I use the predecessor of Libre, openoffice.
IMHO...
Many, many, many file formats, covers all the bases I need.
In other words, you have word docs, excel, project management, graphics, slide presentation files in the m$ format, or in the native openoffice / libre formats.
They are a full office suite, you can exchange files with people using windoze, just save in their format.
Download a powerpoint presentation from a website ? Just run it ! It works. Your bank has the ability to download Excel files of your bank activity ? Download and boom, openoffice / libre can read them.
Also very cool is that there is a windoze version of openoffice (I assume so for libre). You know, that version is a windoze program that runs on M$. So you can get friends & family to run that version even if they don’t switch to unix (oops, linux) right away. I find the user interface to M$ office programs, every new version, wacks out with all these cutesy graphical junk things - and everything changes in where its located. A new version of Excel is thus a pain in the neck to re-learn how to do what you used to do. My old openoffice does not try to be cute, it is pretty straightforward. I hope after I upgrade it will be just as easy - I think it will.
In addition to openoffice, Linuxes have a decent working email client as well, just point it at your email server and go.
Linuxes also allow you to download software like Gimp that lets you create or edit existing pictures.
As always, learn about the operating system you are running in terms of security ! Lock down your PC.
Most windoze users simply don’t do that. And to a large extent, windoze is designed to have more open doors and be be more confusing for the local admin (you). But linux/unix also needs to have its security doors closed. Hour for hour spent learning, you’ll be more effective on linux at doing that. Linux has more upfront learning time since it’s such a broad operating system. But the nice thing is your old knowledge for the most part does not have its usefulness disappear with the next version. People who worked with unix in the 1960s could sit right down and be productive on a modern unix. If you knew Win95 well, a lot of your knowledge was win95 specific and has been superseded by 1,000 times more things you should learn. There are whole “frameworks” that never existed in win95, things work very differently.
Agreed. I have wanted to switch to a Linux desktop for a long time.... just never seemed to find the time to get one the way I wanted it, though I have come lose.
I spent some time with RedHat and fedora, early FreeBSD, Debian, etc. Set up a CentOS webserver for a non-profit.
Really just want a simple desktop for 80% of my computing needs with the ability to get into the weeds as the need arises.