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Comment by dmfdmf | Hacker News Reader

I am a very small business, just me. I am thinking of jumping to Linux because of the direction that Windows is going. Soon your computer will be like your cell phone, completely locked down and owned by MS.

For me the killer is Outlook which has all my client info and the ability to print on my Dymo printer. I can live with Libre Office for docs and I can probably find other work arounds but the transition doesn't look easy.

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Long time Linux user being forced to use Windows occasionally...I don't know how you folks stand it. It feels like every time I boot it I get half dozen notifications, ads disguised as security, telling me I need to restart now even though I just booted it. Maybe it's my own ignorance, but wow.

Outlook is a killer application, I agree. The web version is actually pretty useable IMO, so much so that it's all I use anymore. Evolution is an open source Outlooky application that I used to use and does work quite well, if you prefer native.

Printing to Dymo should be possible, I did a cursory search and a few people seem to have gotten it to work. Won't be as straightforward as Windows, I'm sure.

I think the biggest thing missing in Linux is Excel, which luckily I don't use or need to use these days. The LibreOffice equivalent is nowhere near as easy to use IMO. Anyone who uses Excel heavily I probably wouldn't promote Linux to.

Sounds like your Windows install sucks. Pro or Enterprise version has minimal to no nags or shenanigans. Do not run the home version if you can help it.

Exactly what I want to avoid. I see updates roll in and then suddenly there is "News and Info" app on the tool bar that pops up randomly to make sure you stay connected to the the borg.

I don't need nor want this. Also, as I mentioned, I don't want to be on Windows as they turn the screws to lock it down and farm/spy on me. The precursor to this is MS had an S-Mode version of Win10 when it first came out which blocked you from installing anything not from the MS store but you could disable it. How long will that be an option, Win12?

In any case, I am out and probably going to move to Linux before the end of the year. My primary PC is Win8.1, a Win7 bench PC for cloning and a Win10 laptop for service work. I did some research already and Dymo kinda-sorta has support for Linux drivers and others got it working so I am hopeful.

> like your cell phone, completely locked down

Unless you switch to a GNU/Linux phone (Librem 5 or Pinephone).

That is probably in the cards. I currently have an Android phone and I had to create a Google (Do Evil) account to set it up then logged out. All Google apps/services are disabled, as much as possible without rooting it. Its never been updated in 3-4 years and I don't use it for much other than email, phone, text and (rarely) a web/FF search. I recently had to update an app and after the reconnect the Google apps/services greyed out the DISABLE buttons. Fortunately, I was able to revert to as-shipped Google apps and was able to re-disable them.

I am hoping to get off of Windows by the end of the year (currently on Win8.1 which clocks out in January) then probably move to a phone not controlled by Google next year.

As @silisili noted, maybe Evolution could work for you. If you have a spare machine, maybe give one of the more boring Linux distributions a try and install Evolution, and test out your workflow with it. Don't try to customize things beyond what you need for your workflow. Just tweak it enough to fullfill what you need to do your job. Plus try out the printing via your Dymo printer...and see how it goes. If there were other apps, i wouild suggest trying them out via WINE...but maybe that's not needede for email and Dymo printer? Good luck!

Thanks for the tip, I will look into Evolution. Don't need anything fancy and my work flow is email, web, scan, print (labels and docs) and occasional spreadsheet so I think it is doable without too much pain. All my PCs are currently running Windows 8.1 right now (lol) which clocks out in January and I do have a Win10 laptop but mostly for service work, not my main computer.

I did a little research on Dymo and they kinda-sorta provide driver support for Linux so some have been able to get it to work.

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