We’ll be switching the group desktop computers to linux, specifically the mint distribution, from windows. There are a few reasons for this change. The first reason is the lack of support from IT for our windows issues, which we ourselves cannot fix because we lack admin privileges. The second reason is the imminent obsolesce of windows 10 and the hardware requirements of windows 11, which would require us to replace perfectly good computers with new computers – and there is no $ for this. The change to linux will require some adjustment, but it shouldn’t be too bad. And it’s a chance to learn something new.
We will still be able to do our work using the following software packages.
- office 365 web versions (outlook, word, excel, etc.)
- libreoffice (desktop version, does everything except outlook)
- marvin draw or chemdoodle for structure drawing (good riddance chemdraw)
- mestrenova
- slack
- zotero
- avogadro2 for modeling (it’s pretty cool)
- zoom
- bitwarden for password management
- mercury
We’ll also be installing SSDs and more ram, so the overall experience should be much better than what we are currently enduring.