Best Linux Apps for Students: Note-taking, File Sharing, and More

As a college instructor, I often recommend Joplin for note-taking and content creation. You’ll also definitely need an office suite, as most courses require documentation or presentations. Depending on your degree, you might find there are specific third-party applications you’ll need, and unfortunately, many of those don’t run natively on Linux. You could try using Wine or a virtual machine to run them, but a Windows partition might be a more straightforward solution if you're facing compatibility issues.

Here are some apps I regularly use:

For note-taking, I stick with Sublime Text—it's efficient and customizable.

When it comes to sharing files between my devices, I use NFS and SFTP for my PCs and laptops. For my phone, KDE Connect is my go-to, though it's mainly for Android. I also have Samba set up to help my family who uses Windows.

As for cloud storage, I personally prefer to avoid it if I can, but I’ve had success using rclone to create encrypted backups on Microsoft OneDrive.

What utilities would be useful really depends on your field of study. Back during my college days, using a computer was restricted, but nowadays, many universities are more lenient. Evaluate your workflow to pinpoint any slow spots and look for software that can enhance your productivity. Also, considering hardware can be just as important as software; for instance, I found my SpaceMouse indispensable for certain classes, but installing drivers on those locked down PCs was a hassle.