I posted this as a comment in another post but when I got done I realized it would probably just be better as its own post. I’m sure I could find the answers I need myself but frankly I trust the userbase here more than most online articles.

As my username hints at, I’m a lawyer. I’m considering starting my own firm as a solo practitioner. I need a computer and/or laptop for it, and as a new business my budget would be pretty tight. I’ve mostly only ever used windows, but I’m getting fed up with the bullshit, so I’m considering going with Linux.

I assume Linux is capable of doing everything I need, which is primarily handling word documents, viewing PDFs, watching evidence videos, and online research. But my concern is that some of the more commonly used video types might have trouble on Linux, or that some of the word document templates I use in Windows might have compatibility issues.

I’m also nervous about using an OS I’m not familiar with for business purposes right away.

So I guess I’m asking a few questions. What is a reliable yet affordable option to get started? Are my concerns based in reality or is Linux going to be able to handle everything windows does without issues? What else might I need to know to use Linux comfortably from the get go? Is it going to take a lot of time and effort to get Linux running how I need it to?

For reference, I do consider myself to be somewhat tech-savvy. I don’t code or anything, but I’ve built my last two home computers myself and I’m not scared of general software management, I just don’t make it myself.

So, yeah, sell me on Linux, please.

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    1 year ago

    I think you should absolutely download a Linux distro or three along with VirtualBox and try it out. Look at a couple different desktops, play with cowsay, have a good time.

    Don’t switch to an unfamiliar operating system on a work machine without doing a lot of learning first.

    Linux itself works in a very different way to Windows. The file system is fundamentally different, for one. You should learn how the Linux file system works, how it’s structured, how users and permissions work, etc.

    You would be amazed the little things I’ve seen people lose their shit over. Give a small example, I saw a guy blow all the way up because Linux doesn’t use the word “shortcut.” You know how in Windows, you can have an icon on your desktop with that little arrow next to it, and it might start a program, or it might open an individual file? In Linux, those concepts are called Launchers and Links respectively. There’s a lot of little details like that. Keyboard shortcuts, what the middle mouse button does, all that kind of stuff is different as well, and that kind of thing even varies between distros.

    You’ll have to learn how to administer the system, how to keep up with updates, how to take and restore backups for your files and for the system. How to secure the system.

    The bigger thing is going to be the software library. The phrase “word documents” stands out to me. There are several different productivity suites and word processors available for Linux, none of them are perfectly compatible with MS Word. In college I found that LibreOffice was perfectly adequate for projects I was doing myself. MLA formatted essay? No problem at all. Group project where you have to work together on a powerpoint presentation? Functionally impossible. I’ve given plenty of talks using LibreOffice Impress for visual aids, it works fine, but it interoperates with MS PowerPoint about as well as my cat does. If you’re expected to communicate documents to other lawyers, the government etc. in .docx format…Linux may not be the best choice at least yet.

    Your Word templates and such would likely have to be converted or redone. You don’t need to install a Linux machine to find that out; you can install LibreOffice on a Windows machine and try it out.

    PDF support is a bit better with the exception of forms. I forget exactly why, which organization was being a little pissy diaper bitch about putting closed source components in an open standard, was it Adobe themselves or the USPS of all people (why do I remember they’re involved?), but PDF forms aren’t well supported in PDF readers and writers available for Linux, and Adobe doesn’t publish Acrobat for Linux. Typing up a word processing document and saving it as a PDF, opening a PDF and looking at it? Those work perfectly fine.

    Viewing videos and that sort of thing, I’ve never run into a problem with that sort of thing on Linux, VLC is present and accounted for, and codecs aren’t the nightmare they were back in the heyday of Windows Media Player.

    Affordable we got. Linux and practically the entire software ecosystem are available for free, and Linux will run very well on computers that Windows doesn’t. I’ve got a Dell here from 2012, it’s got an Intel Core i7 with three digits in the part number, it doesn’t run Win11 and feels like shit running Win10, feels brand new running Linux Mint. You don’t need to buy a brand new top of the line machine to get a decent experience out of a typical Linux distro.

    You expressed some concerns about not being a programmer. You don’t need to be a programmer to use Linux, at least not this decade. It probably helped in the 90’s. I will say though, one of the biggest advantages of Linux is how close at hand scripting tools like Bash and Python are. For example, I have a script that converts .docx files to .pdf files without launching any applications, and it appears in the right click menu when I right click a .docx file so it’s convenient to run. It’s like a two line bash script with a 7 line config file that’s mostly stuff like what text and icon to put in the right click menu. This doesn’t require a degree in computer science. On any platform, you might want to look at an autokeyer, which can save you a surprising amount of time.