Retired, finally, got a new laptop. Need advice for a free software

[Glug]

If you're using your computers for (your) business, or collaborating with others on a project, Linux is dead-in-the-water.

That sounds just like the generic FUD schtick from IBM salesdroids and business partners I've heard for decades, about any product they did not sell, right up until the moment they were told to push it. Same from the microsoft evangelists.

[flathead4]

Is it worth it? Without a doubt.

Cheers,
Jon

You did preface that with, "In your experience" so you know that whether it is "worth it" is subjective. For those that have the time or interest and enjoy the chase, it might be worth it. For countless others it's not. However, both have their place and I doubt either one will ever replace the other.
I spent a couple months back in the 90's setting up a Linux workstation, scrounging for freeware, learning how to connect to Windows shares and vice versa. But at the end I just did not see any advantage to me and abandoned the effort. I could usually afford to buy the software I needed and trying a dozen freeware programs to find one that did what I wanted got old after a while.

[Jon Heron]

You can type the name of the windoze app in the search bar here to see if it will run in linux without any interventions. https://appdb.winehq.org/
Cheers,
Jon

[Jon Heron]

Not compatible with any major business software, such as MS Office, Adobe, Fusion 360, Mach3, etc.

If you're using your computers for (your) business, or collaborating with others on a project, Linux is dead-in-the-water.

Not in my experience. I have used mine for business as do countless others. I design things in CAD (freecad) for my 3d printer, collaborate with windoze users who are using office and have not had any issues with adobe either. Wine is so good now you can even run photoshop and countless other windoze applications trouble free on it.
You could of course also dual boot with windoze or run it in a VM if had to, I have not.
Is there a learning curve? Absolutely! Is it worth it? Without a doubt.

Cheers,
Jon

[goose]

Linux for the win,
Jon

Not compatible with any major business software, such as MS Office, Adobe, Fusion 360, Mach3, etc.

If you're using your computers for (your) business, or collaborating with others on a project, Linux is dead-in-the-water.

[J Tiers]

Linux for the win, ...................
No need for antivirus either.
Have fun,
Jon

USED TO BE..... there is apparently now malware for Linux as well as Apple.

[Jon Heron]

Linux for the win, FOSS is the only way to go IMO.
I prefer fedora https://getfedora.org/en/workstation/
Been using it for around 15 years now, no need to buy anything, ever, during that time.
No need for antivirus either.
Have fun,
Jon

[Glug]

Those are the bare minimum to make a computer useful, free software isn't worth spit.

You better tell amazon to return that money they've made from running on linux for 21 years.

[goose]

Nobody is talking about an antivirus program.

Bitdefender $100 a year. Best out there.

Microsoft office 365 $100 a year

Cheaper than daily coffee.

Those are the bare minimum to make a computer useful, free software isn't worth spit.

[RB211]

Oh, and if you do pay for Fusion360, it comes with Eagle for PCB’s

[lakeside53]

.... Windows Security app, which includes the antivirus and firewall. My computer came with a trial version of McAfee, I will delete it a little later. But I read somewhere that Windows Security is only good for MS Edge and MS Internet Explorer, I will be using Google Chrome. I have seen good reviews on Kaspersky Security Cloud Free, anybody tried that one?

That's actually not true... Defender (built in windows AV) is damn good (we test the crap out of all these at work, and just ditched Symantec after 15 years on over 1200 machines)) , just "better" with Edge as that browser has more exposed hooks for their AV. "Internet Explorer" should not be run unless you have some ancient web serving app that needs it (urgh); I have 2). We run "Cloudstrike" AND Windows security to minimize/nail external and internal/local events.

I use Chrome and Edge at the same time. I prefer Edge for many reasons, including Vertical tabs, sleeping tabs (I have 127 instances open right now ), PDF support, editing, etc. . For those of you that haven't tried Edge for a year or two, test it... you might be surprised...

At home (not connected to the corp VPN), I run Windows Security alone.

[I make chips]

You can't. It's also used just for internal stuff, as I understand it. Chrome is huge spyware......edge is pretty much spyware Firefox isn't so much.

Not that I have anything to spy on but yeah, it just pisses me off they put it on your machine even if you click no. Then it runs in background even though you're not using it.

[mikey553]

Thank you guys, plenty of good info to think about. In the meantime I have managed to install my old MS Office 2007 and it seems to be working, maybe with limited functionality. PDF editor problem is solved as well, at least for now.

Nobody is talking about an antivirus program. Windows 11 has Windows Security app, which includes the antivirus and firewall. My computer came with a trial version of McAfee, I will delete it a little later. But I read somewhere that Windows Security is only good for MS Edge and MS Internet Explorer, I will be using Google Chrome. I have seen good reviews on Kaspersky Security Cloud Free, anybody tried that one?

[Mike Amick]

As far as office is concerned, you don't need to do the 365 route. You can still buy office 2019 stand alone without the monthly script. And if you look
on ebay there are people selling unused corporate licenses for under ten bucks. Office 2019 is a free download, you just have to register it
with a license. I have installed dozens on these and there is no problem. You do have to follow the somewhat involved instructions to install
but it's not that bad. Do note that ebay frowns on these and deletes them when they notice them, so you have to catch them while they are up.

The main difference with 365 is 365 automatically upgrades the modules to the new versions.

[Glug]

You should try a virtualization environment, like Virtualbox. It is free. You can use it to run virtual machines of many types - linux, windows xp/7/etc. Even DOS.

You control the resources available to the virtual machines - how much CPU, disk space, whether it has network access, if it has access to a directory you share with your primary OS. It is surprisingly easy. It is a way to try new apps or old apps, while keeping your primary OS 'clean'.