2025-02-25

Apple to Linux Journal - a Week of progress

I'm feeling really good about this move. My sister has observed of my personality that once I have made my mind up on something I don't fuck around and it's generally true. Once I decided that I needed to migrate away from Apple it became my focus. I expected most of the process to a couple months but I'll likely be mostly finished within this second week.

Linux fixes

File Sharing In my last post I mentioned that I had not gotten file sharing working on the LinuxMac. It's working now. What was the problem?

Poor implementation and documentation

On the surface it is made to seem easy. Open the Linux Mint Files app to your home directory, right click on a folder and select Properties or Sharing Options and flip the switch. There's no general file sharing option in the Settings app that I could find.

When trying to access the shares from the iPad the Files app would just give me an access denied message when I tried to login with my username and password. On the LinuxMac I tried turning on the guest access option for a folder that does not require an account and with that enabled I did indeed have full read/write access to the folder. Obviously I didn't want to leave that open but it was a clue.

In searching around I found the solution in this thread. It turns out that, in additon to turning on sharing for specific folders, I also needed to add my username to the samba password database via a simple terminal command:

"sudo smbpasswd -a denny"

I found the solution in this thread which contained a lot of other information that I didn't need to use. In other words, my solution was buried in a forum post and I spent a good bit of time looking for it. I'm grateful that the forum exists and that the people were taking the time to help one another. That's fantastic.

But it's also the perfect example of why we still have the nerd joke of "This will be the year of Desktop Linux!" I should not have had to do this. In 2025 turning on file sharing in system settings is essential feature. This is exactly why that joke still exists.

Migrating from the Apple apps and services

The unfortunate reality is that I have quite a few files in Apple's Numbers and Pages apps. I'll likely need at least one Apple device on hand to keep access to those files. This is a longterm constraint based on a previous choice about computing. What's important now is to continue taking steps into this different computing paradigm. This is a different path based on different values and goals.

The primary goal of minimizing my dependence on Apple services is almost complete which also means I'm contributing less to their bottom line. Yes, yes, I know, it seems pointless given the immense wealth and dominance they hold, but I've done my part to lessen their grip. And in my personal life it feels good to have made the decision and effort.

Switching spreadsheets from Numbers to a more open file format

I spent a bit of time using Libre Calc to edit my accounts spreadsheet exported from Numbers. It's basically just several sheets that I use to keep track of money, bills paid, etc. I had to redo a bit but it's working just fine now. I'll have more to convert over but there are a few that are somewhat complicated and I expect they will have to stay in Numbers. A couple are shared with a client and they may also have to stay in Numbers.

I found a third party, open source iPad app made in collaboration with Libre Office that allows for editing the native ods file, Collabora Office. Seems to work fairly well. Not nearly as smooth as Numbers on the iPad. In the end it may be that spreadsheet tasks get moved to the LinuxMac at least until such time as the Collabora app is improved. It may be that as I spend more time with it I find it better than my initial impression.

Migration from iCloud Photos

This is the biggy. I think most of us place a high value on our photos. I'd already had my Mac set to download copies of all images and videos to the local drive. I've made a backup of the Photos Library and turned off iCloud photos for the Mac, iPhone and iPad. I'll work for a few days with no access on devices to get a feel for the new workflow and ensure that everything is working. Going forward any photos taken on the iPhone will be saved/imported to the Mac via a cable. Good ol' days computing.

I've also downloaded an app Photos Takout designed to export from an Apple Photos library into directories of folders in several differet formats. It also has a smart export feature that will just export new photos as they are added. This seems like an ideal way to transition out of the proprietary Photos library.

Migration from the Apple Podcast app

This is a fun one. The solution is completely open, obvious and functional: RSS. I'm using my FreshRSS account at 32bit.cafe where I've got all my other RSS feeds. It's not an instant process but the result is worth a bit of time and I'm pruning down my podcast subs as I go. Every podcast has an RSS feed somewhere, most can be gotten with a quick DuckDuckGo search then it's just a matter of adding it to my RSS feeds into a Podcast folder. Easy access from the LinuxMac, iPad or iPhone via FireFox or any browser. And it works perfectly.

Migration from Safari

Like any nerd, I've toyed with lots of browsers over the years and one of the old standby browsers is Firefox. I've been using it off and on for awhile on the iPad and it's proving to be a nice new web browsing home on Linux so I've switched to it as the default on the iPad and iPhone as well. I've setup sync on all devices and tab sync is proving not only useful but more reliable than it's been on Safari.

Migration from Apple Notes

I'm generally very happy working in plain text and markdown. I've been keeping all of daily notes in the OBTF (One Big Text File) for the past year and that will continue. I'll gradually migrate older notes that may have been put in Apple Notes earlier on into text files. I'll have to sort out what I want to do with notes that have had pdf/images attached. The obvious answer is to just chuck those in a subfolder alongside all of the text files.

Migration from iCloud Mail

This last one will be the most gradual. I've got a lot of email coming into my iCloud account so I'll be keeping the basic 50GB iCloud plan for awhile. I'll gradually get everything moved over to one of my self-hosted domains.

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