Verdict: No
No. JAWS is Windows-only commercial software and there is no Linux version. Orca is the Linux screen reader, and it is free, which removes the licence cost but not the relearning.
JAWS runs on Windows and nothing else. Freedom Scientific supports it on Windows 10, Windows 11 and Windows Server from 2016 onwards. There is no Linux build and no compatibility layer that will produce one. A screen reader has to talk to the operating system at a level Wine does not reach.
JAWS is also the one people are most often locked into, and for good reasons. It is the most used desktop screen reader worldwide according to the WebAIM survey work cited in its documentation, it drives refreshable braille displays, and its scripting language lets somebody make a badly built program usable when nothing else will. That last point has no equivalent on Linux at all, and it is the thing workplace users lose.
JAWS costs money, sold as an annual licence or a perpetual one, with current prices on Freedom Scientific's own site. Orca costs nothing. That is a real saving, and on its own it is a poor reason to move.
What you would be trading is a mature, supported, scriptable product for a free one with narrower app coverage and no vendor to call. If JAWS is how you do your job, that trade needs testing before it is made. Boot a live USB session, run Orca against the exact programs your work depends on, and see what happens. If your employer bought the JAWS licence, this is a conversation to have with them too.
The Linux screen reader, free, with speech and braille. No scripting language, a smaller set of add-ons, and different keyboard commands throughout.
Your files: JAWS scripts, settings files and dictionaries do not carry over. There is no import path.
The default Linux voice. Very fast and very clear, and more synthetic than the voices JAWS ships with.
One stubborn program doesn't have to decide the whole question. You can keep Windows on the same PC and restart into it only when you need JAWS. Everything else you do can move.
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