So I moved to Linux

[trixit]

i am contemplating switching to linux, here are somethings i probably can't live with out:

• Preview (especially space bar to to preview file)
• cmd+i(to get file info)
• global menu/toolbar
• TextEdit
• Spotlight
• Disk Utility
• The Dock
• 3 finger click= highlights a word and presents its definition
• Speak selected text (I do not think there is a replacement for this)
• FindAnyFile (app)
• Mail App
• ImageOptimze (removes meta data, shrinks image size, accessed from context menu)
• CarbonCopyCloner similar app

Thanks for this list - I just purchased FindAnyFile app on the Mac App Store. Just $8 and it's already awesome what I was able to search for. What a great little app. Thanks for the tip!!!

 

[DankeBrutus]

No question, but then I said these two distros largely automate the setup and configuration of gaming, and that does in fact make life a lot easier for someone who's switching from windows to Linux to play games.

Is there an example of what exactly either distro does to automate the setup and configuration of gaming beyond having Steam preinstalled along with, if needed, NVIDIA drivers? Bazzite, for example, does have some slightly more niche stuff as ujust scripts to run, like racing wheel drivers or Sunshine hosting. I will say that the Waydroid setup on Bazzite is great, too bad it doesn't work with NVIDIA though.

 

[DankeBrutus]

May I suggest ‘Doppler’ for music, is a great app (10 on off purchase) and I’ve ripped and imported all my music to it from various places. Has been a dream to leave streaming behind.

Doppler is pretty good! Too bad on macOS it's like $30.

 

[RecentlyConverted]

I moved from iPhone to Pixel with GrapheneOS.

I love my Mac and MacOS (Mini M2 Pro) and have ordered a Neo as a consumption device.

I am seriously thinking of moving to Linux as it is more private and flexible. I have spent a fortune on Mac apps (as I had with iOS apps), but will just have to buy new ones if I need too.

I see there is a Linux version for M Macs (hopefully for Neo too). Will try linux with a few of my older (Intel macs first) and see how I get on.

 

[Skwoodge]

I moved from iPhone to Pixel with GrapheneOS.

I love my Mac and MacOS (Mini M2 Pro) and have ordered a Neo as a consumption device.

I am seriously thinking of moving to Linux as it is more private and flexible. I have spent a fortune on Mac apps (as I had with iOS apps), but will just have to buy new ones if I need too.

I see there is a Linux version for M Macs (hopefully for Neo too). Will try linux with a few of my older (Intel macs first) and see how I get on.

You're in luck since Asahi Linux only works on M1 and M2 series Macs. I've tried it before, but I didn't like it. It won't run on the Neo.

 

[TheGenerous]

I'd love to switch but I like my apps and can't live without them:

- iA Writer
- Apple Notes

- Procreate
- Sketchbook Pro

- RightFont
- Affinity Designer v2
- CaptureOne
- Eagle

- Things 3
- Excel


- Downie
- IINA
- ABetterFinderRenamer
- Text Soap

 

[teh_hunterer]

I really don't give a crap if I have to wait a couple of seconds extra here and there because my RAM isn't on die or my storage isn't bussed directly to the SoC. Realistically the last 6 years of progress does just buy me a couple of seconds here and there. And it doesn't add up to a material gain over the lifespan of the device.

The memory is like that for the GPU, also for power efficiency.

No halfway decent GPU is using memory that isn't directly on its chip.

 

[teh_hunterer]

Having read the OP I can't imagine anything worse 🤣

I believe it! Good for you if this is what you want, but mostly helped prove to me how much Linux isn’t a serious contender as a drop in replacement. Thanks for documenting.

Precisely. And it's so much effort to achieve some kind of victory that seems built on so much mental gymnastics, at the expense of so many compromises and so much time wasted.

Even his friend could have bought a MacBook Neo or any second hand Apple silicon Mac that would have been price competitive. And wouldn't have put them through a whole bunch of nonsense changing platforms.

Just think of all the time wasted by Linux evangelists tricking the normal people in their lives into this sort of thing.

 

[cjsuk]

May I suggest ‘Doppler’ for music, is a great app (10 on off purchase) and I’ve ripped and imported all my music to it from various places. Has been a dream to leave streaming behind.

