This looks like being a last 2025 post, I have several in production, but they can wait, this first run on Linux is proving to be a realy interesting upgrade, opening up so many possabilities,
An old Mackbook Pro, has been sat on my desk, it has been there for some time, I changed uver to a lighter, and faster MacBook Air a year or more ago, apart from the lack of two additional screens, as I was now limited to just one, its been a fine work horse, the transition if there was ever one, went smoothly. left alone the new mac just restored all my old programs, files and links, it was as if I never left my trusty MacBook Pro, but I had, and over all I am pleased.
Many of you know I live in a balanced world, using both Apple and Google, although Apple is my main OS, I use Google Gemini as my main, and now, only AI, I like the way its intergrated into most of Google, and if the reports are right, soon to be added to Apple, a good move as far as I am concerned.
I have even asked Google Gemini how I might migrate the many conversations over, and if there will ever be any link, it tells me no, so the transfer, is a real need, solved by a massive copy and paste into a new chat as transfer notes.
But the point of all this, is the older and still usable MacBook Pro sitting here not used very often, other than the odd opening and watching Youtube whils I used the Air for working.
You know that itch, you can’t ignore, well Linux was that, I read several articles on revitalising older machines with a new clean OS no fuss, no extra programing, the promis of a new updated machine.
Now the MacBook Pro was still running an old Mac OS, and would not go further, so I thought, I’ll trade it in, but for what? Apple would not give me much, its worth more to me, especialy if I update it with Linux, so I did some searching, and asked Gemini, it promised me a simple install, with little or no risk for me, it even gave me a detailed step by step sequence of Operations needed.
So over Christmas, I had time, I opened up the Mac, downloaded Linux Mint software, loaded it onto a memory stick with the aid of a piece of software, to make the Mac load it, rather than the internal software on startup, and away it went. It took about 30 mins to clean the Mac SSD and load up Linux, with almost no help from me, I had Gemini open on the Mackbook air so was keeping it updated with progress, asking only twice, as to my actions needed, like adding my wifi, and some needed programs, Firefox is the default Browser, and I wanted LibreCAD, more on that later.
I also wanted Gemini on this machine, and that was a simple loadup. On Firefox, Google was there, all my files, and an AI. plus YouTube, excellent. Note, I have kept Apple away from this except for a link to iCloud.
I then started to browse the new OS. Linux feels like, well a simple Mac, its quick, and easy to use, I had some trouble with the Mac Keyboard, but there were so many different versions I could load so after a few trials, I found the Mac English version, it, has so far worked well, but a recent install needed the command key, and so far its not working, but a right click on the new reconfigured mouse, solved the problem. Gemini and I will be working on looking for the right keyboard files!
I also wanted to see if Obsidian worked, so loaded that, and as expected it was exactly like the Mac version I had used.
So I have a Linux machine, I did as the itch asked and it works. I also wanted to trial LibraCAD, a free Autocad clone, that I thought might be the answer to a drawing I wanted to do, plus an article on a practice set up on Linux, and using LibreCAD for both scheme and detail drawing. can it be done, well as its working just fine, I loaded it up and to my surprise, its all recognisable, so methinks the next step is to trial it in full and see what happens, first, I will transfere and load up a few dwg files, and see how they import, although I am told LibreCAD likes .dxf not .dwg, we will see, also printing, pdf and paper, I used to use A3 for almost all my paper printing, the Linux software found my Brother printer machine and I did a test run, which was fine, but thats not a cad program sending a print, whch as we all know is a total game changer.
So lets see how it goes. I will write a complete report as an article perhaps for next week a first post for 2026, the goal will be, can you start a practice, without paying huge set up cost, for computers, software, and services.
One last thing, I loaded up a link to iCloud.com and made a link to Firefox, its a little slow to start, but thats down to I think, Firefox loading up a heap of files. but all my Mac world is now also available, including Apple Notes, so I do not have to consider loosing it to Obsidian. Although I use Keep for google stuff, I linked to that and again all is working.
