this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2026
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I would love to drop Windows but Excel (need PowerQuery and PowerPivot) and to a lesser extent PowerPoint (as well as some other more niche business application are a must).
For games, I can probably manage with a mix of native/Proton/Wine and dual boot. For other hobbies, video editing specifically, I don't even know what application support is like.
Still without 100% Excel support, I can't really switch.
That being said, for the first time in my life I am going to stick it out with an older version of Windows. W11 doesn't seem to have any real benefits over W10.
If you really need microslop office, they do have web versions that will work on Linux.
However there are also plenty of FOSS alternatives that might have the required feature set.
Web versions of MS office are shit if you are an advanced user. You constantly hit edge cases or stuff that doesn't work.
While I have yet to try the spreadsheet application in LibreOffice, from what I've read it, it has major gaps relative to Excel and that's with relatively basic functionality, no idea if it has tools comparable to PowerQuery / PowerPivot.
I don't mind looking for solutions when it comes to games and hobby stuff, but work applications is one area where it all just needs to work, without me having to come up with workarounds.
You can also look into coding and automation. There are often better tools to use than Excel
Like vba! No, wait.
I'm not a power user by no means, but the fact that live office never got rid of shift+scroll to pan horizontally is why I'll never go back to Excel. I dunno why they got rid of that so of a sudden.
This is the main reason why I said, "I'm glad I was able to leave Windows behind". As I know there are people that are held hostage or feel that they are by Windows and Microslop (by design, naturally).
As for all your questions, you can investigate them by exploring a VM or Live Session of a Linux distro that appeals to you. As a Live Session USB will allow you to play with the distro without ever installing it on your computer. It will certainly require you to change your current methods as the programs will be an approximation not a replica of the tools you're used to. The only reason why I was able to adapt is because my needs are vastly different and I don't depend on corporate applications to do anything. I already used a lot of open source software on Windows before switching to Linux.
Gaming on Linux is totally fine, there are a lot of games that might require you to do as little as changing the Proton Compatibility Layer version in order to run it. If you play a lot of games that depend on Kernel Level Anticheat, that's the one thing which will cause you a lot of problems (unless they go out of their way to support Linux). You can game on just about any Linux distro. Steam, and Heroic Game Launcher makes it easier than ever to game on Linux with their investment in Arch Linux and that work being shared on other distros.
Ultimately, this is a choice that only affects you, so I won't try to convince you. Just highlight things and let you decide in the end.
I already use Linux on my Raspberry PI (albeit CLI only), even most of my windows applications (mostly file management tools and video/audio/image processing) are open source, albeit with some notable exceptions.
I think gaming should be fine, I mostly play single player games or retro games.
I will most likely switch (also waiting on getting a new laptop to use as a test bed) because I am not moving to W11 and W10 will be difficult to use in 2-3 years. Hopefully the situation improves even more in the next 24 months or so.
Ah, it won't be much of a shock then...Depending on the distro you end up going with! I had the impression that you'd be using a lot of closed source stuff. I will concede my impression was incorrect on that matter.
It's good at the very least you have an exit plan in the works for charting the next step of your tech life. As yeah, I'd agree Windows 10 will become a more challenging thing to use as more time passes. It will get to the stage that nobody supports it and you'd need to do some serious tweaking to make it possible. Plus the lack of security updates are going to make that computer a tasty treat for those that want to turn it into a botnet. I hate that Microslop had the audacity to try and pull the trigger on the next big e-waste event, trying to force users to upgrade their stuff (for nasty corporate reasons). I think the situation is going to take a lot longer to improve at least with the current tech scene. 24 months is a hopeful estimate, but, I've been wrong before!
You'll be set for gaming, as based on how gaming looks on Linux now...It's night and day from those uncertain times while I was using Ubuntu 16.04. Like most games, even certain "unsupported" flagged games tend to work more often. It's still a slight risk, but that is what demos are for!
If you're a power excel user, Python is probably better for you anyways
I am more of a business type that works with data, I've messed around with python and it's not really a spreadsheet application.
The power of Excel is that it is a "pick up and use" solution (including for more complex use cases).
I've also had some terrible experiences with the Python infrastructure (dependency conflicts, borked installations) for some non-work projects.
Try an online Jupiter notebook. It solves most of your issues.
To add to what the other comment said, I used to use WinApps to run certain Windows programs from within* Linux, and Office worked pretty well. The caveat is that it’s essentially running a tiny virtual machine with Windows 11 on it, but with some niceties to make it feel like it’s somewhat integrated with the Linux desktop. (It’s not a good solution for something that needs live notifications, like email)
I was looking at something similar (CodeWeavers?) and it seems the latest version of Office that runs well was Office 2016.
I will have to take a look at WinApps.
Communication stuff (email, calendar, teams) is actually one area where I do use MS web apps and they work fine for those use cases.
Ah yes, CodeWeavers CrossOver, yeah it’s essentially a customized and paid version of Wine, though I haven’t seen people have much more luck with it than just using latest standard Wine, but I’ve never tried it. When I tried various versions of Office directly in Wine, I ran across all kinds of installer and DLL issues, sadly.
I’m far from an expert, but here are links to WinApps and WinBoat (very similar solution):
Cheers, I will test them out when I get my new laptop with dual SSDs!
Nice, sounds good, good luck with it!