Linux Log: Monday, April 21, 2025

I enjoyed the holiday weekend, with time spent away from the computer, so there’s not much new to report.

The conflict between “Let’s move everything over to Linux” and “I should double down with macOS forever” remains a problem. The reason my previous forays into Linux have always failed is due to that conflict. I don’t know how long it would take for me to stop crawling back to my Macs every time things get uncomfortable. I’m still doing it today.

There is software on macOS that I would miss dearly: DEVONthink, Curio, Tinderbox, OmniFocus, to name a few. Not to mention all the little utilities like Raycast, Cleanshot, Keyboard Maestro, etc. I would miss them, but I could survive without them.

What I don’t think I can survive without is my photography workflow. I’m sorry, but Darktable is an ugly mess. Even if I were to buckle down and force myself to understand how it works, it would still be an unpleasant place to work. And don’t say “GIMP”, either. It’s powerful, but I hate actually using it. This all means that completely replacing the Mac is not something I am willing to do. And I don’t know if running both macOS and Linux will every be “fun” enough to justify the time and frustrations involved.

I have trouble deciding whether computers are a fun hobby in and of themselves, or if they are appliances to be used for doing other things. Answering “both” is causing me all sorts of frustration.

Today I plan to configure Fish as my shell. I have been avoiding getting fancy with terminal “hacks” but I miss Fish every time I do anything, so it’s worth the trouble. I can’t just copy my Mac’s config because too much of it is OS-specific. Great, another fork :).

I’m also going to have to bite the bullet and build Espanso. Typing dates and common strings by hand is for cavemen.

Wish me luck.