I’ve done basic Linux server administration over the years (I know enough to be dangerous), but I haven’t used Linux on the Desktop since the early '00s. Stuck with Windows, eventually over the years ended up with a setup where I ran CentOS in a VirtualBox + cygwin. It worked fine, but I always wanted to have a real console centric OS, tile-based wm. I kind of emulated it on Windows with a tool called MaxTo, but it never of course was the real thing.
But last weekend I decided to just nuke my work laptop (I have a stationary as well). Being out of the loop I didn’t know what distro to choose, but Arch’s rolling release strategy appealed to me and I knew I wanted to use i3. EndeavourOS was high on distrowatch, had an i3 edition so went with that.
Just wanted to say thanks for your great distro, and how easy it was to get going. I particularly liked how you encouraged the user to explore and learn. The config for i3 was very comprehensive, and great at giving pointers.
I have a long way to go, but after a weekend of hacking I know have a setup I feel have easily surpassed my old Windows installation. I’m sure you’d hate my i3 config with bindings that make sense to only me and decades of muscle memory
Though not EndeavourOS specific, I was very glad to see the state of the Linux desktop. I don’t really care about the political part of free vs non-free, so I was very happy to get things like snap and Chrome up and running. Spotify, IDEA IntelliJ Ultimate, Sublime just there with a click via Snap store.
I’ll probably install Windows 10 in a VirtualBox for Office (I really need some features as part of my work), but I was very impressed that some niche Windows applications I was very very used to (but I was ready to ditch them and find something Linux native) “just worked” via Wine.
All in all, suddenly it became fun to use the computer. I’ll definitely be migrating my desktop as well. And I have about 20 years of Linux desktop centric knowledge to catch up on!
I assume you have already looked at native solutions like LibreOffice and deemed them unsuitable for you?
If not, do, because I freely interchange all document types (but basic functionality) with people on Windows w/o much issue.
@dbarronoss I’ll of course give it a try, but I’m somewhat often exposed to very particular Word and Excel files. I can’t imagine that LibreOffice could properly handle them.
That is one piece that I’ve never been able to remedy. We work with shared calendars, Office groups and shared mailboxes which only seem to work in Outlook. I’ve done testing with various mail applications and Thunderbird was very close with the use of some plugins but in the end it never worked well enough to be a replacement. I still dual boot EOS and Windows because there are certain apps (Outlook included) that simply don’t work on Linux.
The other thing that sucks with Outlook is that the online version is still missing features and the Wine rating is at a bronze. I wish I could get rid of Windows but I just can’t seem to escape it
For the most part if you’re only running Office suite apps, running it in a VM is totally fine. I unfortunately also have to use Adobe apps so I kind of have to keep a windows install. If you’re running it in a VM I would just make sure you have proper licensing on your account as Microsoft sometimes blocks you from doing multiple office suite installs.
Went ahead and installed Windows 10 Pro yesterday in a VirtualBox machine. Installed Office 365 and now I can access all functions I need. Sure, it is a little awkward to have to boot up Windows, but it works well enough.
Hello! Seems we have the same feelings towards free/non-free open source things. I found FreeOffice is a good alternative to MS Office and even used it when I was still in Windows 8.1 and 10. Almost 1 to 1. Hope this helps with your office needs
Welcome to the community, and you’re right … it’s a great distro! I no longer distro-hop.I think I’m going now on 3 years with EOS. Previous I was on popOS for about 2 years.
Now you’ve got to install flameshot and share some screens
Wouldn’t make any sense to share screen shots of my setup. It’s purposely very minimal and boring
I have no gaps between windows. Background is completely black (because I never see it anyway). No transparency. I did however add a 1 px red border around the active window as a luxury feature (not present when I only have 1 window)…
Thinking of even disabling the notification system (dunst). Stop interrupting me…
- Forum and the great community !
