Pretentious title, but all I’m talking about is using MacOS versus Linux (Ubuntu, specifically). You can read a sort-of-similar account by Jack Baty, who has as long a history with Macs as I do. Recently I’m feeling disillusioned by Apple’s moves around many things, including MacOS. Unlike Baty, though, I don’t feel any particular urge to make it a binary choice; all Mac versus all Linux. I’ve kept some version of Linux installed on a spare laptop for a long time, and while MacOS has been my primary digital “home”, I’ve usually had a Linux RV parked in the driveway.
One of the big advantages to MacOS, which is at the same time one of it’s big disadvantages, is iCloud. It’s immensely convenient to have a laptop, a desktop, a phone, and an iPad all, to varying extents, automatically synced. But it’s also very annoying that iCloud is so deeply baked into Apple software — both the OS and their native apps (which are quite good) — that it’s very, very difficult to do any sort of deeper dive into the database underlying Photos. Or change file syncing to use my NAS by default instead of iCloud, even though my home system has about ten times the available storage as my iCloud account. Which I also pay for monthly. It’s a pretty good bargain, but it still rankles, just a bit.
My Linux system, though, doesn’t have those issues. It has other issues. Of course. But it integrates with the storage system on my home network better than my Macs do. For practically every app I use in MacOS there’s an equivalent readily available in Linux. Sometimes one is a bit better, sometimes the other is. “Productivity software” has become mature enough that it’s reliable and predictable. Except in Windows land, as far as I know.
Jack Baty mentioned something else, though, in his most recent post: how he feels when he uses Linux versus MacOS. Linux, he says, feels better. I hadn’t thought about it in those terms, but yeah, I feel the same way. Using Linux is more enjoyable, more satisfying, more pleasant than using MacOS. Especially since Apple is at some point in the near future (probably) going to force me to upgrade to “Tahoe.” Every single thing I’ve read about Tahoe suggests that I will not like it. I already dislike the changes that have been sneaking into iOS. What has happened to Apple UX designers?
Anyway, there is one difference, maybe significant, between Baty’s experience and mine when it comes to Linux. I have for years installed it on second-hand laptops. Almost always Thinkpads, because I really love the keyboards and the solid feel of the computer itself (the hardware, I mean). My current one, which I’m using right now, is an X220 tablet. I never use it in tablet mode, but I’ve found the touch screen to be surprisingly handy. I have not sprung for a brand-new Framework laptop, although I do really like their modular, do-it-yourself design. Aside from the battery life (which might improve with a replacement battery for about $35), I’m happy with my X220. Even though it’s more than 10 years old.It can’t keep up with modern systems in raw performance, but I mostly use computers for writing and communicating, and it’s fine.
I still don’t feel any need to make a binary decision and concentrate on only Linux or only MacOS. But my ratio of use of one versus the other is slowly changing, and I’m using Linux more. I probably won’t spend the money on a shiny new system for running Linux, but at some point I’ll probably need to upgrade to a (somewhat) newer Thinkpad.
I should send Baty an email about Ubuntu Mate, which I like very much. He writes that he prefers Gnome to KDE, and Mate is an updated form of Gnome2.
