Linux

LibreOffice has opened every DOC(X) the school has sent me, albeit imperfectly, and all assignments are turned in as PDFs, which I usually make using Markdown and LaTeX. I have had to use Office 365 for collaboration, but only about twice a year, and that runs very smoothly in Firefox. On one occasion I tried to collaborate with CryptPad, but it didn't work as well as I hoped.

Most computer labs at my uni run Windows 10, rarely 11, but a lot of the science labs run Linux. A surprising amount of the software required for classes has been open-source, too.

The most frustrating thing has been the lockdown browser used for some exams. My university library has computers I can borrow for exams, but yours might not, and they detect VMs, so you might have to dual boot for that.

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.

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.

Storytime!

As a physics major, daily driving Linux worked out pretty smoothly. The thing that saved me from trouble the most was making a weekly full system backup (I used Clonezilla and my file server). If anything was truly incompatible, I took care of it on the school's computers.

In my second semester, I began dual-booting on my X201 Tablet and desktop, eventually booting into Windows infrequently enough that I made my X201T Linux-only by the end of my second year.

Around that point, I began using LUKS full-disk encryption on my machines and USB drives. I highly recommend if you don't already, even if just for peace of mind. I have strong ideas about the way things ought to look and work, so being able to customize Linux to my heart's content (with Chicago95 ofc) made doing work on my computer a bit more enjoyable.

Documents

• MS Office: Libreoffice worked 95% of the time. For the other 5%, I used the school computers or my Windows VM.
• Google Docs and GMail: accessed through Chromium, which I only used to access Google and sites linked to my school's SSO system.
• We did a lot of writing in Latex, though it might be a physics thing
• A lot of other small stuff I'm starting to forget, but if I don't mention it, I probably did it through the browser.

Lab

• MATLAB: GNU Octave sufficed 75% of the time, often needing just slight changes to the code. Otherwise I used the lab computers or my desktop with actual MATLAB.
• Proprietary dana analysis software: One had a .deb package for oldoldoldstable so I set up a VM just for that. Otherwise, lab computers it was.
• Lab computers running old and new versions of Windows were available to us, so if there was anything computationally intensive or requiring proprietary software, I would just take care of it in the lab.

Social

• Slack, Discord, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp: browser client, which I would check on a schedule

Tools

• VPN: NetworkManager, though it was a bit janky. I think it's a lot better nowadays.
• Printing: We had a web print portal to upload docs and pdfs to a printer of our choice.

Graphics

• Mostly prepared my posters, etc in a mix of Libreoffice Draw, GIMP, and Inkscape
• Adobe: Had to use it on one occasion. Used the library computers where it was installed for everyone to use.
• Digital notes: I would use Xournal on my X201 Tablet whenever I forgot to bring my notebook or refill my fountain pen. Managed to impress a few of my iPad-toting classmates when I whipped out the pen and the display around on what they believed to be an ancient clunker.

As for the desktop, I had purchased it with gaming in mind, but it eventually became my SMB file share, media server, and RDP session host so I could make any library desktop like my own. Each thing in its own VM, of course. By the end of it, I was one of about 3 students running a server over the campus LAN. Even in the comp sci department, surprisingly few students used Linux.

Linux also met all of my computing needs while studying abroad in Germany. For five whole months, I had not used Windows once. Though my SSD did give out on me once, a backup saved the day.

A friend once did need to use a rather invasive remote proctoring tool. Highly recommend a separate laptop or at least a fresh SSD for this case.

Mobile privacy, if it's relevant

• I was in the fortunate position where none of my classes or jobs required proprietary mobile apps
• Friends used Venmo or whatever else, I paid back in cash
• SMS and emails sufficed for regular communication

Overall, it was smooth sailing using Linux throughout my college years and no incompatibilities that couldn't be solved in the library or a computer lab.

edit: i used debian btw

I'm doing a CIS degree right now, and I did 99% of my first year on fedora. I did need a full windows install because some exams took place using a lock down software.

Honestly, the hardest part was remembering to boot into windows the day before so it could update and stabilize for the exam the next day

Well, I'm a psychologist and my entire college time I used Linux. Most of the times me and my friends used Google Docs instead of MS Office

In psychologist school you'll be reading a lot, so you'll need pdf reader, but that is easy in Linux. Maybe, but this is a big maybe, you'll learn about statistics using a software, but we have Jamovi and JASP for that. If you're into R or Python, that's easier in Linux then Windows

If you really need to share documents with your friends using MS Office, LibreOffice may do the job for the content, but have in mind that if you're in charge of formatting the document, noone else could do it. Otherwise, if other person is in charge, you'll be better not try to format. Or just use Google Docs / Office 365 (online)

In my own experience, I had no issue using only Linux in my school time

Also, in my daily work as a psychologist, I have no issue with that as well

Honestly, if you're sharing office files you're probably using office 365. This means everything is a web app first and therefore Linux compatible.

