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I thought I’d pop in to state that the CSAM scanning on MacOS isn’t done until Monterey, which is not out yet. If nothing else, there is the option of not updating your Mac until you find a suitable replacement.
 
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Presumably you are using FireFox as your web browser. What email client are you using? Do you use a smartphone, if so what OS is it running?
Firefox is default on Ubuntu. I'm a Brave fan myself so have that installed.

Funny quirk of Ubuntu is the mouse scroll is craaaaazy fast. Changing it involves the terminal of course ;)

Email: I've used Thunderbird before. On Mac I had Mimestream which I recommend for Gmail users. Open to other Ubuntu favorites, I would be connecting it to Gmail.

Phone: iPhone
 
I thought I’d pop in to state that the CSAM scanning on MacOS isn’t done until Monterey, which is not out yet. If nothing else, there is the option of not updating your Mac until you find a suitable replacement.
Yes! Disabled auto update across the board.

This is the dry run. I had expected to just be able to dual-boot to Linux. I'm disappointed I can't. May accelerate my move away from Apple, I had always assumed the Linux door was wide open.
 
I’ve only tried on an old MBA. ZorinOS and PopOS. Zorin UI is very mac/windows like. I think both are based on Ubuntu. PopOS didn’t include the wifi drivers so i had to tether first to install them. They worked ok after that. I haven’t figured out how to do a right click using the corner of the touchpad, but clicking with two fingers works as a right click.
 
In my experience, it's easier to install Linux on older machines in general because it's more likely someone will have written drivers for them in the timespan since their release. If your 16" was only released this year and it's got new bits of hardware (ie. it's an M1) chances are it's not fully supported yet.

There are lots of Linux distributions other than the ones people have mentioned above. I recommend going to distrowatch.com if you're set on using Linux and searching for a distro with the kinds of features you want. There's literally thousands out there so I'm sure you'll find one that suits you... :)

You can test how well different distributions work with your computer by live booting them from a USB, which I highly recommend since it's quicker and easier than installing them right on your computer. Make sure you explore the settings of each distro (especially UI things like font size, mouse speed, screen settings) to make each one as comfortable for you as possible.

TL;DR
don't lose hope! the Linux door is still open! You'll need to do some research but it will be worth it in the end if you want to avoid large companies messing around with you.
 
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An update here for anyone else who finds themselves on this path:
- Dual Boot Linux seems like a non-starter as of today. There's a github repo going under constant improvement, but it's not there yet in the sense that wi-fi doesn't yet work. Someday!

- Run Linux virtually:
My goal is to switch 100% to Linux, even if that means using a virtual machine full screen all the time. I did a lot of experimentation with VirtualBox and Parallels, here's what I found:
  • VirtualBox is free but slow. Not quick enough for a complete replacement. I bought the 16" because I like speed.
  • Parallels free trial is nice and seems pretty speedy.
  • VMware needed an email and such to register so I ended up skipping it. Others online said Parallels is fastest

- Which version of Linux
  • With Parallels and VirtualBox it's easy to create different machines each running a different version of Linux. I ended up trying
  • Ubuntu
  • Kubuntu
  • Linux Mint
  • Purism/Pure OS
  • Elementary OS
  • Debian

    After playing with all of them, I found Ubuntu best
  • It just gets out of the way and seems to work how I expect 80% of the time
  • Setting this up as my main OS, installing replacement apps for what I use on Mac OS (Signal, Slack, Zoom are available. Gimp+Photogimp as a Pixelmator/Photoshop replacement sith similar UI)
  • Removing apps from my Mac dock as I install them in Ubuntu. Going all in on this.
  • I still dont have Apple command keys worked out, so copy paste still is confusing.
  • Planning to use this until my Paralells trial runs out in 2 weeks and decide then whether to buy it.
Hi I am very interested to switch to Linux I own a macbook pro 16 2019 and everytime I ask for help oh just buy a new laptop I spended 4200 dollars on this mac and cant afford it, And at the same time feel a bit abandoned by apple. So my question is Parallel is it a hypervisor 1 or 2 I am searching for a VM that run on the hardware not a graphic simulation. or os in os. But your macbook pro is it T2 version ?
 
Ah realize I ever resolved this thread.

longer post here:
Post in thread 'Ask me anything: I switched from Mac to Linux because of Apple's surveillance'
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-of-apples-surveillance.2309727/post-30628227


For you, I recommend the t2linux community and discord. Go ask them how to get it installed. I tried, it's okay.

I moved over to a System76 Linux laptop a few weeks after this post. Linux isn't really welcome on Macs, I wanted a Linux-first vendor.

I bought this for about $1500: https://system76.com/laptops/lemur

Moving to Linux has been an adjustment. I've found replacements for all the software I use day to day. I'm a fan! 16" MBP gathers dust, I plan to sell it in 4 months if there aren't any major Linux bumps in the road, for now the MBP is backup.

Apple's CSAM stuff was enough to get me moving in the right direction. I was able to make the move faster than others perhaps.
 
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