Linux as main OS

[dougal]

  after half heartedly playing with some of the 'lite' distros on my Aspire One notebook over the last couple of years, I've decided to put together a tower (2008,HP 6700,AMD Phenom Quad-core,4GB,Nvidia Gforce) and dedicated it to Linux Mint 18.3 ...with a commitment to myself to use it more and more each day until it's my main pc...I often read here on the forums what sounds like other members still keep either a Windows OS or MacOS 'on the side' ....so it makes me think that Linux hasn't quite got to the point where it can be a sufficient stand alone OS....that some situations just won't play nice with Linux...or perhaps for some this is about favorite software  ...I'd like to hear if this is an accurate understanding, or if not what would be the case for different individuals....

[Jason]

....so it makes me think that Linux hasn't quite got to the point where it can be a sufficient stand alone OS....that some situations just won't play nice with Linux...or perhaps for some this is about favorite software  ...I'd like to hear if this is an accurate understanding, or if not what would be the case for different individuals....

It's definitely sufficient as a standalone OS, unless there is some program that you have to use that doesn't have a Linux equivalent or can't run in PlayOnLinux/WINE. I do all of my important stuff on Linux. The only time I use Windows is to play games via Steam. But even there, Linux has a lot of cool games in Steam. Not the latest and greatest necessarily and not like in Windows, but it's enough that I haven't booted into Windows in weeks.

There are lots of Linux equivalents for Windows applications when there the program isn't already cross-platform, but it may not be enough if you're a professional user. For example, if you do a lot of photo work, the industry standard is Photoshop. The closest Linux equivalent is GIMP. GIMP can do probably 80% of what Photoshop can do, but if you require on certain plugins only available for Photoshop or you're just an expert at it and don't want to learn GIMP, then that won't be enough. Microsoft Office is another example. If you're sharing a lot of documents professionally with others, then LibreOffice's compatibility may not be enough though for most users, it's probably compatible enough.

The only way you'll know if it's good enough for you is to use it and use it everyday. It may take some time to get acclimatize yourself to it, but if you're not using it most of the time, you'll never learn it and its capabilities.

I know Mike has quite a bit of experience with his conversation from Mac to Linux and I hope he chimes in, and he can also tell you about his experiences using MS Office and how he still uses it but now under Linux much of the time using Crossover software which lets you run Windows apps within Linux.

I will tell you one thing, I love the way Linux updates compared to Windows 10 which is a torrid affair in my opinion. In Linux, you can usually do updates without requiring a reboot (though some still tell you do it anyway) and you can actually use your OS and programs while the updates proceed. Compare that to do the update, reboot, finish updating, then finally back into the OS so you can use your damn machine approach with Windows 10. Or worse, the update in OS, reboot, update fails, reboot, rollback update, reboot again. Ugh! That alone makes Linux 10x better in my opinion.

[ssfc72]

Linux has definitely been a stand alone OS, for many years, now.

I feel that in most cases and for most people, Linux provides all the functionality and more, that people need from a computer.
Many choices of Browsers, for the Internet, free and very good Office Suites,  a free or very inexpensive income tax program, a free and highly advanced image editing/processing program by the name of Gimp, etc.

For myself, there is only one Windows program that I use, that would make me boot into Windows.  The program is an audio capture program called Sound Recorder.

Otherwise, I use enjoy using Linux for my computing needs and I find Windows a real pain to use, due to the freezing of the computer, while Win 7, 8, or 10 does its updates, while I am trying to get a task done.

  that Linux hasn't quite got to the point where it can be a sufficient stand alone OS....that some situations just won't play nice with Linux...or perhaps for some this is about favorite software  .

[fox]

I have been using Ubuntu (or Mint in one case) as my main OS for about three years now. As Jason mentioned, I came from MacOS and, except for my Dell XPS 13, my home and work computers are all Macs. I keep the MacOS on these computers (and Windows 10 on my Dell), even though I rarely use them. My internal drives have more than enough storage space, so I don't see any down side to having dual booting systems and occasionally, I do need to boot into the other OS and its nice to have it handy for such cases. Being a scientist and an academic, my usage situation is different from that of the typical user. I have some closed-source specialized statistical and charting software that isn't available for Linux. Although I have been migrating away from these into open source equivalents, I still need them on occasion and that alone gives me reason to keep the MacOS (or Windows) on the computer.

