Why Linux isn't a replacement for Windows 10 if you can't run Windows 11 - debate!

jimbo45 said:

@SlicEnDicE FYI !!!

WPS office -- far better and much more compatible with Ms Office than Libre Office can even read and write documents in docx and xlsx formats so there shouldn't be any problem in uploading documents to sites that insist on "Ms Office format". Runs both on Linux and Windows -- and I'll bet 1000's of people on these forums have never heard of it thinking libre office is the only alternative.

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Cheers
jimbo

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Thanks, but LibreOffice reads and writes everything O365 now.

SlicEnDicE said:

Thanks, but LibreOffice reads and writes everything O365 now.

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Good to know -never used to though and I agree since in some ways we need to be careful of "The Chinks" who are the originators of WPS Office. But it actually does work !!.

I might give LibreOffice another go -- my main issue was that the spreadsheet application was hopeless -- - I'm not thinking about the full Ms Office suite with EXCEL macros but formerly even a moderate - not even a power user of EXCEL would have been severely frustrated by LibreOffice implementation of spreadsheet.

Cheers
jimbo.

spapakons said:

I had it on my Android smartphone since I didn't want to pay to activate the respective Word and Excel versions. Never used it much, just to open the occasional document, so I cannot comment how good it is. However, the problem is not only finding an Office suite for Linux. As I said in an earlier post, the user must do some serious research before switching to Linux. He has to make sure there are drivers for all his hardware and there are the same or alternative applications he uses in Windows. I might check the first box but not the second, so Linux is not for me. After he checks both these boxes he must be prepared to learn new things and face any potential issues. I would recommend to TRY it first on a virtual machine before switching. By trying I mean to install it and all the applications he wants and use it at least a month, not a couple of days. If he survives (kidding of course) and he still wishes to switch, do it responsibly. Not just rush to switch after Windows 10 EOL and then regret it.

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When you put it this way I 99% agree. Drivers are rarely an issue unless you're on some really exotic hardware. Other than that, right on point.

jimbo45 said:

Good to know -never used to though

Cheers
jimbo.

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I tested it yesterday. And yeah it used to lag behind. But not anymore

jimbo45 said:

Not being nasty - but this is just a hopefully POLITE suggestion.

Just break up your post into blocks rather than having a whole long slew of continuous text even if your post makes 100% perfect sense. -- Much easier to read. Others also should do the same thing. It's usually pretty obvious where the breaks should occur -- all you need is simply to insert a blank line.

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I think that advice applies to many posts here. Once an amorphous blob of text gets large enough, it's much more difficult to quickly read it or understand the contents.

For us old folks, big text sometimes helps too!

jimbo45 said:

Hi there

@LeLibran

Not being nasty - but this is just a hopefully POLITE suggestion.

Just break up your post into blocks rather than having a whole long slew of continuous text even if your post makes 100% perfect sense. -- Much easier to read. Others also should do the same thing. It's usually pretty obvious where the breaks should occur -- all you need is simply to insert a blank line.

That said I do agree with the post !!!

Cheers
jimbo

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Think your asking a little too much here.
Grammar, punctuation, sentence and paragraph construction have gone out the window these days and are no longer taught in school.

with LibreOffice i just have everything set to save in 1997/2003 format .doc etc
that way i have found i dont get any problems opening anything in other office programs.

best of luck, Steve ..

XxXxX said:

with LibreOffice i just have everything set to save in 1997/2003 format .doc etc
that way i have found i dont get any problems opening anything in other office programs.

best of luck, Steve ..

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I don't know if this has been fixed in newer versions, but I remember opening a Word document in Open Office and it misplaced the images or tables. Correcting it in Open Office, saving and opening in Microsoft Word again had misplaced objects. Also any colors were different hues from one application to the other. Not ideal if you want to share documents or edit them in different computers.

spapakons said:

I don't know if this has been fixed in newer versions, but I remember opening a Word document in Open Office and it misplaced the images or tables. Correcting it in Open Office, saving and opening in Microsoft Word again had misplaced objects. Also any colors were different hues from one application to the other. Not ideal if you want to share documents or edit them in different computers.

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not really a problem with the computers in my house as all of them run LibreOffice
but LibreOffice is set to save all documents etc in 1997/2003 format .doc etc on all the computers
and no one has yet complained about problems when using the documents on other computers.

best of luck, Steve ..

I didn't have problem to open a Word created document in Open Office and vice versa. The problem was the screwed layout and colors from one version to the other. Colors hue also differ from one Microsoft Office version to the other, but at least the document layout remains intact. I haven't tried latest versions of Open Office and Libre Office vs Microsoft, but if they haven't still fixed that, it is serious. Anyone switching to Linux and running Libre Office will have problems sharing Word documents with Windows users running Microsoft Office. No negligible drawback. And there are likely other similar incompatibilities between a Windows application and a free Linux alternative.

PS: A little Google search suggests to save in .odt (open document) instead of .doc (Word document) to preserve formatting. This is totally BS. If you need to share the file it has to be in .doc that most users can use. Older Word versions cannot use open documents. Also what if there is already a .doc file you want to modify? Save as .odt? You won't have the chance to do that. As soon as you open the .doc file in Libre Office the layout is screwed and you have to fix it!

