Can someone get through college on GNU Linux?
I'd like to never boot into Windows again. I have VirtualBox installed where I can install Windows 11 if I need to but is there anything that it(Windows on a VM) wouldn't be able to do like accessing hardware devices? Thanks in advance
I went to collage back in the early to mid '10s completed my first year on ubuntu before switching to a 50/50 edubuntu/WIndows drive. Some stuff just required exact windows tools and my department head wouldn't allow the gnu alternatives as the course work had instructions for windows 7 programs and was already drawing up win 8 plans for next semester too. But writing reports and learning basics was easy enough with the educational ububtu spin.
Software engineering in Canada in the 2000s. Most of the labs in my university ran Linux, at least in the engineering, math, and science areas of campus.
Personally I ran, depending on the year, LFS (Linux from Scratch), Slackware, or Gentoo (which still lives on that laptop today but also it hasn't been booted or connected to a network in like 10 years).
I think there was only one lab with Windows. We also had a lab of Solaris machines but I bet those are gone now.
No idea what Law, Nursing, and other faculties in the other side of campus used.
Unviable for economics and finance in my experience. Excel is absolutely mandatory for these
Can't use libreOffice and translate the Q code into whatever language libreCalc uses?
At work and in tests you'll be using bloomberg terminals, risk software, etc only available on Windows, so why bother?
Through the web?
Maybe with hypervisors? A windows VM for excel
I rocked Linux when doing my CS degree. It was great, and I felt I had a much better learning outcome than my peers. It will depend on requirements from your uni. I had some trouble with my school's printers (but so did those running Windows sometimes), but we had a web interface we could use. And in one class the lecturer decided that we needed to use Visual Studio. We could use Rider instead but got no support from the lecturer, so I had to figure out some stuff myself. But it was a good learning process.
A lot of stuff was much easier for me to do than my peers. Especially terminal stuff, Docker and other stuff where they often used WSL or VMs. As where I had native tools
Depends on your major, I guess.
My university's CS program basically required GNU+Linux (as I've recently took to calling it). It was great actually.
Hopefully you don't have to use Photoshop, anon.
i'd just like to interject for a moment
I did a bachelor of videogame programming in Belgium 99% on Linux (minus exams), but it was definitely a huge struggle. All the courses and assignments were Windows-only, and 90%-ish required Visual Studio (non-Code) and Windows-only libraries like DirectX or Win32. I got by writing my own tooling to auto-convert these to CMake projects and convincing each teacher to allow me to hand in CMake projects. I wrote SDL backends for most of the win32 assignments, falling back on clang's excellent cross-compiling for stuff that requires e.g Windows.h. I wrote a blog post about this: https://blog.allpurposem.at/adventures-cross-compiling-a-windows-game-engine And using e.g DirectX natively on Linux, easier than expected: https://blog.allpurposem.at/directx
I also wrote a small wiki on my general experience + a summary of courses and main problems encountered... Windows was non-negotiable during exams: https://dae-linux.allpurposem.at/ I maintain tools, converted assignments, and information on this for future students who want to attempt something like me, but it's hard to recommend the Linux challenge if you are totally new to programming!
Hope some of this is helpful!
Honestly, great teachers would have given you extra credit for that work (and possibly used it for future semesters, but let's not get carried away here).
Thanks. I've successfully "upstreamed" some of my patches to some courses, but sadly still most of the education is Visual Studio-based. It's good to see more people in the new years contacting me after asking teachers about Linux and being given my name for help, but of course I want this to be a base part of the curriculum!
Admirable dedication to the cause
I did, and that was a while ago. However, I would say that it would depend on what your degree is on. I had to do a lot of writing so it was fine for 99.99% of the time.
At one point all my assignments were handed in PDF format. A practice that I still do today as a professional. If you must hand in via Word, you may have some issues unless you run MS-Office somewhere. As there is always the risk of minor formatting issues.
For those rare times, maybe use their library or comp. Lab.
I mean you can always use the web version of office for 'free" with a Microsoft account. There's a 100% chance your paper gets used to train AI but still
I did.
However I had to borrow one if the schools Windows computer for final exams because the anticheat spyware didn't run on Linux.
Lol same. Eventually (maybe the fifth exam or so) they just stopped caring about me though, and let me use my own laptop with openSUSE. Zero security, I was even hooked up to their WIFI and could easily have cheated... I didn't though; the only exams where it would have been tempting were hand-written anyway.
It sucks that education institutions care so little for people not using giant corpo microshit though.
