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Any Linux Law Students?

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 5:05 pm
by rejectmaster
I'm an avid ubuntu enthusiast and I'm wondering if anyone else here has tackled law school without a windows/mac machine. If need be, I'll toss on Windows but if anyone has found software that mimics what's recommended I'd appreciate some advice.

Re: Any Linux Law Students?

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 5:20 pm
by philosoraptor
0L here. I brought this up with the tech rep at one of the ASWs I went to, and their office doesn't offer any support for any OS that's not Microsoft's or Apple's. He told me I'd have to get Windows to get by. I don't know how true this is, but I figure it'll be worth it to minimize the hassle.

I'll still have Ubuntu on my desktop for all my normal day-to-day stuff, and I'll keep my laptop's Vista partition for exam software and anything else the school forces us to use.

Re: Any Linux Law Students?

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 5:29 pm
by Miniver
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Re: Any Linux Law Students?

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 5:40 pm
by nealric
0L here. I brought this up with the tech rep at one of the ASWs I went to, and their office doesn't offer any support for any OS that's not Microsoft's or Apple's. He told me I'd have to get Windows to get by. I don't know how true this is, but I figure it'll be worth it to minimize the hassle.

I'll still have Ubuntu on my desktop for all my normal day-to-day stuff, and I'll keep my laptop's Vista partition for exam software and anything else the school forces us to use.
They won't officially support it, but unless there is a certain required piece of software, such as examsoft, you should be fine. My school required all exams to be typed in MS word or Wordperfect (no special exam software), but I used Open Office just fine.

Re: Any Linux Law Students?

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 5:51 pm
by philosoraptor
nealric wrote:My school required all exams to be typed in MS word or Wordperfect (no special exam software), but I used Open Office just fine.
Ugh, I hate word processing software. It tries to "help" you way too much and assumes you're incompetent. I'd take a text editor, aspell, wc and LaTeX any day.

Re: Any Linux Law Students?

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 9:07 am
by RUQRU

Re: Any Linux Law Students?

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 10:02 am
by philosoraptor
RUQRU wrote:Microsoft OneNote
People around here seem really high on OneNote, but I doubt one program would make it worth swearing off GNU/Linux. You could probably recreate everything in this screenshot and the linked one with a file browser (not that hard to organize directories for classes), LaTeX (has had the ability to hyperlink all kinds of internal and external files for many years) and a PDF reader -- all of which, unlike Windows + Office + OneNote, run on every platform and are 100 percent free.

Also, I'd be a little wary of locking all my notes and outlines into a proprietary Microsoft-only format.

Re: Any Linux Law Students?

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 12:36 pm
by enygma
philosoraptor wrote:
RUQRU wrote:Microsoft OneNote
People around here seem really high on OneNote, but I doubt one program would make it worth swearing off GNU/Linux. You could probably recreate everything in this screenshot and the linked one with a file browser (not that hard to organize directories for classes), LaTeX (has had the ability to hyperlink all kinds of internal and external files for many years) and a PDF reader -- all of which, unlike Windows + Office + OneNote, run on every platform and are 100 percent free.

Also, I'd be a little wary of locking all my notes and outlines into a proprietary Microsoft-only format.
i found it to be worth dropping linux.

Re: Any Linux Law Students?

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 6:00 pm
by stj2013
Is there a reason you can't just dual boot or run Windows virtually? You are making this harder on yourself then you need to.

Re: Any Linux Law Students?

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 6:24 pm
by RUQRU
philosoraptor wrote:
RUQRU wrote:Microsoft OneNote
People around here seem really high on OneNote, but I doubt one program would make it worth swearing off GNU/Linux. You could probably recreate everything in this screenshot and the linked one with a file browser (not that hard to organize directories for classes), LaTeX (has had the ability to hyperlink all kinds of internal and external files for many years) and a PDF reader -- all of which, unlike Windows + Office + OneNote, run on every platform and are 100 percent free.

Also, I'd be a little wary of locking all my notes and outlines into a proprietary Microsoft-only format.
I am a big Ubuntu fan. I have two laptops and one file server running 10.04. Nothing wrong with using open source at all. But I do not treat linux as a religion, just a tool. I runs great on old hardware and keeps it out of the landfill.

OneNote is a tool. A good one. I have no issues with Microsoft or using their products. Good data processing practice is to make backups of your data. I backup my OneNote files to an external hard drive, my Ubuntu server and my laptop. I have never heard anyone loose their their files to corruption.

I am lucky that my employer has software assurance and we get Office 2010 Professional Plus for $9.95 through the Home User Program. If you are working for any largish organization check with your training personnel or IT to see if you have HUP:

http://www.microsofthup.com/hupus/home. ... ture=en-US
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Re: Any Linux Law Students?

Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2010 12:44 am
by wpc1532
Without going into too many tech. specs, you can run linux really easy with Microsoft products like Office.


sudo apt-get install wine

Re: Any Linux Law Students?

Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2010 4:18 am
by RUQRU
wpc1532 wrote:Without going into too many tech. specs, you can run linux really easy with Microsoft products like Office.


sudo apt-get install wine
You can check if the Windows app will run using WINE by checking the WINE Application Database here:

http://appdb.winehq.org/

From what I see, OneNote will not run.