I’ve been using Linux almost exclusively since starting my sabbatical at the beginning of July. I’m loving it overall and plan to write more about what I enjoy most about my setup in the future. But for now, I thought I’d focus on the things I miss most about macOS.
Screens — I use VNC to manage our primary home server — a Mac Mini that runs Immich, Plex Media Server, and other services. Screens was my VNC client of choice and it is fast. I still use it on my iPhone regularly, but if I need to do anything more complicated where I’d prefer to have a keyboard and mouse, I’m stuck with sub-par VNC clients. I’ve tried Remmina and Connections neither of which can even come close to the performance of Screens. I wish there was at least one good VNC app available on Linux.
Things — I was never much of a to do list guy until I found Things. It was the first app of its kind that really clicked for me. And I’ve been using it ever since. I’ll occasionally dig for an alternative that’s cross platform — Todoist seems to be the most popular. But none of them have the fit and finish of Things. It strikes the perfect balance for me by surfacing the things I want to see and hiding the things I don’t.
Pixelmator — On macOS and iOS, I’ve been using the older, non-pro version of Pixelmator and it is more than capable of what I need it for. I use GIMP with the PhotoGIMP patch on Linux currently and, although I can fumble my way through most tasks, it’s much more difficult for me. This is likely because I don’t actually use image editing software very often. So, naturally, it will take me longer to get used to something new. But the interface for GIMP is a cluttered mess and many of the tools have confusing labels applied to them, which leads me to making changes that I end up having to undo.
Universal Clipboard — With my current setup, I’m using the GSConnect extension with KDE Connect on my iPhone. But it’s clunky. You have to open the app on your iPhone in order for the two to communicate with one another and then manually send clipboard contents back and forth. I wish Apple would open up their platform a bit more to make things like this more seamless with third-party tools.
Time Machine and SuperDuper! — I’m using Déjà Dup for backups on my Framework and it’s better than nothing, but it pales in comparison to the backup solutions available on macOS. On more than one occasion Déjà Dup has had to restart my backup from scratch in order to “ensure reliability” or whatever — I can’t remember the exact error message. I never really experienced anything like that with Time Machine or SuperDuper! They always just worked for me. And then there’s the restore process. Luckily, I haven’t had to restore from a backup with Déjà Dup, but it sure seems like it’s going to be a nightmare compared to my previous platform. With SuperDuper!, I could just boot from my external backup drive and be right where I was when I backed up last — it’s literally a clone of all my data. With Time Machine, you could restore individual files easily or restore an entire system after installing macOS. With Déjà Dup, I only have it configured to backup my home folder, which I’m told is all I’ll need. But if I had to restore my entire system, I’ll have to reinstall all of my apps again. Obviously, my most important data will be there, but it will still take a ton of manual work in order to get back up and running again to where I was before.
Transmit — Is there a nice FTP client available for Linux? FileZilla seems to be the frontrunner, but the user interface is such a mess. I could, theoretically, just use Gnome’s file manager to connect over FTP, but if I wanted to bookmark connections I’d have to clutter the app’s sidebar with a bunch of connections that I seldomly use. Transmit, on the other hand, is a beautifully designed application that’s fast and reliable. I’d love to see an FTP client like that available on Linux.
