SwitchToLinux

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A place to ask for help and find FOSS replacements for applications you were using on proprietary OSs.

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I am seriously considering pulling the trigger on a switch to Linux. Looking for advice and discussion (self.switch_to_linux)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by Reverendender to c/[email protected]

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In terms of hardware, what are some good cost effective resources and what what things might I want to consider differently than what I am used to in both the Mac and Windows worlds? I need smart home management, a plex hub, and photo editing, as well as the usual other stuff.

EDIT: I use Capture One for photo organizing and editing. I have old computers I can repurpose for this endeavor, but they are pretty old. My main thought for this post was looking into what kind of hardware I could consider for building a new Linux system from scratch. I am very much am inclined to switch to Home Assistant,because Siri is dumb as a bag of rocks, and AppleHome does not have the features I want and is extremely buggy. Everything I have currently is in the Apple ecosystem, and my daily driver is an M2 Mac Mini. I am not inclined to put Linux on the Mac Mini at this stage. I use the complete Proton suite for all that stuff. Thanks!

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[–] Reverendender 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If it could be my full time personal driver for basic web surfing, email, home automation and photo editing, that would be great. Currently I do everything in the Apple ecosystem, but I have been getting increasingly frustrated with how buggy the software has become. It also drives me bonkers watching Safari use 6.43 of the 8GB of RAM I was dumb enough to purchase my system with. I've also been reading a bit of the recent news of security vulnerabilities in the Apple silicon. I am fairly privacy and security minded,so this bothers me. I use the full proton suite. That said, there's nothing really wrong with the computer and there is no rush to make this happen, and if something won't work on Linux, there is no problem continuing to do it on the Mac Mini.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

My advice is to get a few live Linux ISOs and put it on a USB drive with Ventoy. I might be wrong but I think only Asahi Linux and Fedora Asahi are compatible with Apple silicon.

You’ll be able to boot into Linux with those and dip your toes in before deciding to install it and dual boot on your hard drive.

Linux is more frugal with memory, but with 8GB I’d steer away from KDE and GNOME desktop environments. Cinnamon, XFCE and LXQt will run fast.

As to the self hosting goals, I’d hold on for a while until you’re more familiar with Linux. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with too much change.