LInux laptop update

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I got a Linux laptop running on an older MacBook Pro. I said at the time that it had been going well.

Well, it has been a couple of weeks -- a little more than that, actually -- and now I am no longer saying that it's going well. It's going really well.

I'm actually a little surprised how much I've gotten used to using the MacBook Pro running GNU/Linux operating system. I really do like the experience.

Now, much of it is because it's really good hardware. I know a lot of people that really hate Apple products, but I have to say that they make really good hardware.

In fairness, Microsoft makes really good hardware. In fact, there is a noticeable difference in running Windows on a Microsoft Surface laptop and running it on a Dell laptop. Or any other brand laptop.

I will say that a Dell XPS 13 running Windows is a good experience as well, though I prefer the Microsoft Surface to the Dell XPS 13, but not by much. Most of my Windows experience is on lesser devices, and most of those lesser devices are, in my opinion, the problem with Windows devices. Windows itself is actually an operating system I could get used to running at home again. I just don't want to.

I liked using Mac OS (formerly OS X) and was disappointed to learn that the new version due out this fall won't work on my older (2015) MacBook. I gave Linux a shot, and I'm actually quite happy with the move.

So far I've not run into any issues with the laptop -- it is a MacBook Pro, after all -- nor with the GNU/Linux operating system. I'm running Ubuntu Desktop 22.04.1 on my MacBook, and it works quite well.

Switching to Firefox has been a little adjustment, but as I used Firefox in the past, it was easy enough to switch to Firefox from Chrome and Safari. Firefox works well, and there are plenty of Chromium based browsers if I prefer to use one of those. I don't, so Firefox it remains.

Office software has been surprisingly easy to use as well. I'm using OnlyOffice as my Office suite. It's very compatible with Microsoft Office document formats. LibreOffice has been good as well, but I'm focusing on OnlyOffice at the moment. Apache Open Office doesn't quite cut it for me. I prefer the LibreOffice and OnlyOffice interfaces much more, and the compatibility issues of Open Office were the deciding factors on that.

I've not yet done any video editing on Linux. I haven't actually had the need to. I have done that on my MacBook running Mac OS in the past, and will probably edit some videos in the next month or two, so I'll get a better feel about how that goes. I'm hoping it goes smoothly.

I've not ripped any videos from DVD or from purchase downloads on Linux yet. That will probably need to happen soon, as Better Call Saul has wrapped up, and I'll rip my purchases (I already bought the final season) for playback on Plex.

So, the next month or two will be a real test of my Linux laptop, as I'll try to do as much as I can using that device. I could use my Linux desktop, but there's no advantage to that. Well, using a desk vs a recliner is a difference. I'll use whichever I feel like. Since the desktop and laptop are both using the same version of Ubuntu Linux, it won't make a bit of difference.

I never figured that my Streaming Life would lead me to start using Linux on my everyday computer, but here we are. And so far, it's going really well.