131–140 of 263 posts
Use whatever works to get the job done.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If everything you’re doing is in the VM, what’s the point? If your goal is to run Linux as your host OS, then it solves the problem of not being able to do X with software Y You can do everything else in Linux, including looking for alternatives You can copy/paste files from host/guest, including sharing clipboard Also using a VM helps you fixes in time your windows install, problems? bugs? shitty updates? destroy…
Most peoples’ goal at work is to do their job, not run Linux as their host OS.
This. I spent six years doing IT infrastructure for a large law firm (~1000 lawyers+2000 support staff).
Legal services are pretty much the same as other professional services (I spent 12 years consulting too), where the goal is to maximize utilization and realization[0].
As has been mentioned by others in this discussion, the work product of lawyers are mostly documents (actual in court activities are a tiny proportion of the work that lawyers do), and in a firm of more than a few people, documents are almost always worked on collaboratively.
There's an entire ecosystem of tools and applications that support such document production, including collaborative redlining tools, document management systems, legal citation tools, workflow management systems and a raft of other tools/systems that enable efficient development, editing and distribution of attorney work product.
Those systems are primarily Windows-based, many of which are Word plugins, and attempting to integrate them all -- even in an all Windows environment -- is challenging.
In fact, until 15 years ago or so, WordPerfect was the tool of choice for most law firms. And migrating to Word was incredibly painful without any changes to the underlying OS.
That said, most of the systems I implemented ran on Linux or BSD, as they were network support platforms (change management, logging/monitoring tools, authn/authz platforms and Internet-facing applications).
However, attempting to move an existing law firm of more than a couple lawyers from the existing ecosystem to one that runs on Linux would be folly. Because of the lack of tooling in the Linux environment (e.g., try running a software development shop using only Nintendo Switches), and, more importantly, the loss of billable hours fighting with such an environment.
There are lots of other issues, but I just tried to hit the high points.
Could Linux be a good platform for law firms? Absolutely. But the workflow and tooling that exists in the Windows environment would need to be replicated first.
It's a chicken and egg problem -- why would legal software developers write code for Linux when the entire ecosystem is based on Windows? And why would law firms use Linux when the tools they require to generate revenue don't exist on Linux?
[0] https://blog.beyondsoftware.com/the-importance-of-measuring-...
Also a lawyer here, I think the biggest hurdle is MS Word. MS word is the defacto IDE of the law world. We spend most of our time in Word. The drafting of documents won't be a problem with libre office. You can send a PDF to the client. But working with other lawyers/parties could be a challenge. I am not certain how Libreoffice could handle a 500 page memo being worked by 50+ people including thousands of track chan…
Interesting. I know back in the 80s, law firms were in love with WordPerfect for some reason. When did the switch occur from WP to Word, and why?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m glad this is working for him, but it’s only been three months. The most important thing Word gets me is an excuse. If someone sends me a Word doc and I open it in Word and something is screwed up, I can say “oh, um, maybe something is wrong on your end.” If I’m using anything else—LibreOffice, Pages, Google Docs, anything—then there’s a possibility that it’s the software’s fault. I can’t be messing around with th…
I'm curious to know how you and the parent comment came about to know about HN, what an IDE is, Debian. My friends working in non tech fields wouldn't even know that something other than Windows exists.
I used to think about some sort of software career but I now know that doing it for a living is nothing like doing it as a hobby. Plus I like my job. Writing a good legal opinion has surprising commonalities with writing good software.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If everything you’re doing is in the VM, what’s the point? If your goal is to run Linux as your host OS, then it solves the problem of not being able to do X with software Y You can do everything else in Linux, including looking for alternatives You can copy/paste files from host/guest, including sharing clipboard Also using a VM helps you fixes in time your windows install, problems? bugs? shitty updates? destroy…
Most peoples’ goal at work is to do their job, not run Linux as their host OS.
Why do you want to make it sound like they didn't make that choice?
If you don't want to run as your host OS, you don't
Nobody forces you anything, it's the opposite, GIVE PEOPLE CHOICE
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Zoom client on Linux works and is IMO more reliable (e.g. doesn't BSOD me) The Windows client has never BSODed on me. Sounds like a problem at your end.
I'm not the only one at my co that has experienced it BSODing. Windows generally BSODs on work machine at least once a week. Windows 10 patched monthly, locked down as hard as a machine can be under Windows. 30 plus years of Windows tech has taught me not to trust it with anything important.
Blaming the operating system hasn't brought you to a solution, perhaps the issue lies elsewhere.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting. I know back in the 80s, law firms were in love with WordPerfect for some reason. When did the switch occur from WP to Word, and why?
Because of "Reveal Codes".
I still miss WordPerfect for that reason.
I don't know how many times I've had to reformat (or even completely redo) Word documents because the formatting got messed up.
In WordPerfect, it would just be -, find the offending formatting code and fix it. Et Voila!
I disagree. Lawyer and Linux user since downloading Slackware 1.x from tsx11 many moons ago. 1. Libreoffice is still not comparable to Word 6 (circa 93). 2. Outlook - With several dozen lines of VBA, and a little customization, Outlook becomes a full blown case management system. 3. Acrobat Pro. 4. Fujitsu SnapScan - Scanner that every (smart) small firm uses. Not Twain. Linux drivers exist, but functionality isn’t t…
Also a lawyer here, I think the biggest hurdle is MS Word. MS word is the defacto IDE of the law world. We spend most of our time in Word. The drafting of documents won't be a problem with libre office. You can send a PDF to the client. But working with other lawyers/parties could be a challenge. I am not certain how Libreoffice could handle a 500 page memo being worked by 50+ people including thousands of track chan…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not a lawyer. Zoom client on Linux works and is IMO more reliable (e.g. doesn't BSOD me) than windows, about the same reliability on Mac. Teams is unreliable on every platform (having used it for years on Linux, Mac, Win). Would recommend against it. Clearing documents metadata in Libreoffice, yes. It existed as far back as 7 years ago when I was running my own company, and my lawyers and I would be exchanging docume…
> Zoom client on Linux works and is IMO more reliable (e.g. doesn't BSOD me) The Windows client has never BSODed on me. Sounds like a problem at your end.
On the note of stability, at my old (pre-COVID) gig, the brand new top-of-the-line Mac computers were the least stable computers we used; they'd regularly crash during video editing and couldn't be trusted for live-streaming our events. For live-streaming, they used Windows or nix computers (depending on the function). All of our broadcast partners used Windows or *nix computers as well.