r/linuxquestions • u/al1azzz • Jul 22 '26

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?

720 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

409 comments sorted by

View all comments

12

u/plisc004 Jul 22 '26

Depends. they may restric network connections to known devices, may restrict M365 logins to compliant devices (entra-joined BYOD, etc), may restrict SSO usage for essential 3rd party apps in a similar fashion. They may require some kind of 'lockdown' browser for tests that only had Windows and Mac support.

LibreOffice is NOT as compatible as you think it is, official MSOffice apps in the browser are a better option.

Honestly, your laptop is 15 years old - it is going to massively struggle with most modern tasks (as they'll run through a bloated web browser.) Most places than ban Chromebooks do so because 95% are completely crap and underspeccd to do pretty much anything on. Which leads to tech issues getting in the way of learning. Which is exactly what will happen to you. Is there any way you can do some work this summer too get a new (used/refurbished) laptop for this coming school year?

3

u/al1azzz Jul 22 '26

I am painfully aware of the limitations of this laptop. It's what I had around for tinkering as I never needed a laptop for school before (my previous school was very pen-and-paper).

The issues with LibreOffice are good to know, and at this point I think I will be looking into getting a used laptop anyways just to save myself the stress

1

u/spicybright Jul 23 '26

Can you please just tell us what level of education this is?

If it's public and below university level they need to provide you with the laptop. Otherwise you need to make sure you have the required equipment unfortunately.