7:29pm
This is the third post in a series chronicling my switch-over from my MacBook to an Ubuntu 24.10 install on my desktop (i.e. my former Windows gaming box). If you arrived here without reading the previous two posts in this series, you might wanna go back and start at the beginning.
I’m not going to re-hash everything, and I’d hate for you to feel lost. But because I’m a nice-ish guy, I’ll link the posts here:
Right, then… moving on!
One of the things I missed most about Windows when I switched over to Mac was Notepad. During my IT years, I almost lived in it.
It would open a simple text window in which I could paste some text I knew I’d need later at different points, and I could close it without saving it. It was basically my scratch pad and I loved it.
Mac comes with a text editor, but it doesn’t work the same as Notepad. The developer behind it seems to have assumed that you’d want to save whatever text you put in it, so it makes you create a file before it gives you a text window for typing.
I got around that–kind of–by installing Sublime Text, but it was never the crisp, snappy solution that Notepad was.
Which is why I’m loving Ubuntu’s Text Editor.
Open it, and you get a text window that’s ready for typing… or pasting… or whatever text-related operation you have. When you’re finished? You can save or not as you choose. I did have to turn off the “Restore last session” option when it re-opened a text file, but that’s such small potatoes it’s barely worth mentioning.
Some of you may have noticed that I’ve been discussing my computer a whole lot without going into what I’ll do for a phone.
I do have a plan for both my phone and tablet, but I haven’t discussed it much because switching up devices kinda requires the devices. But if you want to know how I’m going to handle those devices without much in the way of an experience report, I don’t mind telling you what I plan to do.
The Google Pixel 9 Pro (or maybe the Pro XL).
Before you get wound up about how Android has been proven to be less secure and private than Apple’s iOS on the iPhone, I’m not keeping the software that comes on the phone. I’m loading it with GrapheneOS.
GrapheneOS is what is known in the tech world as a custom ROM. Custom ROMs and the method of loading them have come a long way since my buddy first introduced me to the idea roughly fifteen years ago. Mobile devices have come a long way, too.
I mainly have my iPad to test my ebooks, read, and do light browsing. I have two options here. One, get a Pixel Tab and load GrapheneOS on it, too (the team behind GrapheneOS only supports the Pixel devices direct from Google). Two, buy another Kindle.
I’m not sure I want to go through the hassle of loading GrapheneOS onto a Pixel Tab, just to connect it right back to Google services (like the Play Store) to get the Kindle app and keep it updated. Given the cost of the devices involved and how my iPad is reaching the point of needing replacement because the battery life isn’t what it used to be, I’m thinking I’ll get a Pixel Tab and a Kindle, specifically the Kindle Paperwhite.
I’ve had a couple in the past, and I liked them well enough. I imagine they’ve only gotten better with time, too.
The one thing I don’t have a direct replacement for is my Apple Watch. I’m going to miss it for no other reason than I never have to set the time on it. I remember what it was like to go through the house trying to get the clocks mostly on time, and I don’t really want to go back to that. If they made a smartwatch whose only “smart” function was to connect to an NTP (network time protocol) server to keep the time accurate and adjust for what time zone I’m in, I’d pounce on that like a hungry lion. The bells and whistles of the Apple Watch are nice enough, but like everything else about the Apple ecosystem, they’re not worth the cost… and I don’t mean the financial cost.
Worst case, I’ll just do without the smartwatch.
I mean… I have used a print phone book. I was in my mid-twenties before I had a form of internet access that wasn’t dial-up. I will be just fine if I end up having to put a plain, old-fashioned watch with an analog face on my wrist.
There’s something about this switch-over that keeps tripping me up, though, and that is keyboard shortcuts.
I grew up using DOS, specifically MS-DOS. There was no mouse. By the time Windows became a thing and I knew the keyboard shortcuts, I could do things faster without touching the mouse than someone who had learned how to use a computer using a mouse.
Where I’m having to de-program myself is [CTRL] versus [CMD].
In Linux and Windows, if you want to copy something to the clipboard to paste somewhere else, you press [CTRL] + [C]. In Mac, though, it’s [CMD] + [C].
On a Mac keyboard, the [OPTION] key does some of what the [CTRL] key does on Linux and Windows (like quickly navigating through a text document in conjunction with the arrow keys), just like the [CMD] key does all of what the [ALT] key does plus some of what [CTRL] does.
Fortunately, I haven’t forgotten the keyboard shortcuts, per se. I just need to re-train my muscle memory. I keep hitting what my mind expects to be [CMD] + [B] (for bold text) or [I] (for italics) and openting a menu… because I hit [ALT] + [B] or [ALT] + [I].
But these types of things are only to be expected.
I don’t have to adjust my thinking too, too much… because the modern macOS is in truth a highly customised version of Ubuntu.
But all this isn’t the elephant in the room.
Oh, no…
That… is the fact that I’ve used Scrivener for the past 4-ish years.
I have to go through all the “active projects,” export them as Word documents, and then copy/paste the chapters into individual LibreOffice documents for inclusion in the appropriate master document.
I have… a lot… of Scrivener files.
There is one silver-ish lining to all of this. Once I publish a story, I don’t ever go back to the Scrivener file. If I need to fix something, I’ll make the changes in Vellum and generate new ebook and formatted PDF files.
Plus, I have all my Scrivener files in Dropbox. I don’t edit them in Dropbox, because cloud sync services and Scrivener do not get along. At all. But I have all my Scrivener files.
I’m going to get all my unpublished projects that will be published eventually and convert them over to LibreOffice master and subdocuments.
It’ll be a lot of work, though. Given how I like to hope between projects when I’m writing, I’ll have to convert at least four projects right away. I’m trying to focus on just one or two, but we’ll see how that goes.
The unfortunate, collateral damage in all of this is that I simply cannot stomach writing on my MacBook anymore. So I have to get to a point where I have basic functionality, so I can move forward.
Right before I starting typing up this post, the enormity of what I was facing truly settled in, and I almost… almost… took a dose of Fukitol and scrapped the switch-over plan.
It didn’t take long for that possibility to settle as well with me as re-writing Fires has. Yeah… I’m done with the Apple ecosystem.
This is where I am at the moment. I’m far enough in my switch-over that I can focus on converting Word documents exported from Scrivener into LibreOffice master and subdocuments. I’m thinking that will be my focus tomorrow. I don’t like that it’s been so long without writing after missing so much of January.
If you’re reading this, thanks for sticking with me.
I hope the days treat you and yours well. Stay safe out there.
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