I was thinking … after my initial step in switching to Linux on almost all machines at home, what are still some tools which I am depended on and still use them daily. Honestly, the result at one hand surprised me and on another motivated me to do a regular assessment and iteratively improve on it.
As you might know, I have switched to Linux a few months ago with the clear goal in mind, cut the dependency of the Microsoft Operating System. Now this was possible on almost all machines at home, but I am having difficulties switching all of them (there is only one remaining to be honest), mostly to the fact that I have paid applications on which I still rely upon which don’t have a pendant in the Linux world. Let’s check it our together …
Microsoft Office
Now this is an application which can be, from my perspective, easily replaced with the Linux alternatives out there. From the classical LibreOffice to the newly Wordcraft options, for home use, I would argue you normally don’t truly need MS Office. Nevertheless, when trying to quit the program, replacing it with something free I found myself in the situation that I couldn’t do it. I have a family subscription from Microsoft and Office is not installed only on my machine but also on 3 different family members. As I am the only one with an affinity to IT, the change would mean to instruct my relatives to suddenly use something different. You might think, so where is the problem? Well, only someone who did troubleshooting or installation to family members, would understand the struggles which come with such a change. I will definitely move away from Office, but at least at the moment such a change is not possible.
Davinci Resolve
Video editing is a hobby of mine and the tool of my choice remains Davinci Resolve. There are other software alternatives out there like KDENLive, Shotcut or Openshot which do 90% of the work. I have tried them all and I am always reverting to Davinci because
a. I have the Studio version, bought years ago and the updates are still coming. Amazing support for the software
b. The interface and way of working building a video are of my liking.
c. Installation of Davinci Resolve is somewhat of a pain in the ass with no success guaranteed. Whipping my last Windows machine, only to find out that Davinci is no longer functioning properly, is not something I am willing to do yet.
Missing installation clients for some programs, like for example Claude. I know it is possible to use it in the terminal, but I like my clients installed locally. Linux has made immense steps into mainstream, being actively pushed on all platforms, ex. Linus Tech Tips, but it still needs some time. With programs like REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) software development took an interesting turn, from my perspective for the better. The offered clients, suddenly included Linux installations for programs which historically were the main reason why people were being “stuck on Windows“. Yes, the software is not polished, yes, there are features missing or inconsistencies in the usage but let’s take a step back and recognize the fact that we are talking about software which existed only for a few weeks. The support from the community is immense and the rate of improvement is simply insane, so we need to wait…
And pretty much that is it. All other software like VSCode, OBS, Krita, Blender, Darktable, Spotify etc are available on Linux and work perfectly fine. These are only some of the software I use regularly and my Windows machine is slowly but surely being decommissioned. It might take some time, with the reasons mentioned forehand but with enough patience I am sure Linux will replace it as well.
What I know for sure, when I will buy a new computer in the distant future, it will definitely won’t come with a Windows License on it. Or Microsoft will change it’s strategy and give back the power over it’s OS to the user and it will surprise us all. I highly doubt it but a 0.1 possibility still remains there…
What do you think? Should I close these last points and switch to Linux completely or you agree with a cautiously optimistic strategy which I took to wait a bit?
Bis zum nächsten Mal, TFG
