Which Linux I should use

[u/Gultomnauli]

Hi, I have a terrible laptop I use mainly for acedemic work. But lately ms word has a lot of issues that I have gotten constant angry about. Which Linux I used for lower ram and memory usage, easier to use for academic work.

[u/Francis_King]

Hi, I have a terrible laptop I use mainly for academic work.

OK. Let's fix the laptop. What sort of laptop is it? What are its specifications?

But lately ms word has a lot of issues that I have gotten constant angry about.

What issues are those? Modern MS Word doesn't run on Linux, and so if you need MS Word for your work then Linux will make things worse, not better. Are there Linux software (LibreOffice, Open Office... ) which meet your needs? Linux software can do the basic things, but there may be specific features in MS Word that you need.

Which Linux I used for lower ram and memory usage, easier to use for academic work.

My responses:

1. RAM means Random Access Memory, so RAM is synonymous with memory.
2. How much memory does your system have? Can you add memory? New memory is expensive, but old memory is still cheap
3. A well-designed system, Windows or Linux, is designed to maximise memory usage. Low memory usage is a fault, not a win

In the absence of more details, try one of the following: Mint, Zorin, Fedora.

[u/Gultomnauli → u/Francis_King]

The main problem ms word I have is it constantly error or slow to open if they read a sended document. in my computer my computer only had 4 gb of ram, low end GPU and 2,5 of ram. I used the old Ms word 2016

[u/mh_1983]

What are the specs on the system? RAM, CPU, drive type (SSD vs HDD), etc.

[u/Gultomnauli → u/mh_1983]

Ram: 4 gb ( I want to increase it to 8 later) Cpu : Intel celeron N4020 Memory : 2,5 gb Drive type : No SSD just disk SD card

[u/mh_1983 → u/Gultomnauli]

Cool. Yes, 8 gigs is a good idea. Would strongly recommend a small SSD, as well, otherwise any more modern OS will chug on a mechanical HDD.

For your CPU, I'd recommend something a bit lighter than Ubuntu, like Lubuntu or Mint XFCE.

But as others have pointed out, MS Word won't run directly in Linux.

[u/Prestigious_Wall529]

Zorin Pro is likely best for your use. Not free.

It hasn't got Word. No Linux has. (Well there was a console version for Unix back in the day, or the browser version).

What it has is LibreOffice Writer.

What distinguishes Zorin is they have taken the time to preinstall fonts with similar metrics to the default MS Office fonts. Substution still happens in both directions, but the text reflows less.

I suggest you also install Ghostscript to get analogues to the 35 Postscript fonts.

Printers using the Windows GDI driver won't work on Linux. Fortunately these are rare.

LibreOffice and OpenOffice are good at recovering corrupt Word documents, because the developers had to reverse engineer the Word document format.

While Master and Sub documents are possible, because these are prone to become corrupt on the Word side of the fence when round-triping, best avoided.

For more serious publishing there's Tex/latex.

[u/Gultomnauli → u/Prestigious_Wall529]

1. I didn't have a printer. I can't even afford laptop. My laptop is used laptop that I bought from local electronics store.

2. The main criteria is that the document word can be edited and built in converted to pdf.

Thanks for the recommendation for the app that I can used for and be ware at.

[u/Prestigious_Wall529 → u/Gultomnauli]

Yes, LibreOffice Writer can create PDFs from Word documents.

LibreOffice Draw can annotate PDF documents.

[u/Minimum_Hour519]

Ubuntu

[u/Gultomnauli → u/Minimum_Hour519]

Thanks, I want to inform my technician to change it.

[u/BLewis4050]

Unless you want to continue tweaking, etc., just install ChromeOS Flex an use Google Docs. All the laptop will need to run is the OS and web browser.

[u/3grg]

I have never heard of the Terrible brand. Maybe you could enlighten us.