<p>Are there any Linux users who can share their experience of using Linux in college? In particular, I'm worried about:
[ul]
[<em>]colleges seem to have recommendations that I wouldn't fall under because I'm not using Win (wrongly called PC) or Mac.
[</em>]Even Win users are recommended to use MS Office. I'm guessing that means OO.o (OpenOffice.org) isn't recommended. I'd by no means, be interested in running MS Office with wine, so if I can't use OO.o, I'm not using Linux for college work.
[<em>]I would be violating the college's anti-virus policy because I wouldn't have any anti-virus installed and even if I did, I doubt it would fall under any scheme that colleges have with anti-virus software. My college seems to provide all students with a copy and will fine students without up-to-date anti-virus if a virus is found on their computer. A Linux installation may not get affected by viruses, but it doesn't detect and heal them either.
[</em>]any other problems with network, etc (college network seems to use a lot of MS products from what I can see from my college account)
[/ul]</p>
<p>Some info, if you'd like:
[ul]
[<em>]I'd be installing Debian testing, if I do use a Linux distro in college.
[</em>]I'm unlikely to major in CS, but will take a few classes
[li]I've done a lot of programming to date and don't use software intended for newbies (I compose emails in vim, for example). So I'm unlikely to need support from college.[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>It would be great to hear other people's experiences!</p>
<p>The School of Engineering at my college actually uses Linux on most of the machines. Runs most of what needs to be run and is a lot cheaper.</p>
<p>However, some things need to be run on a Virtual Machine of XP (mostly CAD software). They VM’s installed on certain machines.</p>
<p>You should be fine. Open Office can mess up the formatting sometimes, you need to be conscious of that if working between the two. But as you probably already know, it’s mostly compatible. If you work exclusively in Open Office and print, etc, from there, it’s not an issue…if you’re working with people that are using MS Office you need to be careful.</p>
<p>I’m surprised they fine students in that manner. My college really pushes antivirus software, but it’s not an actual requirement. They will suspend your account if they find viruses being spread from it (with good reason, too), but I believe once you take care of the problem there are no additional repercussions. Unless you really think you’ll be spreading viruses…I don’t think there will be an issue.</p>
<p>I am an avid Linux user and I assure you that you will have no problems running Linux on campus. College recommendations are often written by people who don’t understand the world of computing, most people are familiar with windows and mac, not everyone is familiar with Linux. As for MS Office, in my experience openoffice has accomplished everything I have ever wanted to do. As long as you stay away from some of the really off the wall editing and formatting techniques (that 99.999% of the population does not even know exist) you will be fine. and if in doubt just save your openoffice documents as . doc (multiple formats are available in a drop down menu on the save screen) if it is not already the default. You won’t have any problems with the college network either, most modern Linux distro’s integrate seamlessly with Windows/Mac networks, including the various apps used on said networks (such as login prompts and such).</p>
<p>The only problem I see is the Antivirus. Depending on who your school has a contract with there may or may not be a Linux version of their software. If the school issues fines for not being up to date with their software this could turn out to be a problem. So in my opinion this would be the only issue you are facing. Everything else will be a smooth transition unless you are an avid gamer. I have to keep a windows dual boot on my desktop so I can play MW2. Thanks alot DirectX</p>
<p>Edit: I should add that my experience with openoffice/microsoft office is mostly with the Word application. I cant personally verify that Power point presentations transfer seamlessly under all circumstances, the few times I have had to open Microsoft Power point documents on my computer it has worked without a hitch. Hopefully someone else will chime in who has done more with Power point than i have.</p>
<p>I’ve had the same OO.o experiences both of you have mentioned. I’ve never really had any problems with MS formats. All my college applications were written on and sent from a Linux machine and I was accepted.</p>
<p>There was a bug with some kind of formatting for the older MS formats that was fixed recently, apart from that I’ve never had any reason to complain. I’ve occasionally had problems with PowerPoint files, but I’ve heard that if they’re stored in Microsoft’s new Open XML format, OO.o works very well.</p>
<p>The anti-virus remains my main concern at the moment. The fine (and suspending connections) happens if I am found affect by a virus. I’ll only transmit a virus if I edit or forward a file that I got from someone else who was affected already (probably in the college). </p>
<p>I can see two ways to look at it:</p>
<p>I got the virus from someone else, so it isn’t my fault. Also, I’m not affected, so I won’t spread it the way vulnerable Windows computers will.</p>
<p>However, someone could still say that I didn’t scan the files I sent out beforehand and so I would’ve stopped the virus from spreading if I did actually have an AV.</p>
<p>The AV we have been asked to use is Symantec AntiVirus. I don’t know whether Symantec actually maintains a Linux version of their AV. Even if they do, I couldn’t share the license if I dual boot Win and Debian, right? So if I do use a Linux distro as my primary OS, then I’d do it without an anti-virus.</p>
<p>Should I contact the college and find out about the anti-virus policy for Linux users? I’m sure that CS majors will have (at least) used a Linux distro at some point, so the college should know what they do then.</p>