As Jason alluded to, most PC software can be run on Linux using Wine, CrossOver Linux or PlayonLinux, or you can set up a virtual machine with VirtualBox, Boxes or VMware Player (all free except CrossOver). Although the open source LibreOffice is quite capable and does a great job running Microsoft files, I have to use MS Office a lot to keep 100% compatible with my students and colleagues who jointly work on files. MS Office runs pretty well on any of the aforementioned software, and my main setup has it running natively under Crossover Linux. I rarely run into a problem and on occasions when I do, I can operate MS Office in the virtual machine I have set up in VirtualBox. So I never have to boot into MacOS or Windows to run an office program.

I have run into a recent occasion where even a virtual machine wouldn't work; this is very, very rare (unless you are a gamer). I purchased a U.S. tax program to use for doing my mother's taxes with the intent of installing and running it on a virtual machine. For some reason I haven't been able to figure out, it refuses to install. I bought the Windows version of the software, so here is an occasion where I was glad to have access to bare metal Windows. The software installed fine on the Windows 10 partition on my Dell laptop, justifying my not having erased the Windows partition on that computer.

Bottom line - Even though I am a 100% Linux user, I'm glad I left the OSes that came with my computers on them. But everyone's situation is different, and as long as you have a copy of the native OS that you can reinstall in a pinch, there is no risk of going to Linux only. But if you have sufficient space on your internal HD, your best option in my opinion is to keep it as a dual boot for at least 6 months, and if you can get by without Windows, you can always wipe the Windows partition and expand the Linux partition to take up the full drive.

[ssfc72]

Some very good points by Mike!

Mike's post also jogged my memory about doing a backup image of your computer hard drive, before you get rid of the the computer native OS. If you decide to run Linux only, on the computer.

With the backup image, all you have to do is just re-image the drive, to before you went to a single Linux Distro, on your computer, to get your native computer OS, back.

[buster]

I'd like to add to this that I don't use a dual boot. I use separate hard drives for my MS system and my Linux OS. I detach the Win system hard drive and after my install of Linux, I reconnect the MS system. If I need the Windows OS I use the keyboard during the beginning of the boot, in my case the F12 key. (I usually set up the boot sequence as 1 CD, 2 Linux HD, 3 Win HD.)

I also put a partition on the Linux HD that I format in NTFS, so I can move data to that drive. Linux can of course see and write to Windows partitions.

Life is simpler without GRUB. But, my system doesn't work well, as you can guess, with a laptop. 

[dougal]

I wanted to take a moment to express my appreciation to all that have posted their experiences and 'advice' around Linux as a main OS. As some have noted here, I also have been able to find either the same applications I'm familiar with that will run in LM 18.3 or comparable apps, so far.Not all of them were found in the repository, so I have downloaded them from their respective websites (which I assume adds some risk of compatibility or vulnerability). I have chosen ,as previously mentioned, to run a completely separate system for the initial experiment, mostly because I happen to have several computers on hand to do so and perhaps will decide in the future to dual boot or use my one box that has two hdds . I've been nudging my recently, retired brother to try a Linux based OS after a conversation in which he was complaining of not 'enjoying' his experience with Mac OS (though he migrated there after years of frustration with MS OS). We have been experimenting with finding applications in Linux that would allow him to talk between platforms to ease the transition eg. simplenotes.I think the next goal for me might be to look at moving away from other platforms such as google based services like chrome,gmail,google's search engine so i'm aware of what the 'exchange for services rendered' is.

once again , thanks for your responses,
dougal

[Jason]

You're very welcome, Dougal.

Some of the apps you install might actually add repositories for them as part of the install. For example, Google Chrome does this. You can check in Software Sources which shows you the repositories to confirm this (under Additional Repositories). In that case, you don't have to worry about updating it as you'll be notified of updates through Update Manager. Otherwise, you'll be responsible for updating when new versions come out. As you can see below, I have quite a few repositories below and all of them were added by the various programs I installed.

Good luck with helping your friend - you should drag him out to a meeting sometime, and good luck yourself. You and him are always welcome to ask questions here. We try to be a friendly group :-)