I tried using the desktop version of word on a Mac last week, and the latency was so bad on a shared document that I had to switch to the web app anyway.

Basically, if you just want to use Linux you'll be fine. If instead you don't want to use Microsoft, you'll probably have lots of problems.

Microsoft have been brutally effective in getting their tentacles into academic institutes, and you'll find that everything from email to logging into internal sites relies on an office 365 account.

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

I study computer science and it's definitely been an advantage. That being said, I believe circumstances might wary between institutions, countries, subjects and teachers a lot.

For documents, when we have a group task, we just use collaboration platforms online, like Google docs. Gets the job done easily.

When you're alone, using free stuff shouldn't be a problem.

A little advice: don't bother with latex and use typst instead. Latex works but it's often weird and the error messages are hidden in a thousand lines of "unfull hbox"

It was great with my CS program. The only issues I had were due to me using some tiling WM so it was harder to make HDMI work for presentations, and then when I switched from Arch to NixOS it was too much of hassle... so should have been way smoother just staying on Arch

Funny enough, my college pushed me to a Linux dual boot.

One of my classes required an Ubuntu environment for C++ programming, and after trying and failing to get WSL working, I decided to just dual boot (from 2 separate SSDs) instead of trying to work around the limitations of a VM.

On the other hand, 2 of my other classes required a Windows-only program.

I used to default to Windows, but after the BS from Microsoft this year I switched to defaulting to Ubuntu.

I'm currently using Arch Linux in college and my advice will be to dual boot. In some lower div classes my specific professor wanted Visual Studio .sln files so there was no other way (I guess you could VM it but I'm not trusting that with my grade).

Group sharing documents, our schools and most schools are in the MS ecosystem so you can edit on word online through the onedrive thing.

For writing stuff I would mostly use libreoffice with the LanguageTool plugin installed.

For lockdown proctored exams, I would typically get a loaner laptop from school because no way am I downloading their sussy stuff.

Edit: Since you're studying to be a psychologist, my first paragraph will probably not apply to you. If you want to, dual boot, if not, I think maybe you could boot up a vm if there's some really niche use cases.

My university mainly ran Solaris, pretty much everything also ran on Linux. In the rare case where Windows was required a remote desktop was available.

My university probably isn't your university though, so answers may not be worth much...

College the art dept ran Macintosh OS X while computer science ran Solaris & Windows (outside of C# this didn’t matter). I had a OS X/Windows dual boot laptop at the time as well as a Windows/Linux (Crunchbang) desktop which let me accomplish everything. Adobe products were pretty easy to pirate at the time, & I was intially annoyed WINE didn’t really work with them, but I worked slowly towards getting skills in the FOSS tools & when Adobe moved to a cloud subscription model I said “fuck ’em”. The tools are certanily good enough if not better if you learn them. The CS stuff was much easier with Linux to get compilers & whatnot. OpenOffice was fine for everything else. Professors were never asshats & cared that you completed the assignment rather than what specific tool for file format you were using so long as there was something they could easily view (such as PDF). If I really needed some dumb app, I could just use the computer lab. I carried around a stateful distro on a USB as well so I could get around the opposite issue of not having my Linux tools at say the library that was all Microsoft.

Outside of classwork, Pidgin+libpurple & a browser covered my use cases.

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.

The people I know in my program (undergrad History) use their computers for little more than Google Chrome (specifically Google’s Office suite), a PDF reader (sometimes also Google Chrome), sometimes Zotero, and sometimes MS Word. We get a lot of Mac’s around here, so one can imagine Microsoft products are not highly relied upon, generally speaking.

Everything’s through the browser nowadays, so I’d say just pick a stable distro, install 2 or three browsers in case something doesn’t work (like Google Docs with Firefox in my experience…), and submit everything as PDF.

Can’t speak much to LibreOffice as I write my papers in Typst (and before that in LaTeX, which got me brownie points with some of the older professors), which I find much faster, easier, and more flexible than WYSIWYG word processors.

I login to the student outlook email on the web and use OnlyOffice with Microsoft fonts installed. Presentations and Documents work as needed. I got a fellow student to switch to Linux and he's had no issues either.

I was forced to. I had no money and needed a PC for my studies.
A roommate gifted me his old desktop with OpenSUSE.
For at least 2 days I googled various forms of "how to install programs on Linux" and got more and more frustrated, cause all I found was stuff you had to compile yourself, or things called "packages". But I didn't want "packages", I wanted programs.
On the third day I found the YaST package manager and was immediately blown away by the fact you could search, download and install everything you need without hunting it down on various websites.
That was 20 years ago. Been on Linux ever since.