<p>I tried to use a Win computer recently for an hour or so and I didn’t enjoy it at all. After three years of using Linux distros, I can’t see myself using Windows.</p>
<p>mechmark2013 - It’s Powerpoint that I actually have the most trouble with. A presentation created in Open Office and saved as a .ppt seems to work well in MS Office…but presentations created in MS Office often get a bit messed up in Open Office. Nothing that’s not resolvable though…but there is occasional text that is misaligned or off the screen, etc.</p>
<p>My school uses the Symantec AV too - they let you install it on as many machines as you want, even encouraging your parents to put it on home machines. I refuse to use it.</p>
<p>My school doesn’t have a version for Linux, which they do support.</p>
<p>tiebam:
I did a quick search on symantec and confirmed my belief that they do not make a Linux version. Well they do, but it is an earlier release version. And you mentioned having to be up to date so that doesn’t help you any. I would contact someone at the school specifically in the CS department because I would be surprised if there hasn’t been a CS student who was/is running linux at some point in their education. I’m a CompE major and I wouldn’t dream of running anything but Linux. So there must be others like me. </p>
<p>user_007:
Yea as I mentioned above I don’t do much with power points, the few I have used have seemed to work just fine, but most prof’s here use *nix systems (mostly mac and some Linux) So it is very possible that my power points are being created in open office natively hence my not having any problems. I realize Microsoft office is available for mac but I just cant see prof’s who advocate the use of open source software using MS Office. That being said there is a fair bit of potential for .ppt files created in MS Office to not work right in open office. For starters MS Office has some layouts and text space styles that open office does not. So I can see how you would have the problems you do. I’m just fortunate I haven’t had any issues yet.</p>
<p>In that case, I’ll go to college this fall and dual boot my laptop. If there aren’t any problems, I’ll use Linux as my primary OS. Even in a small school like mine, I’d imagine there’d be at least one CS major running Linux.</p>
<p>I use Linux on my desktop at home and I’m not sure whether to put it on my laptop or not for college. It seems Linux has compatibility issues with laptop hardware, especially ATI GPUs. Also I’ve heard of various hardware problems between Linux and Envy 15s so I’m hesitant to put it on my Envy 14.</p>
<p>I’m just wondering, does booting Linux as a virtual OS inside a host Windows OS solve hardware compatibility issues?</p>
<p>I don’t think so. I’m having troubble downloading the drives for advanced effects in ubuntu and mint 9 on my desktop. I just ran mint 9 in a VM and it still didn’t work.</p>
<p>IMHO running Linux through VM inside Windows defeats the purpose of running Linux. I run Linux because of the greatly reduced system overhead, I don’t know any specifics about the ATI driver problem you mentioned, I do know that nvidia cards run great. Ubuntu 10.04 will prompt you upon install saying “proprietary drivers are available for your video card” click install and be done. But I cannot verify this works with ATI as I do not own any computers with ATI cards. What VM are you using? I have had good luck with virtualbox. Lower system overhead than VMware player and VMware fusion. In virtualbox I have run both ways, linux in windows and windows in linux. As for VM fixing hardware compatibilities, generally not. A true hardware level virtualization will still suffer from any hardware compatibility issues that a native install would. Unless of course you simply do not use that piece of hardware (a wireless card for example). Software level virtualization could overcome small hardware compatibility issues. But don’t count on it.</p>
<p>Have you ever heard about ClamAV? It’s designed percisely to protect against the issues you’re worrying about. Also, as long as you’re not dealing with executables, it’s really hard to have a virus pass thru as a payload after you’ve edited the file in Linux. Chances are, you’ll notice that something’s wrong because the virus throws a hissy fit for not being compatible with Linux.</p>
<p>I’m using Arch Linux on most of my systems, and they’re compliant with my campus’ minimum security guidelines. When I absolutely need Windows, I run Windows in a VM.</p>
<p>That sounds great. I’ll install it on my laptop once I get it. I doubt I’ll be dealing with executable a lot, and certainly not Windows ones. </p>
<p>I’m guessing now that even though ClamAV won’t help me reach the minimum (recommended?) requirements by the school, ClamAV will make sure I don’t inadvertently send out a virus someone else sent me. </p>
<p>Again, I doubt there’d be a problem without ClamAV also, because I won’t be “infected” so I won’t be spewing out viruses like an infected Win machine would. But I’ll install it to reduce the (already tiny) chances of being fined.</p>
<p>"Have you actually contacted your school’s IT department to get a clarification on using Linux?</p>
<p>After all, if you push the definition a bit, the use of Linux itself, which cannot run Windows viruses, can be considered an anti-virus. "</p>
<p>You are correct that Linux cannot run Windows viruses, however Linux can and will still pass certain viruses on, like email attachments that you receive and forward to others. Perhaps this is what the school is worried about?</p>
<p>i think you should dual boot windows 7 and linux just to be on the safe side
many compilers are available for linux, but just in case some software isn’t available, a dual boot is more convenient than a virtual machine</p>
<p>if your worried about open office, just make sure you save your files in rtf so that it can be opened in windows, mac os or linux
personally i dont like openoffice impress, so I still use microsoft office for presentations, but there are also web apps that work really well for presentations such as prezi.comsliderocket.comlive-documents.com</p>