It sucks that education institutions care so little for people not using giant corpo microshit though.
Its so bad too.
Our school used ciscovpn for access to the university cluster and web services.
I figured out how to configure openconnect to work properly. And even wrote and hosted documentation for other Linux users to do the same.
However the school had no interest in incorporating my documentation into their VPN help site.
Currently studying Computer Engineering. I did manage to get most stuff working without needing Windows.
It came usually at the cost of extra work, but I'd say it was worth it. So far I even got to writing makefiles for C++ projects targetting some Atmel chip (Microchip Studio is Windows only). And in some cases I even found better tools than what they privided us with.
Unless you need some very very specific program or run into some wierd constrains you will be fine.
I have gotten almost 1.5 degrees running linux my only issue is Lockdown browser. Other than that 0 issues
It depends on what you’re studying. Some majors like accounting might require you to use Excel, for example. On the other hand, when I was getting my BS+MS in computer engineering, running Linux was actually advantageous
I'm going into a Medical Lab Tech program. I know 1 lab tech but he went to school in the 80's. So I'm not sure what software they use now.
What are you studying? Windows VM should be able to handle any programs linux can't run.
Yeah you usually can. LibreOffice works fine for most things. Some classes need things like Solid works that only run on Windows, and the remote testing software can be a nightmare. You might get an O365 license as part of your enrollment but doubt you really need it.
Protip; learn how to typeset your papers in something like LyX and integrate Zotero for citation management. The typesetting usually got me a few extra points alone.
Learning proper typesetting is a great skill anyway, so do it! And yea, I can vouch for the extra credit 👍
Yes, except online exams. The online spyware they make you install for those is designed not to work on a VM or anything like that. I had to keep a barebones windows partition around just for that.
Replying to give you an extra boost. If your courses are remote or have online exams, you may need to install spyware onto your computer. I'm re-imaging my wife's computer this weekend because of it...
I've been using it since high school. Never looked back. The only thing that bothers is annoying professors using privative software. But don't let them define your freedom. Work around "those specific cases" rather than suffering windows just for them.
For me things actually became easier when I got myself a native Linux install instead of Windows. But I guess it depends on your college.
i've been doing cs for a year now with a coreboot'd t440p. if anything, it's gotten me some greetz from my profs, lmao
i've made do with libreoffice just fine, i submit most of my labs in odt without issue
keep a VM for labs in case they require windows, on machine or a home server. pick your poison
Depends on the program and the professors. I'm doing computer scuence at CSUN, and I've gotten lucky, none of the online exams have required any proctoring software (rootkit monitoring software). They just do them in the browser.
I bet you could get through college entirely on your phone if you really wanted to, but it'd suck.
Depends on your course
I got through University running Debian testing. It was mostly fine, some Linux based subjects were way easier without dealing with a VM (they recommended against WSL for some reason).
However there were a couple units that absolutely required you to use Visual Studio (non-code), I occasionally used a VM, the Uni IT also provided me with a remote VM (there's a form to fill and and it's all automated). But I mostly used Rider, which for one unit it confused their CI and I got marked down for (otherwise got top marks so it's fine).
For office, it didn't matter. Group projects mostly used Google Docs, occasionally Microsoft Office where the online version worked fine. All my units wanted PDFs at the end anyway, so it does not matter that you used LibreOffice or whatever. Some units provided you with DOCX templates, I had no issues opening them with LibreOffice.
Edit: People are mentioning online exams, my Uni did 'online quizzes' which worked fine, and some had to be done in class on their PCs anyway. Final exams where always done on paper.
I was studying computer science and at my University in Gothenburg all the lab computers were Linux. We had one course which required Windows because there was one software which never got ported to Linux which we had to use and it was a pain because only one lab room had windows computers and they were constantly booked.
Most probably you'll be just fine.
What software was that?
It was some custom software for emulating electrical wires and very low level stuff, I don't remember much more.
I am 80% done with my bachelors of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering in India. Never had a issue.
It's been a while since I was in college, but I dual booted my laptop with Windows and Fedora for the first couple years then moved exclusively to Fedora. I even wrote my master's thesis using Libre Office.
Unless you come across arcane statistics software or bullshit "education" tools that only exist for Windows that you need, which is possible, you should be good to go. Even then, you might be able to use Wine or find alternatives.
So yeah, go for it! Keep the Windows VM if you want a safety net.
