I have gotten rid of almost any Apple only tools (OmniGraffle to Figma; OmniFocus, Things3, iA Writer, Ulysses, Alfred App to Emacs+Org, and some more), but there is only only a few left that I can‘t find a replacement for in Linux-land: DEVONthink for managing my thousands of documents (actually I just keep my files in DEVONthink and use the search feature, could end up using just file system), ScanSnap Manager (a driver for my Fujitsu Scanner plus a desktop app for scannning the documents, and Spotlight search that works from within every other app for instantly finding any document.
I guess I need to get a Thinkpad running Linux for slowly finding replacments for my tools, and migrate not within weeks, but spreading my migration process over months.
My most essential tool is Emacs / Org and Lisp, Python plus the terminal with some shell scripting for automating all my workflows.
Yes, I will miss the smoothness that comes from very tight integration of hardware and services, but I absolutely hate the path that Apple is on, slowly taking all freedom from its users, until macOS is as closed as iOS. This is against every conviction I have as a citizen for whose freedom it is essential to have control over the machine that enables me to connect to the world and do my work. We are no toddlers, Apple does not need to put us in a walled garden, a promised land without any malware and danger (that‘s the promise, but in reality they want to control every aspect of their ecosystem, like an emperor that wants to tax every aspect of acting and movement in his land).
If you don't mind, could you elaborate a bit on how you've replaced Alfred?
I use it heavily for:
* snippets (mostly for terminal so Termius might be an option but I also use it for non-terminal things)
* clipboard history (are there up to par alternatives?)
* workflows - mostly launching various websites, like Jira tickets with "<board> <ticket #>" or "c suponer" to conjugate Spanish verbs), but also for launching various shell scripts (like changing nameservers with "ns <provider>"), or keyboard shortcuts for playing specific sounds (for fun)
> I guess I need to get a Thinkpad running Linux for slowly finding replacments for my tools, and migrate not within weeks, but spreading my migration process over months.
I'm in the same boat. I've been eyeballing a Tuxedo Pulse 14, but have been thinking of getting a regular PC keyboard in the meantime for the Mac and play around with Linux in Virtualbox.
> I guess I need to get a Thinkpad running Linux for slowly finding replacments for my tools, and migrate not within weeks, but spreading my migration process over months.
Well, if you actually like to tinker from time to time just for tinkering's sake, this is a great approach I inadvertently took.
My daily driver for 7 years had been a late 2013 mbp, which still works and is plenty powerful for most of what I do. Then during the shelter in place period I installed a Arch on my desktop (which normally runs Windows for Photoshop, etc) just to experiment a little with ZFS on Linux, etc. Then I started using it more and more and now I rarely use my mac again. (note that I'm not new to linux, had been using it both on the desktop and the server for a very long time and my work laptop runs linux).
However, unlike you, I don't use many Apple-only tools mostly just Things and Bear. I haven't found replacements for those, but as they never were a critical part of what I do, it wasn't that big of a deal to just drop them.
> OmniFocus, Things3, iA Writer, Ulysses, Alfred App to Emacs+Org, and some more
All of these were replaced with org-mode and Emacs (and likely some other Linux features for Alfred). Doom Emacs is a good framework to explore Emacs as it supports both vim and Emacs bindings (there’s also cua-mode).
Emacs + Org-mode (once mastered) are excellent for both writing structured text (in org-mode‘s markup instead of markdown), and for managing tasks and projects.
With org-mode I have dozens of files for managing my projects and tasks. And I can mix notes with tasks. This is a feature that makes it exceptional. When I was using Things3 I liked the tiny section beneath the task description where I could type some notes about the task. With orgmode I can write a full outline beneath the task description.
Emacs is extremely flexible as it can be extended with packages written in Lisp. There are packages that allow me to navigate to any outline node in my ~ 200 org files within a second (ivy + counsel + ripgrep-integration, also org-ql which allows me to query my org files).
Also, I write large amounts of text with org-mode (it’s an excellent outliner too; been previously using OmniOutline) and convert to markdown or any other format via pandoc.
Emacs, once mastered is an application framework that allows me automate any workflow for which I previously used AppleScript, DEVONthink, Python, Bash.
Thinkpad T460p on arch linux for me (after getting macbook pro 2017 15 inch keyboard issues followed with cablegate immediately afterwards).
The T460p is a 2016/17 secondhand machine which cost USD235 which I then added a ram upgrade and a new 72Wh battery to. I don't miss the mbp at all and prefer the linux OS anyway.
It probably took me until this moment to realise I was largely falling for marketing in thinking only the best specs would do ...
I am feeling pretty heavily smug that I got rid of my Apple kit earlier this year because I wasn't happy with the direction of the platform.