Using both macOS and Linux is too much work

I’ve been coasting along rather well on the ThinkPad for a bit. It does the basics: Emacs and browsing. As long as I can use a mouse rather than that awful trackpad, I even feel comfortable.

The thing that will kill this whole experiment is switching back and forth between macOS and Linux. It’s crazy-making. Forcing key bindings to be the same on both is a fool’s errand. For this fool, anyway. In fact, it’s probably better for me to hike right out of Uncanny Valley and just use both systems as they are. At least that way I don’t expect things I can’t have. If they can’t be identical, then the degree of differences hardly matters.

What’s worse is that every decision I make on either platform must be made knowing how it will affect the other platform. Paths, environment variables, utilities, everything. I can’t just install some cool new thing on my Mac, because what if it’s not available on Linux? Do I really want to maintain all my text expansion shortcuts in two different expansion apps? I don’t.

For now, I’m dealing with it. I know other people do this all the time, but at some point this is going to come to a head and I’ll need to make a decision and pick one or the other.