Thanks. Will have a go at that today 👍

 

[cjsuk]

If you can replace an M4 Pro workload with an i5-9400, why on earth would you have ever purchased the M4 Pro? Even an M1 significantly outclasses an i5-9400. And I have family members that have been using different 24" Dell P-series displays in my house with no complaints, but those monitors don't even compete in the same zone as a Studio Display.

It sounds like you may have severely overpurchased when shopping for your first setup. Reminds me of a friend of mine that bought an RTX 4090 literally just for Diablo 4 (and then bought a replacement 4090 when his first one fried!).

You’re not wrong.

The Studio Display was probably the hardest thing to leave. But you know after a couple of weeks I was less bothered.

 

[cjsuk]

Having read the OP I can't imagine anything worse 🤣



Precisely. And it's so much effort to achieve some kind of victory that seems built on so much mental gymnastics, at the expense of so many compromises and so much time wasted.

Even his friend could have bought a MacBook Neo or any second hand Apple silicon Mac that would have been price competitive. And wouldn't have put them through a whole bunch of nonsense changing platforms.

Just think of all the time wasted by Linux evangelists tricking the normal people in their lives into this sort of thing.

I’ll add I’m not a Linux evangelist. I prefer windows. I prefer windows to macOS as well if I’m honest. But Microsoft have really dropped a steamer for the last 7-8 years.

The issue for me is the encroaching issues of privacy, cloud tie in, encroaching AI stuff and being locked into a subscription forever. I think we’re not in a particularly good situation at the moment geopolitically either. The last thing you want in such a situation is to depend on too many things.

No evangelism just the desire to opt out of all that.

 

[macbookj0e]

Doppler is pretty good! Too bad on macOS it's like $30.

Oh didn’t realise that I only have it on my phone 😐

 

[Steve Adams]

You’re not wrong.

The Studio Display was probably the hardest thing to leave. But you know after a couple of weeks I was less bothered.

Check out Alogic and kuycon monitors. They deliver 95 percent of the studio monitor for 1/2 the price.

 

[Steve Adams]

I’ll add I’m not a Linux evangelist. I prefer windows. I prefer windows to macOS as well if I’m honest. But Microsoft have really dropped a steamer for the last 7-8 years.

The issue for me is the encroaching issues of privacy, cloud tie in, encroaching AI stuff and being locked into a subscription forever. I think we’re not in a particularly good situation at the moment geopolitically either. The last thing you want in such a situation is to depend on too many things.

No evangelism just the desire to opt out of all that.

I am with you on that but I am staying. I tried the linux thing. A no go for me because of software compatibility. And, being honest, I like windows. I don't have copilot turned on in any of my software. Only the dedicated app. I do wish they would give up on it everywhere. But they have billions invested and are trying to figure out how to profit from their dumb CEO's single minded antics. So here we are.

 

[boult15]

Thanks for taking the time to write this up. It's a thoughtful account of what a long-term migration actually looks like, including the trade-offs rather than just the benefits. I think a lot of people underestimate how much effort is involved in untangling years of ecosystem lock-in.

It's also interesting that your biggest takeaway wasn't really about Linux itself, but about owning your data, reducing dependencies, and having hardware that's inexpensive to replace. Even if someone doesn't agree with every motivation, your practical migration notes are likely to be useful for anyone considering a similar move.

 

[ThailandToo]

Consolidating a number of posts I've made in other threads on this matter, I decided to exit any "ecosystem" lock in and migrate to Linux over the last few months. This has been quite a difficult task if I'm honest so I'd like to share why and how I did it so you can look and laugh or at least know what you're getting in to. I will note that I have about 30 years of Linux experience on the server-side and a lot of other Unix experience so I'm not exactly a novice. This will be reflected in what I'm posting.

Firstly why? Well we're not in particularly good times to be honest. I'm in the UK and we have government policy which is starting to encroach on our privacy. "The cloud" as it stands was the first obvious target, which is where big tech companies focused on consolidating all our stuff and dependencies. In retrospect I find this abhorrent and dangerous. On top of that, all of the ecosystems (via cloud) I depended on are sovereign to the US. Without wishing to get into politics, that's not really ideal now. And lastly, everything is a control point. All devices are now registered and remote managed through online accounts otherwise they're not exactly useful. There have been numerous events where totally autonomous systems have destroyed people's lives through shutting their accounts down resulting in making their hardware and software useless. For this pleasure, we have to pay an up front premium and monthly subscription. The big tech companies in question are aggressively pushing further lock in to this model. And I don't want it.

