Linux

You're already fed up by Windows, so why use it?

You'll probably be forced to use some Windows programs specific to your profession. You might not have a huge choice.

if you are using latest nvidia hardware and one of your favourite software does not work on Linux. just stay away from it

Linux is stable if you use a distro that's known to be stable, example: Linux mint. This is one of the "just works" distros. There are a couple, but I highly recommend mint. Linux can do all of what you need done, from documents, PDFs to viewing all kinds of videos. I've never once run into any issue doing any of that. You have libreoffice and onlyoffice that have amazing compatibility with MS office. If anything, you can use the MS office suite online and call it a day. Hell, you can use Google's office suite, too. PDFs? Zero worries. Videos are good, too. We do have VLC which basically plays anything you throw at it. However, since you have a business and want to make sure things always work, I do recommend that you keep at least one windows machine in the office for just in case. I don't have a business, but I've always had this one laptop that runs windows. I debloated the shit out of it. Blocked all of the telemetry using Microsoft's own firewall and it's sitting there for just in case.

Edit: forgot to mention that you are always welcome to come here and ask if you needed help. I find the Lemmy Linux community to be extremely helpful. Everyone jumps in to help every time I had a question.

Its fun to open the terminal and learning the language of the computer, even if it disagree with you sometimes. Most times. Also i can do anything, including messing it up irreparably!

As a lawyer you should always use Linux.

Have a LUKS encrypted hard drive.

Video formats? There literally are VLC, ffmpeg and MPV. Every normal format works on every Distro.

Get most apps from Flathub.org, use any Distro you want but I recommend Fedora Kinoite.

Word documents for sure, PDF editing actually too. PDF editing is cursed in itself, but Okular + PDF arranger + Firefox + sometimes GIMP (for actually censoring) work.

Have a look at Stirling PDF, a project combining all of these effords. Its not yet a fully graphical desktop app but this command will work on Fedora Kinoite:

podman run -d \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v /location/of/trainingData:/usr/share/tesseract-ocr/4.00/tessdata \
  frooodle/s-pdf:latest

Then you can use StirlingPDF in your browser by opening localhost:8080

Use any modern Linux Distro and stay away from outdated Desktops like Mint (Cinnamon), XFCE, Budgie, Mate etc.

In addition to all the sound advice you've been give so far, you should have a support contract in case you run into problems and ideally, contract someone to set up your laptop so you have proper encryption, backup etc. You have to consider both meeting the business deadlines, and ensuring the confidentiality and availability of the data. If you want to do this yourself, contract someone to validate your configuration.

It's about being in the free software ecosystem, which is really a licensing issue.

Forcing people to contribute their modifications to software when they are editing free software ensures we're never dependent on the decisions of one entity. This is what the GNU General Public License (GPL) is all about.

If we don't like what someone did, we can take that part out and redistribute a better version that we can continue to modify. This might not matter to someone who doesn't program, but it should.

You don't have to be the one to get your hands dirty with code. Just being a user in the ecosystem opens you up to these benefits. Other people are going to take advantage of them, and you can just piggyback on their work.

I, personally, think it's always just a matter of time before businesses make products worse by charging more/giving less. Look at Adobe. Look at Microsoft. Look at Apple. All of them want to lock people into endless subscriptions because they're dependent on their ecosystem. What happens when Adobe decides they're not charging enough for photoshop? They charge more, and everyone just has to deal with it. Same goes for Office. Same goes for Apple, they just do it the old-fashioned way by charging for the latest versions and making you buy new hardware.

Here's a good discussion on HN about this, including comments from lawyers.

I’m also nervous about using an OS I’m not familiar with for business purposes right away.

Install the latest version of VMware Player (17.5) on your current OS, then install linux distros on virtual machines to figure things out first.

If you settle on any you like, make a full disk image backup, before repartitioning to install linux as a dual boot setup and try it on hardware that way.

Keep the Windows partition around, if nothing else just for games or apps that don’t work on linux, or as your backup working profession setup.

edit: some will recommend VirtualBox instead, but for me (on Windows at least) it always resizes on startup incorrectly and obscures part of the desktop, so I have to manually resize on every VM boot. VMware does it properly each time for me without issues.

Get a MacBook and use apple software if you are a lawyer.

For me I just don't like relying on some company. So if you don't like getting fucking in the ass by tech giants use Linux

Linux is usually light compared to windows, and no nonsense bloatware and faster to run. Plus is customizable.