SlicEnDicE said:

I agree, we tend to find our favorite software and sticking with them. Later switching to something else is difficult for many of us. We tend to be resilient to change.

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Actually, more like there isn't any Linux equivalent to substitute for the Windows software that I would have to lose. Therefore, it doesn't meet my needs.

cheaterslick said:

Actually, more like there isn't any Linux equivalent to substitute for the Windows software that I would have to lose. Therefore, it doesn't meet my needs.

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You don't have to stop using most of your Windows software, Linux supports Wine and it's own app Bottles , both of which allows the running of Windows software on Linux.
I am able to run most of my Windows software on Solus using one or the other mentioned above. And for those I cannot I have found ample replacements for on the Linux side.

Dark Knight said:

You don't have to stop using most of your Windows software, Linux supports Wine and it's own app Bottles , both of which allows the running of Windows software on Linux.

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Sure, if Wine supports your app. If it will play every game you throw at it without it crashing.

I've used it in the past and it won't just emulate everything, ya know...

Dark Knight said:

I am able to run most of my Windows software on Solus using one or the other mentioned above. And for those I cannot I have found ample replacements for on the Linux side.

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Depends on what your needs are. Your needs might not be necessarily be the same as mine.

Like I said, using Wine to run your Windows applications doesn't count. I would have to use Wine for 80% of the applications I use and cannot find Linux equivalent. There is no point installing Linux then. I stick with Windows and have maximum compatibility and performance. All these years we use unsupported Windows versions like XP and Windows 7 with an updated antivirus and never had a problem. Similarly we are going to use Windows 10 after October 2025. Why mess with something else? Security is not enough excuse for me to get through all this trouble, neither free software is. I rather pay a couple of applications and do my job right and easy.

There's a ton of commercial software that supports Linux. Using Linux does not automatically mean you have to go FOSS.

What I've been wondering for a very long time is, why Android Studio is miles ahead in performace and responsiveness under Linux compared to Windows. I can't figure out why it's so darn sluggish on Windows. It's the same set of components and software after all...

cheaterslick said:

Actually, more like there isn't any Linux equivalent to substitute for the Windows software that I would have to lose. Therefore, it doesn't meet my needs.

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Fair enough. Not for everyone if there are special software requirements.

SlicEnDicE said:

There's a ton of commercial software that supports Linux. Using Linux does not automatically mean you have to go FOSS.

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That's not what I said. But many commercial software is available in Windows and maybe in Mac OS, rarely on Linux. And as long as you cannot find an alternative either commercial or free, then it's a deal breaker. Also Mac OS is not desirable as it should be installed on ridiculously expensive Apple hardware. Even if you create a Hackintosh (install Intel Mac OS version on a regular PC or virtual machine), it never has the same functionality as Windows, nor the same range of software. Also there is no official hardware support (drivers) for internal components, as Apple wants to prevent running Mac OS on non-Apple computers. So it is even worse than running Linux. In order of personal preference, compatibility and convenience, I bet for Windows (any version, even XP), Linux (preferably Ubuntu or other well supported distro, not weird unknown distros) and then Mac OS. Smile! I rated Linux higher than Mac OS, so it is not completely crap after all, certainly better than Mac OS in terms of compatibility. I would never willingly choose another OS, but if I was forced to choose between Ubuntu and Mac OS, I would certainly choose Ubuntu for higher hardware compatibility and zero application restriction. Apple deliberately leaves out older computers with every new Mac OS version. We can bypass compatibility check and install Windows 11 24H2 even on first generation Intel Core-I3, but latest apple OS cannot be installed in same age Mac computers no matter what you do! Also it is much harder to track down and download older versions of Mac apps in an attempt to force you buy a newer Mac. Thankfully Microsoft is not Apple. Many current applications still run on Windows 7.

SlicEnDicE said:

What I've been wondering for a very long time is, why Android Studio is miles ahead in performace and responsiveness under Linux compared to Windows. I can't figure out why it's so darn sluggish on Windows. It's the same set of components and software after all...

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I bet this is because Android uses the Linux kernel so, in theory at least, it is easier to port applications and use libraries from one OS to the other. Windows is different and everything has to be ported from scratch. Apart from the probability for incompatibilities, there is also a performance penalty when you emulate something, rather than use it natively.

spapakons said:

Mac OS is not desirable as it should be installed on ridiculously expensive Apple hardware.

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Actually Apple devices are quite cheap today compared to a Windows PC equivalent. That Apple products are expensive is in the past.

My Thinkpad cost me 2200€, while I could get a MacBook with triple the performace and quadruple the battery life for half the price.

The math does not add up no matter how you twist and turn it.

spapakons said:

I bet this is because Android uses the Linux kernel so, in theory at least, it is easier to port applications and use libraries from one OS to the other. Windows is different and everything has to be ported from scratch. Apart from the probability for incompatibilities, there is also a performance penalty when you emulate something, rather than use it natively.

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Android Studio does not use Linux kernel for anything, nor does it emulate anything (unless we talk about the Android VMs, but that's not what I'm talking about. There performace is ok.). It's a programming software like any software on the market for PCs.

What I know for a fact is that Gradle is incredibly sluggish on Windows. It's close to 10x faster on Linux.