I have grown up around Linux and have had people like my dad use it near me my whole life. I even booted a fedora version once on a very old machine when I was younger as a way for my dad to teach me about Linux. Sadly I never really caught on at the time.

I am ready to really jump in now. Is there a beginners guide/pros cons comparison for different distribution of Linux? I am also curious about how well things like matlab, solidworks, and Office suit/libra office work in Linux.

Thank you!

  • chillhelm@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    Matlab exists for Linux and is the same as on Windows. LibreOffice is a fully functioning office suit for Linux.

    I can’t speak to SOLIDWORKS, their website only lists a windows version. There is however some community work being done here https://github.com/cryinkfly/SOLIDWORKS-for-Linux And it looks like they have it running.

    Given that Fedora and Ubuntu are listed on that github, you should probably start with either one of those.

    For a complete beginner I’d recommend Ubuntu, since it’s a solid distro with huge wealth on online support available.

      • hinterlufer@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        If you’re coming from Windows, or like the windows look then I’d recommend trying the cinnamon flavor of Ubuntu (or straight up Linux Mint which is also Ubuntu based).

  • rambos@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    Does solidowrks exist on linux? CAD software is almost the only thing that holds me back from switching to linux completely.

    Im not sure about matlab, but checkout R

    • bonzo22English
      1·
      1 year ago

      R really isn’t a great replacement for matlab. I’m not as familiar with it but I think octave would be the better choice. Obviously Python as well but that’s a step away from these languages.

      • SkipWapPallyPap@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I have taken some python classes and can see how powerful it is. When I took it though since I have taught myself Java and some C++ it was weirdly hard to understand because of how loose some of the syntax and mechanics were.

        • bonzo22English
          2·
          1 year ago

          If you already feel that away about python you should definitely stay away from R 😂 great language with a stats focus but man it’s way too loose with some stuff

  • dashbuck@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    For office suite, if you deal a lot with MS office formats, you might get a better experience with Onlyoffice (FOSS). You also have the option of web based office suites (Google docs, office 365 etc.)

    You might like to take a look here at some alternatives to solidworks, too.

    I guess they won’t be as powerful as SOLIDWORKS though.