There are hundreds of Linux desktop distributions (known as distros) out there. For this job, I recommend Oracle’s great free VirtualBox VM program. If that doesn’t work for your office’s Windows-only programs, you can always keep running Windows 7, with a lot less danger, on a virtual machine (VM) on Linux.

This can be hard to set up, but its commercial brother, CodeWeaver’s Crossover Linux, makes it easy to set up many proprietary programs, including games. You can run many native Windows programs on Linux using Wine. For a full-fledged office suite, I highly recommend LibreOffice. Or Thunderbird for email instead of Outlook. The full Office 365 suite will be coming to Linux soon - it’s only a matter of when.įor all your other desktop software needs, there’s usually a free, open-source program that can do just as good a job. And Microsoft’s exporting its new Edge web browser to Linux. For instance, you can run the free Office Online, which comes with limited versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on Linux. And today’s desktop Linux distributions are as easy to use as Windows or macOS.Īnd if you’re worried about being able to run Windows applications - don’t. Machines that would bend and break under the load of Windows 10 will run like a charm. If you have an older system but are worried that it won’t support Windows 10 - or if you simply don’t want to deal with Windows anymore - I have a suggestion: Switch to desktop Linux.ĭesktop Linux can run on your Windows 7 (and older) laptops and desktops. By the federal government’s Digital Analytics Program (DAP) count in October 2020, 3.2 percent of computer users still are on Windows 7 - even though Microsoft no longer supports it for free.

Laptop with xp os