 Hey guys, welcome back to my YouTube channel. This is Daniel Rossell here. I want to talk about the topic of using Linux, Ubuntu Linux at work and especially if you're freelance and you have clients who are like most people not using Ubuntu or any type of Linux for that matter, how you can make it work with them. Just a few tips. I've been using Linux full-time since 2008. I got into Linux when back when I was in high school many years ago. I had a laptop and back when laptops were these big chunky things like this and at some point it got the famous BSOD, the blue screen of death and I was like, oh crap because back in high school you're living on pocket money and you didn't have money to buy a new laptop or bring it to some fancy computer store. So my best friend at the time, well still good friends but we don't live in the same country anymore less close than we were but his brother was a big tech techie tech fan and he recommended that I try out Linux. So I was like, alright so tell me how to do that. So he gave me a USB stick probably back in those days maybe it was optical media maybe it was a disk probably and that was it. It worked. It saved my computer. I just wiped off a Windows put on Ubuntu and that was like 17 years old at the time. I'm now 33. Give or take maybe a couple of years of my calculations but basically I've been using Linux since then. Now during the course of that time I've grown up I've gone to college, I've started working, I've been moved over to freelancing I've done a lot of my life has evolved using Linux and Linux has gotten a lot better over the course of those years and user friendly so it's actually only gotten easier but nevertheless there are a few things that I've kind of picked up over the course of that time. Now so far I've thankfully never had to never had to not use Ubuntu. Linux. I tried out different distros and then I just settled on Ubuntu so I've actually been really lucky in that throughout my career except almost my last job ended up not working. It was with the cyber security company and they had a Mac only policy so you could only use a work issued Mac computer and that was when I almost put that position fortunately in retrospect didn't work out because I'm doing something I enjoy a lot more currently. So just a few thoughts and as you guys can see I have my little notepad over here I'm just going to firstly jot out a few thoughts for how one can keep working in Linux. Now I'm not one of those people that I try to avoid being a Linux fanboy and saying Windows and Mac sucks I like using Linux because I think it's the best operating system and I'm very comfortable with it. I still use Windows somewhat regularly but I personally prefer it. So these are the ways. First thing if you're doing freelancing and this is just my rough notes that's why you can see my notepad try to use cloud tools as much as possible so that's the number one thing. So I for many years for the last five or six years I've been offering freelance services to clients offering full-time jobs between full-time jobs and you know Google docs the beauty and the reason I become such a big fan of cloud everything. Now some people are really anti-Google and they don't like the cloud and sometimes a lot of those people are Linux fans so in the Venn diagram there's a good amount of people in the middle I'm not personally anti-big tech for the most part just because it's big tech or cloud so I love everything on the cloud. Everything sass because it means that as a Linux user my unusual operating system doesn't make a difference right? If I'm collaborating with people using Google docs they can be using Mac or Windows and we're all good because the software is sitting in the cloud. So I don't typically mention with clients that I use Linux unless they're in the tech world sometimes they're interested in that and there's a reason they might want me to test the Linux tool but I usually just tell people my preferred if we're working on marketing projects I love all the Google products, Google slides, Google docs and increasingly I'm finding that people are that's the default modus operandi for companies where I'm based here in Israel. Everyone's mostly a Google doc shop, a Google workspace shop. Some people are bought into Microsoft 365 and that fortunately they have cloud tools as well. Now the second thing I want to jot out here is that try to avoid relying upon compatibility between Linux tools and Windows tools. So like that's why my default operating procedure is to go for cloud tools. Technically open office is supposed to work or be intercompatible with Microsoft Word. In my experience it remains buggy and that goes across you know LibreCal slides. It just tends still they haven't ironed out all the creases yet in the sort of compatibility in my experience so you know if you're making money if you're professional you're a professional freelance or you don't want to be offering sloppy work or creating complications for your clients. In that case I would either try to use a cloud tool if not and I'll talk about what to do next but I personally over time I've stopped this process of trying to work with Linux tools like open office, LibreOffice, anything in our ecosystem unless it's the same software with cross-platform support an example of that would be Audacity. They have clients for Linux and for Windows and I've had no trouble exchanging files between Windows and Mac users and my Audacity because it's the same program. The files read fine across the board. Tip 3, I guess