I had an old laptop lying around in home with broken screen. I also had a spare 20 inch TV. So, I installed Linux Mint on the laptop (completely erasing Windows Vista) and attched TV with HDMI to convert it into a viable desktop computer.
So far I am impressed. Some observations:
1. With 3 GB RAM on a 10-yr old laptop, the performance is more than acceptable.
2. I am using LibreOffice 5.4. Calc can open my XLSX files without any problem. I don't have any macros (except few ones) so I am able to update file using Calc and then later modify using Excel in another PC and it works in both ways. There are few quirks though, for example, Calc pivot table can only use SUM but not COUNT (unless I missed it).
3. I have not tested Writer extensively but it opens 200-page long DOCX file (with images and complex formatting) fine. Tested interoperability with Word for 5-6 page long documents and looks good.
4. Impress can open Power PPTX files but after saving formatting looks bit weired when opened in Power Point again.
5. Draw can open Visio files and I think it can be a viable Visio alternative.
6. Base can't open Access files and this is one Microsoft product I really miss in Linux.
7. Most other apps I use are cross platform so just installed Linux version.
8. Still searching for a Linux replacement for (formerly) Google's SketchUp.
9. I installed Office 2007 using WINE but it was buggy. It could open XLS, DOC but not XLSX, DOCX. So not going to use it.
10. As Microsoft Office is now also available as free online version (with some limitations, which does not affect me) I don't envisage much problem using Linux. For emergency I can always open my Windows 7 PCs.
11. My 12-yr old Epson printer doesn't work with Linux. But I don't print at home often and I have Windows 7 PC to rescue anyway.
12. I was contemplating buying an iMac. But now dropped the idea. I'd have faced same software issues after spending ££££ on Apple. I'd have bought Office for Macs (I'd rather stick with Windows instead). Wife is happy since I didn't "waste" money on Mac :-)
13. Linux has improved leaps and bounds in recent years.
14. The other app I miss is Adobe LightRoom. For cataloging photos I still have to use Win 7 PC. I read Darktable is a good alternative but can't be bothered to learn/migrate stuff to a new app now.
15. Some of my work related apps have no Linux equivalent but my current review is purely from my personal stuff perspective.
16. I experimented with Fedora, Ubuntu and Linux Mint and finally settled with Linux Mint.
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Update:
Now Office (Excel, Word, Power Point) works fine after installing via WINE :o)
The trick was to install it via WINE as 32-bit apps (and not 64-bit) and then configuring WINE as Windows XP.
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Using Linux as primary OS in PC - movilogo
