Used it for physics stuff

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 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…

I was super lucky apparently because my degree’s curriculum required C# and ASP.NET, on top of our CTO having a big bug up his ass and hitting the switch that disallowed Linux computers to connect to the wifi. Even connecting Macbooks was a huge headache I guess. Dude didn’t fucking care and would just jerk himself off about how hardened the school’s network was.

My laptop was really shitty too but I ended up running Windows 7 in a VM just to get by. But had to do a lot of bullshit between OSes and in the end, it would have just been way better if I had just bit the bullet and used Windows for the time I was there.

I’m probably an outlier and today it’s probably better but if your school gets kickbacks from M$ and you are going for programming just expect it I guess.

LIbreOffice’s .docx formatting sucks when going between it and M$ Word too but someone else already mentioned that.

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.

It didn’t exist!

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.

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!

Mainly only with my PS2.

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.

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

• Citrix Workspace App, which has a native Linux version.
• Docker, which has a native Linux version.
• Google Chrome, which has a native Linux version, but I chose to use Firefox anyway.
• Laragon, which doesn’t have a Linux version, so I just used XAMPP instead.
• Microsoft Excel, which doesn’t have a Linux version. The school offered an Office 365 license, so I could’ve used the web version, but I chose to use LibreOffice Calc instead.
• MySQL Workbench, which has a native Linux version.
• Open ModelSphere, which has a native Linux version.
• Packet Tracer, which has a native Linux version.
• Slack, which has a native Linux version.
• VirtualBox, which has a native Linux version.

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

In comp sci our labs ran fedora and I didn’t even know what Linux was I just laughed at the computer saying fedora. I thought I was on Mac tbh.

Computer Science graduate here

It’s great, and in fact the recommended setup. We even had a lab running Ubuntu, managed by a bunch of volunteers that pass down sysadmin knowledge.

There was this one class, tho, that required MS Visual C++ 2008. There was no way around it, so what I did was I installed Windows on VM.

Office document support was janky with LibreOffice but it got the job done for me. They seem to have improved a lot recently, so you probably won’t have issue.

Even up to today, I never felt the need to have Windows. Some proprietary softwares like Zoom are available thru Flatpak while the Windows-only ones like Adobe Acrobat can be installed thru Wine.

The only times I had to have Windows was to play certain video games. In general, I could live without them, as most video games are playable on Linux with Wine (thanks, Steam!), while some others provide Linux native port.

Linux didn’t exist when I was in college but I did work on it’s predecessor Minix in Op Systems class in '89

What will you be studying?

When I did CompSci (before dropping out anyway), Linux was actually the recommended setup.

When I switched to Communications, I pushed on with Linux for a long while – MSOffice wasn’t really a thing? Professors and colleagues alike all used GSuite, which runs in browser and is therefore OS-agnostic. Nobody cared what I was using, we all just wrote stuff in Google Docs. (that said, if everyone around IS using MSOffice, then in my experience, stuff translates between Word and LibreOffice pretty well? There’s a little bit of derping around with PowerPoint ig, but word documents were seamless afaic. ALSO it should be noted that if you have to use M$ stuff, Office365 has a completely functional WebApp :P)

I did a lot of graphical work on GIMP and Inkscape.

Buuuuuuut eventually we got to like. Video and compositing related stuff. And much as I’d like to, nothing on Linux can even come close to what Premiere and After Effects can do. A lot of my professors had Macs, but even if I wanted a Mac, I couldn’t afford one. (neither could 95% of my colleagues) So I had to set up Windows. Though it should be noted that since I live in Brazil, my professors encouraged & helped us with pirating the Adobe suite lmao.

I actually kept using GIMP/Inkscape on Windows for graphics stuff, simply because I didn’t want to relearn all the keyboard shortcuts for Photoshop/Illustrator.

Anyway now that I’ve graduated and mostly do writing (worked at a news site, now trying for a job as copywriter at an ad agency), I still keep my Windows install around just in case^tm but have not logged into it in like a year.

It should also be noted that, at least here in Brazil, Canva has consumed like 80% of the market for graphical work. They never ask for Photoshop experience anymore, they ask for Canva. It’s weird to me because they have totally different vibes, with Canva having all those presets and shit, but it is what it is. :P