I should have given this a header. What kind of a writer am I? This is very sloppy work. How to avoid using, how to use a bunch to at work during your career. Now this might not be possible in some organizations. I've been lucky enough because I spent a lot of time working with tech startups and app tech startups that people were either amused by my use of Windows or the devs loved it so they were like they would, you know, they allowed me to install my own Ubuntu but you might be working for a company that simply doesn't allow you to use Ubuntu or Linux and those definitely do exist and if that's the case then you're kind of SOL. So it really depends what type of company you're working for. That's why I enjoy working for and with tech companies because tons of people personally in Israel where I'm based when I go into work at a tech startup the last few years on a project basis but I've often gone in and you pass over the dev room and like everyone's using Linux you just recognize the Ubuntu wallpaper so even though Linux isn't such a big thing in Israel within certain bubbles, the tech bubbles, it's very much known so you shouldn't have too much trouble with getting permission to use it at a job but if you're working for a government agency it might be written in your contract that you have to use the workstation they set up with exactly the programs in place. I'm really sorry if you're a Linux fan. So the third thing but if you're doing freelancing or whatever I would say here's my recommendation. Here's what I personally do. This is what I do. I have window VMs as both bare metal and regular VMs. I don't know what the opposite of bare metal is actual virtualized operating systems on the computer and have a computer that can comfortably support virtualization. So the thing about using VMs is it does increase your RAM overhead quite significantly and this is like the gold standard I remember back in the day I don't know if the wine project is still really that active but I remember using wine when it was the only option and it was kind of sucky to be honest so we've come a long way in a short period of time and I personally think you can use VMware or what's the other one called virtual box. I personally think VMware is a bit better. Now I was going to say keep VM backups. You guys might know anyone who's actually been following this YouTube channel knows a huge sort of backup geek or data protection geek. I'm always thinking about what can go wrong. Fortunately that's the way my brain works after too many years using Linux I guess you expect stuff to sort of periodically crash and break down and destroy. So what I do I've noticed that VMs can be a little bit buggy so there's two ways around that. Firstly because storage has become so cheap I keep an actual Windows an actual Windows partition. Not just a partition, a drive on my computer. So if I ever really need to go into Windows I can do so very easily but because rebooting a computer in the first instance I try to just use a VM and that works 99% of the time. Sometimes VMs do break down for whatever reasons so it's worth periodically backing up your Windows VM. So this really covers all bases. All bases I can think of for how you can work with Ubuntu. Firstly work with Ubuntu. Try to use the cloud as much as possible because I'm each believer in the cloud. I think it's a future. I think everything is going to eventually move and the software is going to move from the edge to the cloud. But because tech advances not overnight, Rome wasn't building a day and all that good stuff. If you want to continue using Ubuntu with your clients, whether you work in-house or freelance, you want to make it as easy as possible to work with Windows products. And there are certain software that just don't exist in the Linux ecosystem. Obviously stuff like Photoshop and video we're talking about. But then she does exist in Linux but it's pretty bad to be honest. The whole Adobe suite basically is not Linux friendly. So if you're a creative and in that world, what you can do is just keep an extra drive on your if you're using a desktop or if you're using an app top, you can simply install VirtualBox or VMware. Install a Windows you don't need a license for if it's not customized. Just install a Windows virtual machine and just make sure to back it up periodically because you can actually just use CloneZilla if you're using Ubuntu to back up your entire computer. This is another approach. I call this all in one backup approach. And that will back up the VM because it's sitting on your computer. So that's another way you can keep it backed up. And that should really give you absolutely every option. Because virtualization does take up resources, whether you're buying a laptop or a desktop, make sure you buy one with plenty of RAM and a decent CPU. And between all those permutations, as long as you work for an organization that does not explicitly ban Linux or explicitly force users to use non-Linux operating systems, you should have zero problems. And that is a great thing because it wasn't always the case. But tech has thankfully evolved. Ubuntu Linux distros have become easier to use. They're definitely quite understood in the tech world. And with a little bit of thought, you can totally set up your workstation for easy inter-collaboration and inter-compatibility with people running more common operating systems, namely Windows and Mac. Thanks for watching this video. If you'd like to get more videos from me, please subscribe to this YouTube channel.