I am a Mechanical Engineer and use only Linux. Students that are trained to use free software are significantly more flexible and more desirable in the work-place as there is no need to pay thousands of dollars to equip them with software. 3D CAD is the only area where Linux doesn't have the same variety of tools, however, brlcad is a very powerful tool for mechanical design and it is developing rapidly.

Similarly, the \input command allows a content from another file to be included in a latex document. This way, individuals can work on different sections without the need for version control.