9:27am

Okay. So, this is the second post in the series about my feelings and response to Big Tech’s push to get more of who we are.

I’m not going to re-hash everything I wrote yesterday. If you haven’t read yesterday’s post, you can find it here. You should probably read it first. Otherwise, you might feel a little lost.

Right, then. Now that I have proclaimed my disclaimer, let us proceed.

Holy shit… modern Linux is fast.

I think I had forgotten how snappy computer operations can be. And before you say that a clean install on gaming-grade hardware almost has to be snappy, the hardware in this computer is almost five years old.

This is a wisecrack, and I want to say it’s beneath me… but apparently it isn’t. It’s amazing how fast a computer can be when the operating system isn’t informing on me before it does what I told it to do.

Yeah… I’m that disillusioned with Apple and Microsoft right now.

So, I’m writing this from a fresh Fedora 41 install. There are many, many different distros of Linux, but two of the biggest are Fedora and Ubuntu. My webserver that hosts this website you’re visiting has run on Ubuntu Server for years.

If I’m so familiar with Ubuntu, why did I install Fedora? Well… I installed Ubuntu first. Then, I stumbled on a YouTube video about how the latest and greatest of Ubuntu (24.10) uses the second-most-recent version of Gnome. It’s six months old. If I’m going to explore making Linux my daily driver, I should give into the temptation and give myself the full “Ooohhh, shiny” experience.

Oh… sorry. Gnome (pronounced either gee-nome or simply nome) is one of the desktop environments of Linux. It’s one of the most common, but there are several… maybe dozens. A desktop environment is the user interface you see on the screen.

Random “blast from the past” fact: Windows started out as an operating environment, instead of an operating system. It couldn’t do anything without good, ole DOS underneath it. Microsoft didn’t truly get away from relying on a DOS substrata until Windows XP, which came from their Windows NT business operating system.

But I digress…

Aside from the Gnome issue I mentioned above, I switched from Ubuntu to Fedora also as a matter of curiosity. According to reports, it is the distro of Linux that Linus Torvalds (the creator of Linux) prefers, and I wanted to see if I agreed with him.

There are many subtle differences between Fedora and Ubuntu, but while command names may change, how you “get stuff done” does not.

Yeah… I can already tell I’m falling down a rabbit hole, here. I doubt I’ll make any major progress on writing until I get this settled. Either I’ll switch over to Linux as my daily driver, or I’ll just suck it up and continue dealing with Apple.

Okay. I’m off to work through a few more of my processes to see how well they carry over to Linux.

3:47pm

Linus might prefer Fedora, but I damn-sure don’t.

I don’t know if it’s the fact that Fedora 41 uses the most recent version of Gnome or if there’s some quirky difference between Fedora and Ubuntu, but the major deal-breaker for me was the lack of an “app” for three pieces of software I use frequently: 1Password (my password manager), Dropbox, and PIA (or Private Internet Access, my VPN).

I have re-installed Ubuntu 24.10, and I have a Dropbox icon in the top-right that tells me it’s percolating away on syncing my files. Damn-good thing Starlink has unmetered bandwidth…

But the good news is that I have a path forward.

While testing Fedora, the first thing that worked really well was installing the JumpDesktop client for Windows using Wine and connecting to my MacBook. It didn’t just work. It was smooth as butter.

Why did I care about remotely using my MacBook?

Two reasons: (1) I kinda like chatting with some friends and family using Apple’s Messages app; and (b) there are a few pieces of software I have to have unless I want to hire out the work.

To keep in touch with my other Mac-using friends, I’ll have a JumpDesktop window open on my desktop that is controlling my Mac so I can use Apple’s Messages app.

And then, there’s the software necessary for my publishing business. The software I use to format my stories into ebook and PDF for printing is Mac-only. I don’t use Adobe a whole, whole lot, but it’s really handy when I need it… and only runs on macOS or Windows; Wine can’t really help me there. So, unless I want to hire out these necessary business functions, I have to keep a Mac.

But that’s okay. As long as it isn’t my daily driver anymore, I can live with the disappointment that Apple has become.

In terms of writing my stories, though, I have used another program that works best on Mac: Scrivener. It’s an awesome piece of software, and I’m 115% certain I wasn’t using even half of what it could do. But the current Windows version does not get along with Wine. Not at all.

That’s okay, though. This whole situation gives me the opportunity to test something I became aware of after I’d already made the switch to Scrivener (and didn’t know better about Apple yet).

I’m talking about master documents and subdocuments in LibreOffice. Oh! That’s another app Fedora didn’t give me. LibreOffice normally comes with a central control app that shows you the files you’ve recently worked with and makes it easy to create a new file. Fedora just gave me the individual apps, not the ‘control’ or ‘loader’ app. Wasn’t a fan.

But I have once again digressed.

Master document and subdocuments. I haven’t tested it yet, but after reading the documentation, this feature allows you to link subdocuments inside a master. Then, you can open the master and export it as your filetype of choice (say… a Word docx for my editor), and it will build that file by compiling all of the subdocuments into one, monolithic file.

I wish I’d had this back when I was writing my stories on Windows. I don’t even want to think about how much time I spent copying and pasting individual chapters to make one Word file of the entire story. [Insert shudder here.]

So, I’m excited to see this in action, and I hope it lives up to the hype I’ve felt in reading through the documentation about it.

Okay. This post is getting kinda long. I think I’m going to wrap it up.

The bottom line, though, is that switching from Mac to Linux is looking more and more feasible as time goes on. Even better? I’m excited about it.

If you’re reading this, thanks for hanging in there with me.

I hope the days treat you and yours well. Stay safe out there.