Another trend in the industry is the aggressive push of LLM technology into everything. This is not something I need or want as I'm not technology driven but requirements driven. Nothing I do requires an LLM. Nothing I do benefits from an LLM. Not without dehumanising me in some way which isn't great. The effect also pushes into hardware so hardware supply chains are now compromised, prices are escalating and the only way this is getting paid off is if the companies leverage my previous point about the up front premium and subscription. I have no desire to do that.

Another principal annoyance was it's actually really annoying to get some software working reliably on macOS which I need to use on a daily basis. Particularly Maxima + wxMaxima CAS system. And this is not the software's fault. There's a huge amount of churn of macOS internals so minor OS releases seem to break it regularly. And that's somewhere in the depths of Qt. Even Microsoft don't screw that up as much.

And the final straw was the absolutely hideous pricing that Apple charge for RAM and storage and well, everything really. I really don't give a crap if I have to wait a couple of seconds extra here and there because my RAM isn't on die or my storage isn't bussed directly to the SoC. Realistically the last 6 years of progress does just buy me a couple of seconds here and there. And it doesn't add up to a material gain over the lifespan of the device.

Anyway the obvious option here was to switch to Linux which is entirely free of cloud lock in, vendor tied accounts, store models, LLMs (unless you want them) and the like. And it runs on trash machines, which are still affordable even with the RAM and storage crisis going on.

So a year ago I bought a modest machine and decided that I would cram my workloads into it. I've gone from a fairly high end M4 Pro configuration with studio display to this. Lenovo M720T desktop, i5-9400, 16Gb of RAM, 512Gb NVMe, Dell P2423DE monitor (24" 2560x1440p). And some crappy Creative speakers. Side by side, the display and speakers are as good as each other if I don't have my glasses on. If I do, there isn't £1300 difference. The speakers are better than the Studio display and cost £20. This machine is running Debian stable and Cinnamon desktop. The entire machine and monitor cost less than the AppleCare for the M4 Pro and it functionally isn't really any worse than what I had. This is painful.

Software was inevitably where the problem was so it took a long time to migrate out. Some details:

Pages / Numbers. Proprietary formats which are totally impossible to read anywhere else. These were exported to Excel / Word format and then carefully ported to LibreOffice. I didn't have a lot of documents which needed further edits so I just flattened all the old ones to PDFs.

iCloud email / domain. This was moved to UK provider Mythic Beasts. New client is Thunderbird. Migration was done by connecting both iCloud and the new mailbox to it and just dragging the emails across. I keep my mail box relatively tidy so this was a low effort job.

iCloud drive/Airdrop. These were entirely disabled. Files only exist on my desktop now. If I need to move something to the phone I will use LocalSend between them to explicitly send a file to the phone or back again.

Safari. Firefox + uBlock origin. Such a better experience. It's actually much faster even on a 6 year old machine. I haven't had anything that doesn't work on it yet.

Apple Music / Airpods. Decided I don't want them. Apple Music is utterly painful and laggy if you accidentally hit something that requires network access when the network is dicky. Also there are constant BT problems now with Airpods dropping due to the sheer amount of BT devices. So I've gone back to cabled earphones - some £20 Sony ones and the Apple USB-C/3.5 adapter for the phone for now. Player is VLC both on desktop and phone and I am using FLACs ripped from CDs with abcde or bought from online sources. I am directly supporting the artists and get to keep actual media forever without a subscription cost then. This has been a slog but I feel it was worth it.

Apple Photos. By far the bulk of iCloud was Photos.app. I just "exported originals" into the same folder structure as I had set up in photos app. All good. Disabled iCloud photos. I don't keep photos on my phone. If I want to move stuff back and forth I use LocalSend again.

Lightroom. This was the painful looking one that turned out to be easy in the end. I had an Adobe subscription due in a month so took the emergency option of exporting everything to JPEG 90% quality and just moving those files into the same structure as Lightroom. All RAWs are moved off onto a couple of 2TB removable disks and I'll recover them if I need them. Editing is done with a combination of Darktable (for RAW editing - usually light) and NegPy (to convert film negatives)

Notes. Just exported everything using "Exporter" from the App Store. It creates Markdown files. They are kept on disk and slowly get moved into ODT documents if worth keeping. I keep a paper (!) notebook on me now. It does a better job and there are no distractions!

iCal. I'm leaving this one alive for now but iPhone only as I have to collaborate with some family members that use it.

