Tech
5 ways I use Linux for actual work
Do you think Linux is just for homelabs or servers? Worried it can’t handle your professional workflow? Well, I’ve been daily-driving Linux for 10 years, and here are five ways it helps me do real work.
There’s a stubborn myth that Linux can’t handle “real work”—that it’s great for servers, fine for hobbyists, but not capable enough for professional workloads. This idea mostly comes from the lack of native support for Adobe Creative Cloud and Microsoft Office. But the absence of those apps doesn’t mean you can’t edit images, write content, or manage spreadsheets on Linux. I’m a professional writer and digital marketer, and I’ve been using Linux for the past decade, and it hasn’t prevented me from getting work done. Here’s an overview of how I use Linux day-to-day, which should give you a clear idea of how you too can use it as your daily driver.
Writing and editing articles
I’m a professional writer—and I do all of my writing on Linux. That alone should tell you Linux is perfectly capable of real work—because that is what gets me paid!
You have plenty of writing tools at your disposal, from Markdown editors like ghostwriter and MarkText to full-fledged word processors like LibreOffice Writer. You can even get Microsoft Word 2016 running on Linux using WINE. That said, I personally use Obsidian because I enjoy its graph view, which lets me visualize how all my articles are connected and helps me brainstorm new topics and ideas.
Obsidian also supports plugins to expand its capabilities. One of the most useful is LanguageTool, a free and open-source grammar checker that’s powerful enough for my proofreading needs. If you prefer Grammarly, there’s a community-maintained, third-party plugin for that as well. Next, to keep my work safe, I use a NAS to back up all my articles—which I also host on a Linux-powered system.
Occasionally, I need to share my working document to collaborate with clients or editors. When that happens, I default to whatever tool they prefer. Most folks I work with use Google Docs or Notion—both of which I access through Brave browser (my default). If they insist on Microsoft Word, I use the web version, which has all the essential tools for writing web articles.
Annotate screenshots and edit images
A big part of my work revolves around creating how-to articles and tutorials, which means I’m constantly taking screenshots and annotating them to help readers follow along. I’ve used Windows for this before, but Linux has better default tools for this workflow.
I use a KDE Plasma–based distro, which comes with Spectacle as the default screenshot tool. It has an intuitive interface for quickly capturing screenshots and includes built-in annotation features like arrows, text boxes, blur, and highlighting. There are also tools like Ksnip, which one of my colleagues uses on Windows—which saves him hours of work every week.
That said, sometimes you need more powerful image-editing capabilities, and for that, I’ve found GIMP to be more than adequate—I barely use half of its feature set. If you’re curious about how GIMP compares to Photoshop, list all the Photoshop features you rely on and ask Perplexity (or ChatGPT) if they exist in GIMP. If they do, you should be able to replicate your workflow on Linux without trouble.
Taking video calls and streaming content
I regularly take video calls—whether it’s client meetings, syncing with colleagues, or helping family troubleshoot technical issues—and I do all of it from my Linux PC. Zoom has a native Linux app with official packages available for most major distributions, and the experience is identical to what you’d expect on Windows or macOS.
If you prefer Google Meet, you can run it in the browser, and it works without issues. Screen sharing is also flawless on both platforms, so if you need to walk someone through an app or tool, you can do it.
I’ve also used Linux for video streaming. You get access to OBS Studio—the industry standard for professional streaming—and because it’s free and open source, it’s treated as a first-class citizen on Linux. You get the full set of features with no compromises.
I’d even argue that streaming on Linux can be better because you can showcase a unique and highly customized desktop that grabs viewers’ attention. People might wonder what setup you’re using, which can boost engagement.
Coding and programming
Lucas Gouveia / How-To Geek
I studied programming in college and decided to revisit it in recent years—using Linux exclusively as my main coding machine. I’d even go as far as saying Linux is the best place for coding and programming.
Almost every important programming tool is natively supported on Linux. You can install Python, Git, Node.js, and Docker, with just a single terminal command—and they’ll work without any workarounds. There’s no need to hunt down installers, configure paths, or click through setup wizards. And since most production servers run Linux, using it from the start means your local development environment matches your eventual deployment environment.
As for the overall coding experience, Linux supports all the popular code editors, including VS Code—though you may want to try VSCodium, its FOSS alternative. You can also explore classics like Vim or Emacs, which many veteran programmers swear by.
Yes, you can do coding on Windows or macOS—but the experience won’t be as seamless. Ever wonder why Microsoft added WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)? It’s because developers needed Linux tools, and Windows couldn’t provide them natively.
All my browser-based workflows
For most folks, their computer functions as a bootloader for the browser. They power on their PC just to open Google Chrome—or Firefox. In fact, 60–70 percent of what I do on my PC is browser-based. If that’s true for you too, you won’t have any trouble working on Linux.
As I mentioned earlier, I use my browser to access Google Docs and Notion for collaborative writing. I also use it to access Gmail, join Google Meet calls, watch Netflix and YouTube, browse social media, search Reddit, and use LinkedIn. Basically, if something works in a browser on Windows or macOS, it’ll work just as well on Linux. That said, maybe you don’t want to use a website and prefer a native app. In that case, you can use your browser’s built-in feature to turn websites into desktop apps.
And there you have it—five ways I use Linux for real, productive work, and you can too. However, if you’re wondering why you should bother switching, check out these five things you can only do on Linux but not on Windows.
