jmtd → log → Coming in from the cold

I've been using a Mac day-to-day since around 2014, initially as a refreshing break from the disappointment I felt with GNOME3, but since then a few coincidences have kept me on the platform. Something happened earlier in the year that made me start to think about a move back to Linux on the desktop. My next work hardware refresh is due in March next year, which gives me about nine months to "un-plumb" myself from the Mac ecosystem. From the top of my head, here's the things I'm going to have to address:

• the command modifier key (⌘). It's a small thing but its use on the Mac platform is very consistent, and since it's not used at all within terminals, there's never a clash between window management and terminal applications. Compared to the morass of modifier keys on Linux, I will miss it. It's possible if I settle on a desktop environment and spend some time configuring it I can get to a similarly comfortable place. Similarly, I'd like to stick to one clipboard, and if possible, ignore the select-to-copy, middle-click-to-paste one entirely. This may be an issue for older software.

• The Mac hardware trackpad and gestures are honestly fantastic. I still have some residual muscle memory of using the Thinkpad trackpoint, and so I'm weaning myself off the trackpad by using an external thinkpad keyboard with the work Mac, and increasingly using a x61s where possible.

• SizeUp. I wrote about this in useful mac programs. It's a window management helper that lets you use keyboard shortcuts to move move and resize windows. I may need something similar, depending on what desktop environment I settle on. (I'm currently evaluating Awesome WM).

• 1Password. These days I think a password manager is an essential piece of software, and 1Password is a very, very good example of one. There are several other options now, but sadly none that seem remotely as nice as 1Password. Ryan C Gordon wrote 1pass, a Linux-compatible tool to read a 1Password keychain, but it's quite raw and needs some love. By coincidence that's currently his focus, and one can support him in this work via his Patreon.

• Font rendering. Both monospace and regular fonts look fantastic out of the box on a Mac, and it can be quite hard to switch back and forth between a Mac and Linux due to the difference in quality. I think this is a mixture of ensuring the font rendering software on Linux is configured properly, but also that I install a reasonable selection of fonts.

I think that's probably it: not a big list! Notably, I'm not locked into iTunes, which I avoid where possible; Apple's Photo app (formerly iPhoto) which is a bit of a disaster; nor Time Machine, which is excellent, but I have a backup system for other things in place that I can use.