Reminders. Went into the physical notebook with the notes.

Keychain. Moved to KeepassXC. It was a bit scary how much stuff was tied into iCloud there. I am glad I moved it out. Mostly manually and verifying stuff the first time I logged into it on the Linux box. I now keep keychain on the iPhone out of icloud and only with minimal stuff on it. Also got rid of passkeys and moved everything I could to Yubikey MFA as well.

Time machine. I have two time machine disks, one 2TB HDD and one 2TB SSD. I wiped them both and use rdiff-backup to back up my home directory, minus some of the caches. This is done once a week. The 2TB SSD is encrypted with LUKS/dm-crypt and gets thrown in my bag when I'm away from home. I have an off-site 2TB disk as well with an rsync snapshot of the home directory too, which is done quarterly.

The only issues I've had with Linux were stuttering video playback which was a simple config fix. Everything else just worked.

Anyway this took about 9 months of concerted effort. Was it worth it? Yes definitely, as a friend demonstrated to me not that long ago. She dropped her MacBook and realised she couldn't afford to buy another one thus locking her out of her entire tecnology existence. If this was to happen to me, I just order another desktop computer from ebay, restore stuff and carry on. Well realistically I just grab one of the other junk PCs I have lying around and do the same.

Bar some conveniences lost, I sleep better now. The Apple stuff is going on eBay in the next month and I'm going on holiday with the money.

I appreciate you wanting to leave the ecosystem. It’s corrupted for certain. People in the EU have it best with Apple.

However, that being said, I couldn’t make all the losses in productivity by taking the steps you have made. I fully understand it. But to me, these are tools. And yes certain rights and information shouldn’t be given up.

And I have read about people losing their Apple account when someone gets access to their SIM through some means. So it’s not like it hasn’t happened. That being said, I want my privacy but don’t believe Apple gives it to me and it’s all marketing. And, yet I have found no alternative that works better. I would love to have a MBP, Samsung Fold, iPad Pro with MacOS or anything other than iPadOS, Nothing earphones, and various software that all works together. But the reality is, Apple’s anticompetitive measures ensure this cannot happen. I don’t get people who think it’s okay. It’s not capitalism - they’re great cyber bullies is all they are.

 

[Steve Adams]

I appreciate you wanting to leave the ecosystem. It’s corrupted for certain. People in the EU have it best with Apple.

However, that being said, I couldn’t make all the losses in productivity by taking the steps you have made. I fully understand it. But to me, these are tools. And yes certain rights and information shouldn’t be given up.

And I have read about people losing their Apple account when someone gets access to their SIM through some means. So it’s not like it hasn’t happened. That being said, I want my privacy but don’t believe Apple gives it to me and it’s all marketing. And, yet I have found no alternative that works better. I would love to have a MBP, Samsung Fold, iPad Pro with MacOS or anything other than iPadOS, Nothing earphones, and various software that all works together. But the reality is, Apple’s anticompetitive measures ensure this cannot happen. I don’t get people who think it’s okay. It’s not capitalism - they’re great cyber bullies is all they are.

Agreed 100 percent. I am stuck on windows because of software I use. I would be gone to linux in a heartbeat. I was using it for a few weeks, and then I needed teams for a very important work meeting. No go on linux. Back to my windows drive. Add in the software for my inspection tools are windows only as well. I was sick and tired of trying to find work arounds.

You are also right about apple and privacy, they just have a great marketing team that makes users and the general public think they are the "champions of privacy and secruity". In reality, it's easier right now to hack into an iPhone and apple account than android. I work in that industry and the amount of iPhones that have been hacked (my wife's included) are 6-10 to 1 for android. Android gets these apps that bombards you with pop ups, a quick removal and they are gone. Apple has nasty crap happening on the back end without users knowledge. I saw my wifes iPhone 13 sending messages without her even touching it. I am so happy we got rid of them.

