This isn't me trying to convince you to use Linux, but the listed reasons (other than LLM testing) aren't real deterrents (and there are plenty that exist for many people, no use pretending not):
> Acorn
GIMP (or Glimpse, if you want a more modern UI) or Krita can definitely do pretty much anything Acorn can.
> Keyboard Maestro
GNOME and KDE have been able to do this out of the box from pretty much the beginning. The OSes are still mostly terminal-first (one of the big complaints, actually), and that translates into the DEs and Applications. A keyboard automation is just a sequence of commands.
This is probably one of the few areas where Linux almost definitely beats macOS or Windows.
> OnniGraffle
There's a large swathe of diagramming tools in Linux.
> Alfred App
Yep, both KDE and Gnome are able to handle this task as well as Alfred. Like automation, this is probably an area Linux will be able to shine above macOS.
> MS Office
LibreOffice would be the common alternative.
> MS Teams
They used to have an official client. They now recommend you create a PWA, and there are some unofficial clients that do pretty much that:
This seems to be the route they'll be going all around, similar to slack (web + an electron app).
> I test LLMs locally.
LLMs run fine on Linux, but you will be limited to about 16GB on the VRAM side. Though, you could technically use Asahi + Apple Silicon as the support matured if you want.
Most of these are open source applications, with cludgy UIs/warts and all; and aren't really designed by teams with UX masters, so operate oddly and require relearning. But if you were interested in making the move, they're options.
Gimp and Libreoffice both seem to go out of their way to do everything their own way and ignore what has been demonstrated to work well and has essentially been established as a standard, this is one of the major issues with OSS for me along with trying to offer more than is reasonable and put in time on niche features (MORE MORE MORE) instead of working out the issues with what is already implemented. LibreCAD is a prime example example of doing it their own way, cutting off their nose in spite of their face, there was no reason to change most every command and require us to hit return after every single command. The free version of QCAD is still superior to LibreCAD and it is difficult to justify suffering through all of LibreCAD's failings when QCAD only costs $45 with a year of updates, even if you don't renew that outdated QCAD it is still more capable and usable than LibreCAD.
I have used nothing but linux for over two decades now but it is getting harder and harder to justify using linux, too much of the software is so fixated on competing that they have lost all perspective. For awhile now I have seriously considered switching to Haiku and developing the software I want for Haiku with its API that will not run on anything else, but I have not quite been irritated enough to go that far. Getting there and it might happen once Haiku irons out those last few wrinkles.
Edit: Should add, been a few years since I last used LibreOffice, they may have gotten their act together. I suffer gimp far too often.
> Gimp and Libreoffice both seem to go out of their way to do everything their own way and ignore what has been demonstrated to work well and has essentially been established as a standard, this is one of the major issues with OSS for me along with trying to offer more than is reasonable and put in time on niche features (MORE MORE MORE) instead of working out the issues with what is already implemented.
I haven't tried GIMP or LibreOffice for years now, but I speculate this is one outcome of ego-driven development instead of market-driven development, and possibly also because UX people aren't contributing as much to open source as developers are.
> I have used nothing but linux for over two decades now but it is getting harder and harder to justify using linux
At least in the context of windows vs Linux, Microsoft is making it incredibly easy. Once again pushing MS recall, integrated ads, and user hostile updates made me finally switch to Linux again. I absolutely hated having a computer that seemed to have a mind of its own. I had a dual boot setup that defaulted to Linux, and very frequently I would be doing something in Windows, leave the computer on with programs or games running, and come back to find that it had rebooted into Linux.
People keep recommending Krita or photopea against Gimp but I am using both (Krita for digital painting, gimp for other stuff) and have made back to back test with all 3 software and the UI is almost identica[1] so that is just ignorance talking.
[1] just a handful of menus in a different order woaaaaa torture indeed!!!
I have only ever used GIMP and I will admit that the UI looks like hell. I also rarely do anything very advanced in it anymore so I can’t say whether it has feature parity with PS.
You're free to recommend it, but if you tell somebody coming from a Mac that GIMP is an alterantive to tools like like Affinity Photo, Pixelmator, Acorn, or even Photoshop, you're doing them a disservice, because it's not.
I'm glad that GIMP works for you. That's good. And technically, it probably does a lot (or even everthing) that most people do in other applications. And maybe you can even argue that it doesn't do those things worse, it just does them differently.
