Six (?) Months Without MS

My growing disgust with the tech world’s grotesque insistence on shoving LLM/GenAI down our throats finally reached a fever pitch last year, and I began divesting myself of all as many ties to those companies as I could. The worst offender in my own professional workflow was, of course, Microsoft.

I cancelled my Office 365 subscription and, hardest of all, switched to the Ubuntu operating system in August or September of last year. I didn’t write it down, exactly, but.. Around six months ago. So, here we are, half a year later, and I wanted to do a review on how it’s going.

I started off with a “soft switch,” double booting my laptop with Windows. I had to make sure that I could still handle all my professional tasks, after all. But since I had been using LibreOffice for all my document work since spring, and LibreOffice comes bundled with Ubuntu from the start, I was pretty confident.

And now, roughly six months later, how’s it going?

Fine. Better than fine. Great. I have replaced everything I needed on Windows for work with either free or one-off purchase accounts. Not only have I broken away from broken LLM bullshit, but I’ve stopped paying licensing fees for software!

I use a lifetime subscription to PCloud for cloud storage, which has a native Linux app. I use the Free and Open Source (FOSS) Evolution email app for all the different accounts I’ve amassed. I use FOSS OmegaT for my translation tool, one I’ve used for years anyway, and again it has a Linux app.

In that time I have had zero problems doing my work, which includes creating and editing enormous documents with multiple rounds of edits using track changes and comments. Edits on Strange Buildings? All done in LibreOffice Writer on Ubuntu (And The Ark was all done in LibreOffice on Windows…). In fact, I get the feeling that Writer on Ubuntu handles those big jobs a bit more smoothly than Word did on Windows. No issues with compatibility, no terrible formatting issues, no muss, no fuss.

Other work tasks, like generating and editing PDFs or writing presentations have gone well, too. I did have one mishap making a presentation in PowerPoint then editing it in LibreOffice Impress, but I have worked out a backup and autosave system since then and have had no issues. I run my work tracker/to do sheets and invoices in LibreOffice Calc (Excel compatible).

Right now, there is only one single task that I have to sometimes perform (maybe once a year) to make my job easier—but is not essential—that requires software I can only find on Windows. So, I have used Windows exactly ONCE since last October.

Otherwise, I simply don’t need Microsoft, and I’m still investigating ways around even that one little use.

There is a certain intimidation factor to Linux, I will admit. Many app installations have required me to use the terminal instead of the clear GUI interface that Windows users feel most comfortable with. But all of that is copy/pasting commands, anyway. Not like I have to memorize code or long-winded user manuals or something. Honestly, the only real frustration I’ve had is that one work client has set up a special email address for me and their security settings are odd so lots of email clients won’t even connect to it. That’s not Linux’s fault, that’s the client. But even then, I found a way around it.

Ubuntu just works, for me. Absolutely every bit as well as, if not better than, Windows 11 ever did.

I’m not going to tell anyone they should do what I did. We all have our own comfort levels with technology and our own bullshit thresholds. But I can say that I see absolutely no reason to ever move back to any Microsoft product, and if you have even the slightest tolerance for non-GUI software tinkering, you might give Ubuntu a try. It’s probably simpler than you fear, and it’s as functional as most people probably need.