Windows 10 or Linux for college laptop?

[Inquisitive Builder]

I've used Windows all my life, but I would like to switch to Linux someday as I'm increasingly distrusting the big companies, with Microsoft trying to cram Windows 10 down my throat without my permission recently. I'm wanting a backup laptop before my intense 8 week online course starts June 15th, and figured if I can't get windows 7 anymore now may be a good time to test Linux.

Would Linux have compatibility issues that cause more issues than Microsoft's eagerness to change things randomly? My goal is reliability and ease.

I need to use programs like Blackboard and Piazza, and may need to work on Word 2010 documents from my Windows 7 desktop.

Thoughts?

 

[Eximo]

Reliability and ease, and you want Linux?

A straight up Ubuntu install is fairly user friendly. Much of it modeled on Mac OS. You could alternatively install a Linux distro with a KDE desktop to get a Windows-like experience.

As for compatibility with software. 9/10 times you will be hard pressed to find off the shelf versions of programs that other people are likely to be using.

Browser based software is dependent on browser compatibility. IE based websites with Active X (A lot of educational, government, and business sites use this) will be problematic.

Open Office/Libre Office should suffice for Word. There is also Google Docs (but your distrust of large companies really rules two of those out)

 

[price_th]

While Linux will do what you need generally as well as Word, you may encounter support issues from whatever college you are looking at. Window 7 is still out there for purchase, you just might not find vendors still willing to sell with windows 7 eg Dell, HP etc.

 

[Quixit]

Be aware that most Linux distros actually update more often and change more things than Microsoft does in Windows. Also, Linux doesn't run Windows software natively so you either need to switch to similar Linux applications or try to get your Windows programs to run through Wine, which is a compatibility layer for running Windows applications on Linux.

For office, LibreOffice or OpenOffice will probably be fine. They can both open and save Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.

Isn't Blackboard web based? You can get both Firefox and Chrome on Linux so web apps should work fine.

I'd recommend Kubuntu, which is Ubuntu with a KDE interface. KDE is the Linux GUI that is most like Windows Classic and Ubuntu has very good support and forums. Otherwise Linux Mint might be a good fit for you too.

 

[USAFRet]

Why not both?

Win 10 in the host system, a VM of LinuxWhatever in a guest VM.