If I was back in college and using Linux for the first time, I’d probably go with Fedora tbh. Arch is a pain in the rump for a first-time user and Fedora really is a “it just works” distro whilst still maintaining speed and keeping things up to date with it’s (more or less) rolling release schedule.

I didn’t use Linux in college, but I did use many FOSS tools. LibreOffice is easily my favorite office suite and there’s no contest. So long as you export your documents as .PDF or submit them as .DOCX, nobody is likely to know or even care what you used to type them.

This is likely to be similar for other types of software- as long as your finished product is compatible and looks good on the proprietary software, you shouldn’t run into any issues.

BTW, the university had student access for Microsoft Office. I could have chosen to use their tools at any time and I simply chose not to.

I suppose all the “I use Arch” memes made me curious about the hubbub behind it. Fedora is totally competent, works right out of the box and gives no issues in my experience, I truly believe it should be recommended more when folks consider making the switch. Arch has been a learning experience for me, kinda figuring out what the system needs but doesn’t come with. “Oh, I have no firewall, I better install it. No bluetooth? Alright, I’ll add that too.” It’s so hands on and it forces the user to make decisions that the distro usually makes for the user on its own. This is a “for better and for worse” type of thing, but it forces the user to learn more about Linux itself than just handing them a totally functional machine right out of the box. It was intimidating as hell the first couple installs, but now I understand things I didn’t understand before as a result of it.

I switched because of a strong dislike for Microsoft and their spyware. I didn’t even bother dual booting, I ran baptism by fire right into Fedora and it was way smoother than I expected it to be. I enjoyed Fedora so much that I decided to try Arch. Very different experience, but now I’ve learned so much that I dumped Fedora and I use Arch for almost everything. I do keep a machine with Debian that way I feel like I’m getting the most well-rounded experience in case I ever need to help a friend with a Debian-based distro.