 

[cjsuk]

Agreed 100 percent. I am stuck on windows because of software I use. I would be gone to linux in a heartbeat. I was using it for a few weeks, and then I needed teams for a very important work meeting. No go on linux. Back to my windows drive. Add in the software for my inspection tools are windows only as well. I was sick and tired of trying to find work arounds.

You are also right about apple and privacy, they just have a great marketing team that makes users and the general public think they are the "champions of privacy and secruity". In reality, it's easier right now to hack into an iPhone and apple account than android. I work in that industry and the amount of iPhones that have been hacked (my wife's included) are 6-10 to 1 for android. Android gets these apps that bombards you with pop ups, a quick removal and they are gone. Apple has nasty crap happening on the back end without users knowledge. I saw my wifes iPhone 13 sending messages without her even touching it. I am so happy we got rid of them.

Think the latter is user error. Sorry but I've never had a single instance of any of that with any device I've owned be it iOS or Android.

 

[DanneP]

I have a very similiar setup since a couple of years back: a HP G5 Mini desktop with a 8500T and 16GB of RAM and a 27" 2560x1440 monitor. I'm still on Ubuntu 24.04, it works well, it's reasonably beautiful and quick enough for my needs. I come from dead silent MacBooks so at first I was quite bothered by the faint sound from the fan, but I mounted the computer under the desk and now I can just hear the computer during normal operation.

The only thing that really bothers me is that I can't view Youtube in 4K comfortably. And of course, it isn't portable at all. 🙂

I'd love to buy a new Windows/Linux laptop, but...
They all seem to lack in general build quality and screen. I love Apple retina displays - the 2560x1440 is OK but nothing more. I'd love to have a reasonably cheap low end hardware x86 laptop with good build quality and a display comparable to Apple's. Ubuntu is cheap to run, I could probably manage with the absolute lowest end of hardware but that also comes with crap display, crap chassis and crap keyboard => no thanks, that will make it almost unusable.

 

[capamac]

If AI actually ever becomes real AI, the "no software" limitation on Linux will vanish quickly.

 

[AppleTO]

The OS isn’t the issue. I’d move to Linux in an instant if all my apps were supported.

 

[Steve Adams]

Think the latter is user error. Sorry but I've never had a single instance of any of that with any device I've owned be it iOS or Android.

Absolutely NOT. The owner/my wife knows exactly what's she is doing with her devices.

 

[Steve Adams]

The OS isn’t the issue. I’d move to Linux in an instant if all my apps were supported.

Me too.

 

[maxoakland]

i am contemplating switching to linux, here are somethings i probably can't live with out:

• Preview (especially space bar to to preview file)
• cmd+i(to get file info)
• global menu/toolbar
• TextEdit
• Spotlight
• Disk Utility
• The Dock
• 3 finger click= highlights a word and presents its definition
• Speak selected text (I do not think there is a replacement for this)
• FindAnyFile (app)
• Mail App
• ImageOptimze (removes meta data, shrinks image size, accessed from context menu)
• CarbonCopyCloner similar app

The global menu is something I’ve never found on Linux and it’s important to me too

 

[I7guy]

Agreed 100 percent. I am stuck on windows because of software I use. I would be gone to linux in a heartbeat. I was using it for a few weeks, and then I needed teams for a very important work meeting. No go on linux. Back to my windows drive. Add in the software for my inspection tools are windows only as well. I was sick and tired of trying to find work arounds.

I can’t move from Windows either. Specific software packages and AA games. As much as some of the decisions with windows annoy me the negatives from moving far outweigh the positives. However I’ve been running an Ubuntu VM for quite a while.

You are also right about apple and privacy, they just have a great marketing team that makes users and the general public think they are the "champions of privacy and secruity".

Their policies match their marketing.

In reality, it's easier right now to hack into an iPhone and apple account than android.

False. What you are seeing is situational bias.

I work in that industry and the amount of iPhones that have been hacked (my wife's included) are 6-10 to 1 for android.

Industry metrics disagree, but I have no doubt where you are, this is what you are seeing.

Android gets these apps that bombards you with pop ups, a quick removal and they are gone. Apple has nasty crap happening on the back end without users knowledge. I saw my wifes iPhone 13 sending messages without her even touching it. I am so happy we got rid of them.

So out of billions of users, your wife’s iPhone had an issue and then a broad stroked generalization is made. For me won’t go to android, I can’t see an upside that makes my smartphone life better. But YMMV.