 One of the questions I get most frequently from new to Linux users or potential new to Linux users is is the software that I want to use is it available on Linux and This question is an important question But this the answer to this question has changed a lot over the years as Linux has really grown especially in popularity as far as being a desktop operating system when I first switched to Linux There was not that much crossover as far as Windows software and Linux software Typically the programs that you used on Windows only worked on Windows and a lot of times the programs you used on Linux They only worked on Linux. It has only Really been in the last I would say five to ten years Especially where it seems like there is this growing movement to make these operating system Agnostic pieces of software and a lot of that has to do with the rise of the worldwide web and especially Web applications everyone now is interested in making their applications web apps And the reason for this is because when your application is a web app, of course It runs everywhere any operating system that has a web browser allows you to use something like Office 365 or Google Docs or you know any of that crap, you know the web Applications right so as long as you can get to a browser for the most part You're good if a lot of your workflow involves web apps and even the standalone desktop client applications a lot of those now are being written in frameworks such as Electron electron allows developers to basically write an application one time and their electron app should work on every operating system whether it be Windows Mac or Linux and You know, this has really changed the game Especially from when I first switched to Linux when I first switched to Linux on the desktop It was around 2008 and there were pain points because a lot of the big applications That most people used on the desktop, especially if you were coming from Windows things like your Microsoft Office suite Your Adobe creative cloud suite even you know some of the web browsers You were used to using the proprietary web browsers, you know They didn't really have Linux clients now a lot has changed and for example Obviously the most important application on any desktop computer is the web browser I don't know of any reasonably popular web browser that doesn't have a Linux client I mean everything has a Linux client. We even the proprietary web browsers Chrome and Edge and Vivaldi and Opera Yeah, all of that crap All of it has a Linux port these days and then of course all the free and open source browsers are Available for Linux as well as Windows and Mac So there's a lot of crossover in that regard now Microsoft Office is still not available on Linux as far as the desktop Office suite, but if you're using something like office 365 office 365 Does work on Linux Unfortunately, Adobe still creates a lot of Windows only software or Windows and Mac only software Adobe really doesn't want to support Linux in any way and that's not a Linux problem That's not something that the Linux community can solve And you know for for a piece of software to work on a particular operating system The people creating that piece of software have to make it work on that operating system so complained to Adobe and Many people have we have had petitions where tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of people have asked Adobe to make things like Photoshop available on Linux, you know port Photoshop over to Linux because we want it on Linux They won't do it. They refuse to even acknowledge that Linux exists because I Don't know right there. They're very anti-Linux very anti free and open source software It's a company that is designed Primarily around proprietary software. They're really kind of stuck in that kind of old model We're even companies like Microsoft, which used to be staunchly anti-Linux anti free software You know Microsoft now has really embraced open source, right? Even Google, you know the evil empire that is Google Google now open sources a lot of the stuff It works on but there are some companies such as Adobe such as Apple that still really kind of live in that Proprietary world where they they tried to basically create their walled garden of software that only works on certain pieces of hardware and certain Operating systems. Unfortunately. We still do have that going on But it is much less much less than it was when I first switched to Linux when I first switched to Linux it was It was very different. It was very different as far as hardware compatibility because of drivers You know printer drivers and video drivers and Wi-Fi drivers You would buy pieces of hardware that half the time did not have a Linux driver and will not and could never work on Linux that has changed now There's still pieces of software that do not work on Linux because they don't have a Linux driver But it's it's very different now typically, you know I would say eight maybe nine times out of ten when you buy whatever piece of hardware from Best Buy or Wal-Mart or wherever You get your electronic devices, right? You know, I would say about 80% of the time now You know, it'll probably work on Linux where at best it was a 5050 shot You know 15 16 years ago when I first switched so a lot has changed but if you're thinking about switching from Windows to Linux and software availability It's what is preventing you from making that choice go ahead and make the jump because honestly if You're ever going to switch operating systems You're going to have to change some of the the way you used to work You're gonna have to change pieces of software You're gonna have to change your workflow a little bit because not every operating system is the same You're going to find pieces of software that you used on Windows that are not available on Linux But guess what you're gonna find a lot of things a lot of things available on Linux Fantastic pieces of software that aren't available on Windows. So it works both ways You know your whole life you never used Linux if you're if you're a lifelong Windows user you've spent your whole life Never knowing about all these fantastic pieces of software available on Linux. Did you ever miss them? No, you didn't know they existed And it's going to be the same way when you switch to Linux from Windows, you know You just forget Windows ever existed you forget all that Windows software ever existed just put it out of mind, right? That's what I do I don't even know what the hills available on Windows because I don't run Windows right only run Linux So I know about this fantastic world of freedom of source software mainly that's available on Linux and to be honest It's a pretty comfortable place to be so if you're interested in making that jump Please give it a try if you don't want to jump into it fully if you just don't want to jump into the deep end of the pool Try out some popular Linux distros and virtual machines test test drive them in a VM for a little while for a couple of weeks and See if you can get along with the software on Linux chances are you'll be okay peace guys