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| Above: my Linux desktop layout. |
Back in 2017, I switched my operating system entirely to Linux. In case anyone is wondering, here is what I experienced over the last few years.
Others I interact with have no idea I'm on Linux. For example, if someone emails me an MS Word document that I need to complete, I simply open it with LibreOffice (an open-source word processing program that is pre-installed on most Linux systems), edit the document as needed - which is very easy since the same sorts of functionalities are available in LibreOffice - and then I can save it in MS Word format and email it back.
Likewise, if I'm on a Zoom call, everything works just the way it does on PC and Mac. Zoom makes their application available for Linux too, I downloaded it and let it self-install, and it works exactly the same way as it does on other operating systems.
I can point-and-click my way to whatever I need to do on Linux; no special knowledge required. If you want to dig deeper into scripting and things like that, you can, but it's not any more necessary than it would be on a PC or Mac.
Pros
My productivity and workflow improved immensely once I switched to Linux; this was mostly due to the ability to customize desktop layout, menu bars, etc above and beyond what mainstream commercial operating systems allow. I truly feel that my operating system is giving me a heavy "assist" in my workflow.
There is a huge array of applications that are ready to go from a central repository; I don't have to hunt down different programs from different sites. The repository is a little bit like the idea of the Google Play store, but with built-in privacy. If I need to install something, it's even easier than on Windows! I just point and click on my computer to open the Synaptic Package Manager, then do a keyword search (e.g. "note taking") and then I click on the item(s) I want to install and click again to make it do the installation. If the application needs something else to be installed along with it so it can work properly, it'll figure out what I need and inform me, and then it'll install it at the same time. Synaptic keeps track of what I do, and don't, have installed on my computer. If I want to uninstall something, it's the same deal - just use Synaptic package manager and click on the item I want to uninstall.
I love the built-in ability to do rolling archival backups by copying only changed files. The ability is built into the operating system via the rsync command. This means that rolling backups are really fast since you're only copying over the files that have been changed since the last backup. Of course, it's no substitute for also doing full backups periodically, but it's really nice to have a built-in ability for rolling archival backups. This is not to say you could never do that on other operating systems, but as far as I know it's not pre-built into the system; you'd need third-party software for that.
I also like the plug-and-play aspect of Linux. Anything you can physically plug into your Linux system (speakers, webcam, external hard drive, printer, etc), will generally work just fine, no need to install or download stuff. The default is that it "just works", which is really nice and has saved me quite a bit of money by being able to re-use old items, and by not worrying about compatibility when buying new. There is one notable exception to plug-and-play, which is the iPhone. I've not put this in the cons below, as I don't see this as a failing of Linux, but rather of iPhone. Linux developers have been seeking to get iPhone support for plugging into a Linux USB port, but Apple does not wish to have cross-platform portability. This was not a big deal to me, since I don't use any Apple products anyway (and certainly wouldn't consider it after this experience).
Virtually all programming languages are available for Linux, regardless of whether or not they're available for other operating systems. This has resulted in me doing more programming and even learning new programming languages (yay!), since I don't have the hurdle of figuring out where to get it and how to install it on my computer first. I can just find and install the language from the Synaptic Package Manager mentioned above, and them I'm ready to go. I learned Lisp and Ruby this way.
Cons
If you're sharing your Linux computer with someone who needs to do any testing at nwea.org (e.g. MAP testing for school), NWEA does not support Linux. I'm not sure why, since the testing site is web-oriented, which in theory shouldn't depend on your operating system. If you're on a Linux computer and you go to https://check.nwea.org/ to see if your computer is compatible, then you'll see something like this:
It doesn't matter if you get check marks on literally everything else, apparently the operating system is enough to make it incompatible with NWEA testing. We ran into this issue during Covid times (when testing is done from home). Normally those tests would be done at school on school computers, so it would normally not come up that someone would need to do standardized testing at home on their Linux computer anyway.
If you like gaming, Linux does not have as many games available as Windows. This was not an issue for me, because I prefer console games anyway.
I'm also aware of several types of specialized software (e.g. tax software) that is simply not made for Linux. Again, this is not something I would seek to run on Linux anyway. I would also like to point out though that for certain types of software, often the Synaptic Package Manager actually has more options available than what you might find out there for other operating systems.
The bottom line
Life is working just fine on 100% Linux.
If our family has a guest who happens to want to use a computer during their stay, I steer them to my Linux computer. It's very user-friendly and they just point and click their way to what they need to do, without needing any intervention from me. Sometimes they have no idea they're even using Linux until I bring it up after. They say "that was Linux?!"
