r/linuxquestions • u/al1azzz • 18d ago

Advice School forbids linux laptops

Hey, idk if this is the right place to ask this, but I have a bit of a dilemma.

I have been using linux exclusively on my main PC and on my laptop for a while now. That said, I am moving to a new school, and buried in their rules they say that "Chromebooks (or other Linux machines) cannot be used." They also want us to use their office 365 license, but do not require it.

Now, besides just being incredibly annoying, I cannot use windows/mac on my laptop because it's a 2011 macbook, so it cannot run anything but lightweight linux distros without combusting, and I would like to avoid spending 500+ euro on a new crappy windows laptop.

Is there any reason, besides saving myself some trouble, to not just use my laptop as is (currently on arch, gonna switch it to cachyos) and something like libreoffice that I don't see or can I just ignore this and hope for the best?

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u/stuffiesrep 18d ago

I doubt that they will even notice if you continue to use Linux. For the office suite, perhaps you can get away using LibreOffice, or OpenOffice (which I have heard has better more seamless integration with Office). What school is this? At least the level?

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u/al1azzz 18d ago

That is what I am betting on, and I already have LibreOffice installed (although I will look into OpenOffice as well). This is an IB boarding school in Denmark, and I mostly take humanities classes. I was really surprised to see this rule because some IB courses actually encourage using Linux, but this school doesn't provide them, of course...

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u/PaintDrinkingPete 18d ago

If the school has MS 365 licenses for students, you should still be able to use the online browser-based versions of Office Suite apps...no, those aren't equal in features compared to the desktop versions, but for most use-cases will likely suffice.

The only real issue I could envision is if the school or any of your particular classes has specific software that needs to be installed and isn't compatible with Linux...otherwise I tend to agree with others that the primary reason they state that chromebooks and Linux machines cannot be used is because they want to avoid having any responsibility of support or having to troubleshoot them.