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.
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.
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.
That’s bullshit. I can’t do my work without connecting to exchange. It’s not something I can find an alternative for.
I don’t know what “exchange” is but I’m willing to bet there is a suitable replacement. It will likely require some level of effort. Usually because corporations dont want you to leave so they make it as difficult as possible. Linux doesnt care a whole lot if you come or go. Its made for YOU to do what YOU want to do with it. It doesn’t sound like youre willing to put forward any level of effort.
Your post also reads with a lot of contempt.
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.
Most people don’t need to sacrifice anything. I didn’t. Other than time…
Until desktop Linux can cover basic desktop use cases it will be a useless endeavor for most people.
These absolutely do not resemble “basic” use-cases.
I don’t think music, photo, document management and groupware should be some unobtainable goal for a desktop os.
And it’s not.
Linux is a great option for a lot of people, maybe just not for you.
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.
Full disclosure: I ran manjaro as a daily driver for a while a few years back bad have been forced back on windows as well by company policy. So I’m not going to be the ultimate authority to answer your questions.
All I wanted to comment is that with iTunes and Office you have picked two pieces of software by two companies that have a very strong interest in not letting you migrate away from them. I tried to migrate my gf’s password manager from the iCloud one to bitwarden and it’s amazing the hoops they make you jump through to get at your data. So what you might be experiencing right now is a thing called “vendor lock”, and I wish you the best of luck for finding a way out. ;)
I’m fully capable of escaping vendor lock. I’m technical and persistent and have switched platforms at least 5-6 times in the past. I’ve run just about every desktop operating system that has existed since the '80s. The only things that are holding me on Mac are the specific features I’ve mentioned.
The only things that are holding me on Mac are the specific features I’ve mentioned.
Isn’t that the vendor lock part?
I look at vendor lock in more as giving you proprietary file types or other data that simply won’t work on other systems. I’ve been very careful to avoid that by using DRM-free media exclusively for example. Smart playlists and those sort of things are features that can and have been delivered on multiple platforms. The only place where I’d say I’m truly “locked in” is in Echange server integration, but that’s a choice my work made which I have no control over.
Some of these are going to be a bit of a challenge, but let’s put down some keywords you can look into.
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Airsonic or jellyfin in a docker container
- I also recommend a container with lidarr etc. and a qbitorrent locked into a VPN
- smart playlists may take some playing around with, however playlists are just a text file, so in a pinch a python script will do basic things.
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This one’s easy, I use rsync / unison with termux, there’s also syncthing.
- No clue with Apple. Jellyfin and airsonic stream well to it though
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Nope, if this is a deal breaker, stop now. If your flexible however:
- Excel: python, Jupyter, R and libre Office
- Rmarkdown will produce reports
- OneNote: Joplin, Obsidian, Dokuwiki, tiddlywiki etc (see r/pkms on Reddit)
- Word: markdown with vim, vscode Emacs and then pandoc
- Excel: python, Jupyter, R and libre Office
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Immich, shotwell, F-spot photoprism and I think there’s another KDE tool that has AI
- I’m very happy with immich, it does require docker, which is worth it imo.
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Scanners do work, but I don’t know how you’ll connect it with Evernote.
Probably one of the best responses so far, no idea why you are getting downvoted. I will look into it and get back to you.
Downvotes: Docker is contentious among some in the community.
Based on your use case, you may find your current workflow fairly incompatible with the Linux approach. However, id recommend you try nonetheless, always worth the learning experience even if it’s not your cup of tea.
Feel free to reach out if you need any support. always happy to help.
Unironically recommending OP uses Docker just to run two pieces of software. 🤦🏾♀️
Absolutely, the portability and encapsulation is great.
If you want to spin it up by hand, go for it, but containers make things very easy with no downsides.
Don’t have a lot of time right now… But if your iTunes library is DRM free music files (Apple moved new purchases to DRM-free some number of years ago when Steve Jobs was still at the helm, however if it’s a song you’ve had a really long time you might have to pay Apple for the DRM-free slightly better quality music file), you’re in good shape with something like Rhythmbox.
On the office side… I’d try using the LibreOffice suite on your current operating system instead of office and see if you can get away with it. It’s the best open source office suite around … and it’s cross platform, so you should be able to tell if that’s going to be a problem without going all in.
I removed all the DRM from my music files, so that’s not a major issue. The smart playlists and syncing to a fully local music app on mobile are that main things.
As far as I can tell, LibreOffice has no replacement for Outlook, which is the main thing I need. I need at least to sync with Outlook servers for all email, tasks, contacts, and calendar items.
I’ve not used it for quite a bit, but look at Thunderbird (a mozilla project iirc), it might do what you want as far as email is concerned. However do note that Microsoft is really closing things down in outlook/office these days, they really don’t like people using a “real” Linux (they want people to use windows with all their crap and start menu ads, and just have a small Linux VM they call the wsl )
I use Thunderbird already. It’s not even 10% of the way there, unfortunately.
i plan to get a similar setup (music on homeserver, synced to phone for offline use) but i dont need to sync playlists as i rarely use them, i have a streaming account with one(!) playlist with all the songs i remembered and wanted to listen to but didn’t buy as CD back then and use the radio like streaming options a lot.
but for syncing phone with nextcloud i use FolderSync (Pro) and it works as it should. it has lots of possible sync targets and lots of options to sync one or both ways. i have folders with >8000 files that take some time to sync but it works fine in the background with no prob, i let it sync over mobile network too, cz i value a more reliable in-sync status more than bandwidth. however i didn’t really try “immediate sync” for new/changed files yet as i don’t see the need for this but its one of many options.
however i only use nextcloud sync in one or two-way syncs and once used sftp for a one-way sync, so i cannot judge all the other options, but if your playlists are organized in files, their two-way sync might be as easy as with the songs. i bought the pro version on their website so my license is not bound to a google account.
I think the key is you need to find FOSS software that works for you before migrating your OS. Most FOSS software will run on windows and sometimes MAC.
1-2 and 3 will be hard. You can find many tools that do something similar but it won’t be perfect. There are a few different music managers, and for office libreoffice is the go to.
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try digikam, it supports all OSes
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googling “Fujitsu snap scanner Linux” yielded a few blog articles on the matter. Seems it should be supported.