends on the school but for most intents and purposes Windows, Mac and Linux are interoperable. By that I mean they can generally open, manipulate and share all of the common document formats natively, with some minor caveats.

Many schools also have access to Microsoft O365, which makes the MS Office online suite available as well. All you really need to use that is a web browser.

I work in an office environment these days where Windows, Mac and Linux are all well supported and are in broad use. I use Linux (Debian) exclusively, my one coworker is all-windows and a third is all-mac. Our boss uses Windows on the desktop, but also uses a Macbook. We are able to collaborate and exchange data without many problems.

I would say the two main challenges you’re liable to face will be when Word files include forms or other uncommon formatting structures. LibreOffice is generally able to deal with them, but may mangle some fonts & formatting. Its not common but it does happen.

The other main challenge could be required courseware-- specialized software used in a curriculum for teaching-- and proctor software for when you’re taking exams online. Those might require Windows or Mac

If it ever comes up, Windows will run in a Virtual Machine (VM) just fine. VirtualBox by Oracle is generally free for individual use, and is relatively easy to start up. Your laptop will probably come with Windows pre-installed, so you could just nuke it, install Linux, install VirtualBox, and then install Windows as a VM using the license that came with your laptop. You’d need to ask an academic advisor at the school if that’s acceptable for whatever proctor software they use.

I recommend against dual-booting a Windows environment if you can avoid it. Linux & Windows are uneasy roommates, and will occasionally wipe out the other’s boot loader. It’s not terribly difficult to recover, but there is a risk that could (will) happen at the WORST possible moment. However, it might be unavoidable if they use proctor software that requires windows on bare metal. Again, you’d have to ask the school.

Good luck!

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.

I made it through college without using windows on any of my personal machines, but I did need to access a library or computer lab to take 1 test that needed a specialized web browser for some reason. Other than that, I was actually pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to slip by with a good PDF viewer, libreoffice, and Inkscape.

My degree was in computer engineering, most groups I worked in outside of the engineering department just preferred collaboration through office online or google docs.

I’ve used Ubuntu on a laptop during my undergrad 2008-13. I used LyX to write anything I’d submit, including some psych work. I’ve used LibreOffice (OpenOffice) for some stuff too. I had to use MS Office or some other Windows-only software on occasion. I used a Windows VM for that. I’ve kept this formula till present day. Linux (Ubuntu LTS/Debian) on the hardware, Windows VM on Linux for special occasions.

Only thing to add to what has already been said: Office related stuff will be your biggest issue. Personally I suffer a lot with the web version of the Office apps, so I recommend dual boot or VM for when using office.

It didn’t exist!

It was good! I really enjoyed it

Studied languages at a university in Sweden, using only libre programs, except for one group assignment where we used Google docs. Nothing terribly interesting (computer-wise). Everything worked. Professors wanted .docx files, which LibreOffice happily exported. If I was so inclined, nothing would’ve stopped me from using something like OpenBSD, or hell, even Haiku would probably work.

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.