If you are a lawyer I assume you are looking for stability and prefer simple over complex. So my guess is that Debian(since is the most stable rock solid distro) would suit you, and most importantly is the desktop environment, if you are looking something similar to Windows I would choose KDE Plasma and if you like MacOS interface then Gnome. Both of them are very different but customizable, I find Gnome is simpler and less busy and Plasma is full of features but busy IMO. Oh and Cinnamon desktop environment is best of both worlds I think. If you are concerned about security and encryption then I'm afraid I can't advice you on that. Finally I recommend looking up in "distrowatch" if you are looking for something most specific, most distros come with Libre Office as some of the comments point out. There are some distros specifically made for business wich I would recommend if you go big.

Here is a post I made of my desktop with Gnome so that you can see how it look and feels.

https://feddit.cl/pictrs/image/39b62b9a-ebfa-4d4e-a944-4a58cc765357.png

I love Linux since switching nearly a year ago. Yet, I still once in a while find myself in situations where I screw up and I think to myself "Oh, I'm glad this is not my work computer". If you have no experience with Linux from before, maybe you should consider getting a personal laptop, install Linux on that, and get comfortable using it before transitioning your business to it. That way, the first time you accidentally uninstall your desktop environment (I managed to do this not once, but twice....), it is not 10 minutes before an important client meeting.

zorin os is an out of the box distro that will have all the applications from the start and maximum windows look, feel, and compatibility. https://zorin.com/os/

Get Office 365 subscriptions to use MS Office via web browser.

End of story regarding office apps.

Regarding the rest of the OS, get Ventoy and load it with a bunch of distros and test drive them to see which one you like the most.

Some suggestions to start with:

• Fedora
• Ubuntu
• OpenSUSE

All these have their enterprise variants which could come in handy in the event you need official support when your company takes off.

I personally use Arch on my desktop PCs, but if I couldn't... I would use Fedora or a Fedora based distro.

I use Fedora Server on my homelab.

I chose these because I want the latest drivers for my GPUs, gaming peripherals, and display related improvements (Wayland, Mesa, etc.).

@Sage_the_Lawyer @linux I don't think selling is how it works. You have to be frustrated enough to seek out alternatives to the mainstream, then you find Linux and try it for yourself and it works okay.

Things made by billion dollar companies with a profit motive are almost always going to be better than things made by random people in their spare time - except in areas like privacy.

You're allowed to try it out before committing to it though.

No one will try to sell you anything, not even ads

If your budget is tight, get a used/refurb, but recent model Thinkpad (T or P series) from EBay. Install Linux Mint (I say Debian Edition, since that is Mint's future). It comes with LibreOffice preinstalled. You may want to install standard Microsoft fonts, which aren't included for licensing reasons. You can search for how do do this.

In 1 word : freedom.

Use Linux and computer will devour your entire life just trying to make that thing you want, to work.

I’m also nervous about using an OS I’m not familiar with for business purposes right away.

Keep using what gets the job done. That's what computers are for. Do not switch to Linux.

Linux is vastly superior. I've been on Linux desktop for over 20 years now, I'll never go back.

As a typical example: this weekend I install Linux (with download and making iso) takes 20 minutes, I install windows (first time in decades, something for my son), took fucking 6 hours, 14 attempts, loads of problem searching on internet.

Having said that, there are some things to keep in mind. Linux mostly (to users) is slightly different on a few details, and because of Microsoft, there are some things to keep in mind.

You're a lawyer, so you might have to deal with Microsoft documents. Those you can process with LibreOffice (I don't like it very much, like Microsoft office), google drive (works very nice, but is still closed source, google) or your own hosted linux server with nextcloud and only office (a bit harder to setup but then it's all yours and under your control)

Look into any closed source windows applications that are required. Most windows programs run also under Linux (wine, proton, and these days various other solutions up to a virtual machine with windows for those few exceptions that won't work on Linux for some reason)

Video formats are non-issue, Linux eats everything and mostly out of the box.

Then, Linux has distributions. See it as different car brands. They're all cars, based on the same tech, just different brand names that do details slightly different. You gotta choose a distro (distribution). I HIGHLY recommend either fedora or (my person Lal preference) a Ubuntu variant. I personally have been using kubuntu for over a decade now. The graphical user interface works mostly like windows (just better) and most programs have Ubuntu ready Linux versions available, making installing them super easy. Install VirtualBox (free, as usual) to run windows in a virtual machine if needed, and setup multiple desktops so that you can easily switch to a windows desktop when needed (hopefully, and likely, never)

If you need help let me know

Youre a lawyer just get a mac lmao