I transitioned to Linux a few years ago, which has piqued my partner’s curiosity. She’s been genuinely interested and asks questions about it, but she is so deeply integrated I don’t know where to start. She uses iCloud, an Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, a Mac desktop, plus whatever default proprietary software. She has a semi-technical background.

I want to help and be encouraging without overselling the ease of transition. There’s always some friction with transitioning technology, and of course Apple makes that intentionally difficult. I came from a Windows ecosystem, so I’m lacking any direct insight for potential challenges.

Any advice or personal experiences on moving from the Apple ecosystem to Linux would be hugely appreciated!

(I can host services on my local server, so transitioning to something like Immich vs iCloud for photos is one option we’ve discussed).

  • wltr@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    4·
    2 days ago

    I’m the one who migrated off macOS, but I’m still heavily on iOS. All of my family is with iPhones, and we have a bunch of iPads. I’m having MacBooks, and they all run Linux (they’re old Intel models, and work perfectly well on Linux). Our home computer is on Fedora too.

    As for the migration, I’d suggest making an attempt at migration with some old laptop: ThinkPad or even older Intel MacBook, the Retina 2012…2015 line up works really well for me. That way she’d have an opportunity to slowly learn and compare.

    Apple’s ecosystem wasn’t bad when I migrated, and I was somewhat scared to switch fully. I did that only when I realised I haven’t touched my macOS MacBook for years! (We’ve been watching TV series off it, to keep the battery functioning more or so.)

    Also, what helped is me realising I don’t need that tight integration between the phone / tablet and laptop / desktop. They’re different devices: to consume content vs to create it. So, it helped. But, I’m still learning the new apps. Particularly the design ones are awful on Linux. Figma is mostly the same, but Inkscape is just miserable, but I’m trying to keep using it, even despite the interface being terrible. Gimp turned out to be okay, more or so. Krita was mostly good too, so I don’t miss Photoshop. But I do miss video editing software. I hope Blender might help some things I miss, but I’m yet to learn it.

    Interface wise, I think Gnome is perfectly fine for a macOS refugee (just search for the solution to keep cmd + v behaviour, there’s the project for that, I forgot the name: Toshy something; I use my own shortcuts now). However, you can make KDE behave very similar to macOS, to ease the transition.

    The primary pain point is the apps. They’re different, and usually worse. Sometimes they’re better, if you strive for simplicity. So, it’s a mixed bag. Myself, I don’t see myself going back. I may use a MacBook with macOS, but my primary system at home would be Linux. As I have too many tiny little things now that are Linux exclusive.

    • Corvus Cornix@piefed.socialEnglish
      2·
      19 hours ago

      Also, what helped is me realising I don’t need that tight integration between the phone / tablet and laptop / desktop. They’re different devices: to consume content vs to create it. This was a key realization for me, too. I thought that I’d really miss all the Handoff and Continuity features but I rarely actually needed to be able to, for example, edit documents on my phone from my laptop and vice-versa.

    • Reannlegge@lemmy.caEnglish
      2·
      21 hours ago

      I have an old MacBook, it needs a new battery and SSD, but that could work as a ipad replacement with Linux thanks for the idea.

      • wltr@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        2·
        11 hours ago

        Well, not exactly the proper replacement, but you can try. I would be curious to learn how it went for you. For me, that worked (I barely touch iPad), for my wife didn’t, she uses iPad mostly.