How easy would it be for you to shift to Linux

sentinel555

Hi,

I know a lot of you mainly use web-based tools and systems anyway. But could you ditch Microsoft Office in favour on LibreOffice and use Linux-based PDF tools instead. It's not that difficult. I think I have booted into Windows about twice in the last year.

I use Linux and OpenBSD day in and day out. Who the hell wants to pay for Windows software when there are free open-source equivalents.

So, my question is, are there any work-related applications that are Windows-only and you can't work without them ?

Neil

benjaminfabi

Hi Neil

I think it's great that there is diversity of solutions and you should definitely use what works best for you. I really don't see the cost of Microsoft as an issue and it would actually cost me a lot more not to use it.

I pay £12 pm for Office 365 business premium (using less than half of what it provides for that price) and about £500-£700 on hardware every couple of years.

The time cost of switching to anything else is huge.
The data security certification of open-source would add costs.
The support comes from a user base that will naturally start at a much higher level of technical ability, which I don't have, and will therefore cost me more to buy in dedicated specialists (as there will be fewer IT service providers offering the support and they'll also be more qualified).

richallum

I did try Linux a few years ago and hit quite a few issues. We have switched most of our work to Google Docs and find it very good but still have to keep Office 365 as clients use it. That was the big thing with Linux, need to be able to work with documents in a format clients use.