this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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That's fair, but at the same time as you mentioned most people use Windows because their computer comes with it. Now, while generally just browsing the internet and doing office work is simple even on Linux - what happens when they do run into a problem (say my coworker, who ran into graphical glitches with Fedora when not using safe graphics mode)? How likely are they going to have someone around them who uses Linux to help them troubleshoot the issue? When they try to work on a document that they've gotten from work, or school, then submit it only to find out that Libreoffice mangled the formatting causing it to render completely incorrect to everyone else whose using Windows at their workplace/school. How many of those folks are going to have an IT team at said place whose able to help them correct the issue?
You and I would be around to help with that (if its possible - using Libreoffice again as an example, there are some cases where MS Office just does not agree with the way LO saves documents), but given that Linux users are many order of magnitudes less than Windows users - this is just not likely to be the case for the average population.
I get that this is definitely a "Chicken & Egg" problem of course, but the reality is that this is the current situation, and short of Microsoft royally pissing off not only users but PC manufactures, this isn't likely to change...
You do realize that Microsoft office deliberately messes up formating in documents. Libreoffice follows the file format standards but also implements fixes for issues with the bad file from Microsoft office.
I'm honestly surprised Microsoft hasn't gotten in trouble for this
Right, yes - I'm fully aware that LO follows OOXML's spec (the name "Office Open" being ironic), but that's still missing the point of what I was saying. If you turn in a homework assignment that your teacher/professor can't properly read because you saved it using LO and they're using MSO, its not going to be accepted no matter how much you tell them that its Microsoft's fault. Same thing if you try to submit a Powerpoint presentation to another department at work. Or if you try to submit a spreadsheet to some government department.
Honestly the only time I've really had that issue is if I'm trying to use an Excel or Word document with a lot of macros. For basic text which is what 99% of people need I've never had any issues opening or saving a word document with LibreOffice, and I regularly submit documents to government offices because I work for a county department in my area.
I wanna add that having a phone, or a laptop, a second reliable device, has made troubleshooting so much less scary. Something breaks entirely? I have another portal to the search engines.
Absolutely! I know the first time I installed Arch before the lovely days of
archinstallI ended up doing a lot of reading of the wiki through my phone haha!