I had no problem, but my classmates hated me because everytime a professor gave us an assignment to be done in excel I asked that if it was ok to use livreoffice because I use Linux and they always changed it to be done on R or Python.

It was good! I really enjoyed it

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 was 1993, so not super impressed, but I needed a tex distribution, and PC dos tex sucked. The best option was a Nextcube, but that was a little out of reach being as much as tuition. Or use the x terminals in the crowded computer lab (shudder).

But I was able to keep that slackware install up and working just long enough to get my thesis done.

It depends on the field you are studying. I was into CS, using Linux was recommended because the machines they used to test our code were also running linux.

Most fields are going to be okay with linux, the only exception being fields that rely on specialized software like architects, engineers, and audio/video editing. Also, some software like MatLab are possible to run on Linux but it's a pain to set them up.

Mainly only with my PS2.

For what is worth, I've had better luck on MSOffice integration with onlyoffice, but ymmv

Linux was just being invented when I was in college... But if your profs want certain files traded as MS documents Windows will make your life easier. While docx is opened/saved by LibreOffice etc, there are formatting things that can trip you up like default margins, missing fonts (on either end of use) this means what you send somebody may not open and look as intended (even if the issue is actually on the MS user end). It makes things frustrating unless they only want pdf. Also powerpoints get wonky too.

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.

It didn't exist!

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

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...

It went great. I mostly had to submit files in PDF, which allowed any office software to work perfectly.

That is until covid came around and I had to do proctored online exams. The proctoring software doesn't support linux.

Ex CS student. I'm on 100 % Linux, even back then.
Huge advantage in the Linux/Unix, networking labs.

The main issues were Matlab (Octave is kinda ok, but must be tested before you submit your project),
FPGA simulator - Altera (no alternatives, but it can be run on a Windows VM),
3ds Max - must be run on bare-metal Windows (maybe GPU passthrough to a VM will work),
some old weird software,
C getch() on Linux.

No problems with MS Office, I can run whatever I want, just exported it to the PDF.
No heavy formatting in drafts helps with a group project.

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.

In college right now 2yr computer science, anything Microsoft is a pain to work offline. I miss the onedrive sync in windows i just use syncthing for that now .

I use onlyoffice since it has one of the best Microsoft office compatibility though I submit my obsidian export as a pdf for my assignments or records.

If you really need ms office or for group projects and you have an o365 account, just use the web version for it.

I did computer science in uni and it was never an issue. The only time I remember needing specific windows software was a RISC processor simulator we used in my low level programming class, and for that there was a hefty license on the software anyway, so basically everyone used the lab computers.

I'm a bit like you! I'm studying to become a High School science teacher, so I'm not in a technical program. My computer serves mostly as a typing machine. I switched 2 years ago and it wasn't all smooth, but I'll share some of the things I encountered and what I did.

First problem I had, cloud sync. I used to be a a big OneDrive user and I wanted to sync everything with my drive as I used to be. There isn't a very good program for syncing OneDrive. I bought a licence to InSync and it made it work flawlessly. Seriously good software! (nowadays I host my own Nextcloud server, but don't start with that, it's a lot of job for not a whole lot).

Second problem was getting used to LibreOffice. Compared to Office, LO isn't formated around pages, every text you write is considered "one big text" and then it calculates where to put its page breaks and everything. What does it change? Not a whole lot, but technically speaking, it's not as good as a formatting tool as Word is. Doesn't really matter if you aren't a formatting freak like I am, but it took me a some time to get use to it. To get better with it, I recommend you to practice styles on it (text style and page style).

Third problem, collaboration. I didn't find a very good solution to it. What I do is I ask all my colleagues to write their parts online (Google Docs, MS Office Online,...) then once everything is done and perfectly written, I download it and open it in LO and do the final formatting. So I'm always the one doing the formatting. It's important than when you give it back to your teachers, give it in a .PDF format. (Btw, unrelated, but look into Zotero, it's a life saver)

And a general tip and trick I could give you is to keep close a Windows/Mac machine (not with you at all times, but just something you access fairly easily if you plan in advance). There were a few times a professor mandated that we submitted the work in MS office format, and I didn't want to risk it not being right, so I did it in LO and polished it in Office. That and I was asked to use a very specific, Windows only software, so having it was very useful.

If you have other questions, don't hesitate to ask!

I set up dual boot but ended up only running Windows once when I had trouble with my Windows VMs. You'll be fine.
Especially since MSOffice everything is just browser apps anyway.