For my classes, certain ones required Visual Studios, but for the most part, you can just run that in a VM (or use JetBrains substitutes if you can). However, if you're doing game design or development, a VM might not preform well unless you have a GPU passthrough setup.
Visual Studio works on Linux, or at least VS Code does
i did
You pretty much need networkmanager for eduroam. If you are a wpa_supplicant enthusiast you need to swallow your pride. Otherwise no issues with using linux for higher education.
Learning Latex for your dissertation will make referencing easier, as an aside.
Damn, everyone using iwd (my favorite), wicked, or connman — those are the only wpa_supplicant alternatives I can think of — is out of luck. God I love iwd, it's so fast...
The official python installer uses wpa_supplicant if it doesn't find NetworkManager. On my debian I was using wpa_supplicant for eduroam only because it could not "find" NetworkManager on my machine.
don't most distros use networkmamager anyway?
If the question is not installing Windows on your own hardware, I’d be willing to say “No problem,” for most circumstances. Not only are campus computers with required software on them, I’m sure you’ve got a testing center available for Windows mandatory exams. Also - I work in a modest community college that has a virtual desktop system available to students at no cost that has Windows and plenty of software titles required by various courses.
Depends on your major. I'm a bio/ecology major and a lot of the tools I used were cross platform or web based.
Also the university I went to did have basic Linux instructions for certain things like connecting to printers and connecting to the internet.
I did Computer Engineering with Linux and Windows on a VM, it worked fine
Depends on what you go for. I got my BS and MS entirely with *nix. There are some niche programs for specific majors which did not have alternatives and/or ways to run on *nix, so don't be disappointed if you can't find a solution.
I did History and Computer science and had no issues whatsoever. Most of my history work was LibreOffice writer saving to PDF or .docx formats. Printing, scanning, and using library wifi was always fine.
Computer Science kind of expected Linux, everything we did there was cross-platform already.
Try it and see. It depends on your professors and what software they want to use for class. I was able to get through college just fine on Linux, but a couple classes were made easier with windows, so I ran a VM for those classes.
You can probably get by on library computers
There are two potential show-stoppers.
Even with tests, don't most universities have library computers or a computer lab that'll suffice instead of using your personal Linux machine?
wine should handle most things not in a browser. in a browser you can switch the user agent or run edge/chrome if needed. ultimately its going to vary by school, class, and instructor if one requires something that won't run in wine. In my experience these almost do not exist because mac is very popular in academia. I mean if you take a photoshop or ms office course or such you may be expecting a bit much.
If you don't mind using the computer labs (are those even still a thing? when did I get so old that I wonder if commonplace things when I was in college still exist?) or a vm for assignments where the professors require the use of MS software. Which is likely just the intro computer class they use to make sure the kinesiology majors know how to use office.
Of course, there's also learning management software which is universally broken, so I wouldn't be surprised if some of it still required IE6.
There are workarounds to almost every issue you may have. You can run Windows in a VM for software that requires it, or dual boot. M$ Office can be ran in a browser now. There is no reason to buy a license, just DL windows10 direct from M$ and never register, all they do is lock you out of some display options and add a watermark to your desktop.
Last I checked, Pearson doesn't allow Linux for remote tests, nor will they let you use a VM.
I know there were ways to skirt their VM detection, but is that worth the risk for 10s of thousands of dollars in your education?
I made it through college as a Mac user in the mid 90's which had a lower market share than Linux does now. If I was a college now I'd probably get a reasonably powerful business notebook and run MacOS, and Windows in a VM so I wasn't left wanting.
Dualboot and check what software they use. If you can get away with only Linux then you're good. I personally always have a copy of windows available on a separate SSD in case I need it. Sometimes I take months on end without booting into it.
I also have basically only my personal experience to go off of (from studying computer science), but I never had to plug hardware into my laptop. Printers were available over the network and the one time we worked with hardware, they had dedicated lab PCs there, which had the necessary software pre-installed.
From what I've heard on the internet, that's quite a common theme. Lots of hardware equipment is ridiculously expensive, so you don't go buying new equipment when accompanying software doesn't work on newer operating systems anymore. Instead, you keep a PC around with that old OS and the software, specifically for operating that hardware.
I did, Manjaro Linux on a laptop that started on windows 8. I did have meny teacher get upset I was not using the programs they recommend. I did CIT with a minor in web dev and design. It was not always easy but I feel it was worth it when my Uni used proctorio to do testing remote. Protorio is basically a virus or almost a rootkit. I was able to do my testing in-person because I didn't own a windows or Mac computer.
