Okay, all you who post on every post “you should just switch to Linux”. Here’s your chance. I’m someone who really does want to run Linux on the desktop. I run Linux servers at home, was a Unix sysadmin for years running Linux on the desktop in the '90s. But now I’m in sales and run Windows at work (actually very happily with some help from StartAllBack and Rufus).
I want to replace my Macs at home. Since they removed upgradable RAM and disk, I am no longer willing to pay the high tax for the few little things they do better. But there is some functionality I just cannot seem to find replacements for. This is where you folks who say “I should just switch to Linux” come in. Tell me how please:
Requirement 1) I have heavily invested in my local music library on iTunes. 1200 albums. I have little to no interest in streaming services. I want to organize my music with * ratings from 1-5 and from that have smart playlists that autopopulate and sort themselves by * ratings and genre. I have more than 40 of these types of playlists and it’s completely unworkable to populate them manually.
Requirement 2) I must be able to sync my music library in full to my phone. I use an iOS phone now, but I could even be convinced to switch to Android if there was a good solution. I am not willing to go in and select 100 different playlists manually to sync. It must completely replicate what’s on my desktop on my phone, 100% locally, including all the afformentioned smart playlists. I travel a lot for work and want my music always available even when there’s no network.
Requirement 3) My job really doesn’t require much more than Office and a browser, but it requires very heavy use of those things. Firefox is fine for the browser, so no trouble there, but I need full fledged Outlook, OneNote and most of the features of Excel at a minimum. Word I can take a bit of a hit on as long as I can save something that others can open. Ideally I would want to run the Windows version of these tools. I will not be able to live with only the browser versions, that I’m 100% sure of.
Requirement 4) I’d really like some sort of decent photo management tool. I can probably manage just by keeping them organized in folders and having google photos suck that in, but I don’t much trust Google, so would like to have a second tool that can also do a good job at replacing MacOS’ Photos app. AI image recognition and search a-la Google Photos would be the cherry on top.
Requirement 5) I need to be able to scan in batches from my Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner into Evernote. I use this on mobile, other OS’, etc. and have a lot of organization built into it now that I really don’t want to try to migrate from.
That’s it. 5 high level requirements that must be met. Is it possible?
No.
If you ever so carefully paint yourself into a corner then the corner is where you will be stuck. How badly do you want out of your corner?
There are FOSS and SAAS options that could work if you wanted them to… but whether they will depends on you.
Meat eaters trying to become vegetarian for ethical reasons often fail because the “un-meat” options out there don’t meet their standards. Success almost always requires some letting go and re-adjusting. If you are not open to that then don’t force yourself to put up with something you don’t really want.
Agreed. You need to be willing to migrate to FOSS software or else “switching to Linux” will be a total failure.
https://files.catbox.moe/zwe5ns.mp4
More than happy to, but it needs to perform the job.
Still you’re adamant on M$ Office, nothing can replace that, because you obviously need every single (anti-)feature, including the M$ logo in the settings. The only thing I can see is Outlook, if it is integrated with your work somehow, but then you should get a dedicated work device anyway, because installing company stuff on private devices is a bad idea.
Written like a true neckbeard, dripping with contempt, even going out of his way to deliberately type MS wrong. This is why normal people people don’t like Linux - for all the righteous idiots.
Now brace for the response…
I’m not adamant on office, I just need to be able to do work on my device, that means exchange syncing at a minimum. Otherwise I can’t do anything. I have a work provided device but work from my home machines too (totally allowed by company policy).
Why is work not providing a laptop to you? Making/allowing you do work on a BYOD is insanity from a security perspective. I hope your company doesn’t have to go through PCI compliance audits or do any kind of transactions with the general public’s credit cards…
To be clear: what I wrote here is not a linux user’s opinion, but rather someone who works infosec for a Windows-based organization.
With that being said, you can use O365 apps through the browser just fine as long as you work out of your OneDrive or your team’s SharePoint storage exclusively. You can even use Outlook/Exchange through O365.
But if you can, I’d push for a company laptop even if you stick with your Macs. Mixing personal devices with work is a baaaaad idea for both parties.
I have a company laptop. I leave it at work.
I have two company laptops. One lives at home. BYOD computers are still a bad idea.
I honestly couldn’t give 2 shits. IT allows it so I’m sure they have their methods of securing things. It’s not a small company.
Thunderbird rolled out support for exchange (mostly)
I’d only get working on private devices if you have a very specific and good working workflow, which would be totally destroyed by using the company device. In my case, I just can’t work on Windows, with a stacking WM. So I mostly write code on my private machine, push it to git and download it to my dev machine.
That’s bullshit. I can’t do my work without connecting to exchange. It’s not something I can find an alternative for.
Giving up the organization of my data that I’ve worked for 20+ years to achieve is simply not worth it just to move platforms.
People love to go around telling people to move to Linux, but then expect everyone to sacrifice all the useful stuff they do with their computers to do so. Until desktop Linux can cover basic desktop use cases it will be a useless endeavor for most people.
I don’t think music, photo, document management and groupware should be some unobtainable goal for a desktop os.
I didn’t say it was unobtainable. But it might look/behave quite different than the tools you are currently using.
As for Microsoft Exchange, I only use that for work, and my employer would not allow me to connect from my personal machine anyway. I am not saying that you that you have to give up your favorite tools… but I am saying that it you are putting up so many fences then you might as well stay with what you have.
As with all things, there’s a trade off: how much do you value the [convenience/ecosystem/insert other thing that proprietary system offers you] compared to the ongoing cost - monetarily but also in terms of privacy, market manipulation, environmental impact, etc. of supporting and relying on the proprietary system.
You can’t do your work without connecting to Exchange because Microsoft has leveraged decades of monopolistic gains to make Outlook the default option for any “serious” business, and has invested even further in making inconvenient (or soon impossible) to connect to Exchange from outside their sanctioned walled gardens. Demanding that Linux solve that for you is akin to demanding that the person commuting on bike undo a century of automotive-centric urban expansion in the US so that they don’t interrupt your commute. It’s not their fault they can’t solve the problem and it doesn’t help anyone to get mad at them for doing their best to behave rationally in a system stacked to only serve the 1%’s corporate interests.
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Exchange is Microsoft’s SMTP server. Its the thing outlook runs on top of. If OP works in the corporate world, there is no “replacement” cause its not his.
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Tell me you didn’t read the post without telling me you didn’t read the post.