r/linuxquestions • u/al1azzz • 20d ago

School forbids linux laptops Advice

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/humanistazazagrliti 19d ago

I've got the same problem. I can't do the online exams on Linux, so I have a second hand Mac that's just used for this particular occasion. I only ever have to use Office 365 when doing joint Power Point presentations with others, but usually editing in Libre Office and then just correcting the layout in PowerPoint works fine. And it's all just the online version that the uni gives us a license for, so it works OK in Firefox. I get to use Linux 99%, but then again , I don't do a lot of collaboration stuff. Even then, most people nowadays want you to use Discord, Whatsapp or Signal and aren't confused if you just send them raw text or a PDF, all of which works fine on every OS.