But the reality is that if you're used to a tool like Acorn on the Mac, which puts a huge priority on providing a good, efficient user experience, you're just never going to switch to GIMP.
Same applies to a tool like OmniGraffle. I've looked everywhere, there's nothing like OmniGraffle on Linux. By that, I don't mean that there aren't any tools that allow you to create diagrams and mockups, I mean there aren't any tools that are as nice, simple, and quick to use as OmniGraffle.
I didn't recommend it, I offered three options (one specifically created to fix the exact issue you're probably complaining about - GIMP's horrendous UI)
The problem is, you imply the alternative solutions are somehow just a stand-in replacement, which is not true, and not just with Gimp in the programs you listed. Software matters, and when software you need is not available, it is a significant compromise.
Ousted the front door, coming back by the backdoor:
- “Maybe you’re using it wrong”
- “It has greatly improved since Gimp 2.0”,
- “It’s just doing things differently”
- “It has 90% of the features of MS Office”
seem to be the top arguments for trying Linux over Mac, again for the 20th time in 20 years, each time awfully bad. As Steve Jobs once said about Microsoft: “The problem is these people have no taste.” It’s correct that when you have no need for something to be beautiful or no need to be productive between two recompilations of the kernel, then Linux is the OS of choice.
My backups work though. As a Linux user, it's exhausting watching people complain about macOS and Windows every single day on this site, because there's nothing you can do about. You're a captive prisoner on their platform.
For some of us, dealing with GIMP's warts is more tolerable than the alternatives.
They are, because your listed alternatives are substandard. Just the fact you recommend incompatible LibreOffice as an MS Office alternative is enough, but then comparing KM to system defaults is also a joke.
> The OSes are still mostly terminal-first
And terminals are universally so bad at shortcuts that many can't even support all the modifiers keys on your keyboard
> GIMP (or Glimpse, if you want a more modern UI) or Krita can definitely do pretty much anything Acorn can.
You will be surprised to know how some professional treat their tools.
Some illustrator love their software just like some mathematician love their chalk.
Many woodworker make their own tools to make them feel just right.
> > MS Office
> LibreOffice would be the common alternative.
If you export them as PDF, maybe.
If you need to exchange editable file with others, every small layout different hurts. You won't want your tables paginate differently from others.
Which is why I specifically stated that the feature set matches and not that they're drop in replacements. Then gave a giant disclaimer about open source software in general at the bottom.
I'm not evangelizing, I'm stating that the listed software/workloads are perfectly amenable to Linux if you wanted to make the move/relearn those softwares.
Almost none of the software you mentioned is a realistic, fully featured, profesionally-usbale alternative to the software that doesn't run on Linux. So, overall, Linux can't be an alternative to the Mac and/or Windows for anyone who relies on these tools.
You might want to try the German program Softmaker. It's not free--though I think there's a free version--and it's designed to be a drop-in replacement for Microsoft Office. There is a Linux version as well.
Keyboard Maestro is a lot more powerful than what you're thinking of. A sequence of shell commands bound to hotkeys is in no way an adequate replacement.
When building macros you can leverage OCR and image recognition so it can know how to find elements on the screen that you need it to click. I have barely scratched the surface of what it can do I am sure there is lots more.
> LLMs run fine on Linux, but you will be limited to about 16GB on the VRAM side.
That'll probably be a dealbreaker.
> Acorn
GIMP
Don't get me wrong, I am still gratefully using GIMP, it's a fine tool for what it is and I am happy with it. But from a "meet people where they are" perspective, it's absurd to tell someone who uses tools like Photoshop that GIMP is a viable alternative as it is right now.
Libreoffice isn't the alternative, office on web is. And even that is still gimped compared to Windows Excel. (Which is the true killer app for professional use of Windows in general)
Yes, I find it fun to use office as a Mac differentiator when the Mac version is so inferior to the Windows one. At least, office365 works fine on Linux using Crossover.
It’s the same weirdness with people recommending Gimp for Acorn when Linux has great photo manipulation with Darktable and good digital painting with Krita.
And I say that as someone who quite like MacOs even if it’s getting worse with each version.
Office on the Web is a cruel joke. It theoretically does what you want it to do, but more often than not, it will do it extremely slowly while vaporizing your RAM.
> Acorn
GIMP (or Glimpse, if you want a more modern UI) or Krita can definitely do pretty much anything Acorn can.
> Keyboard Maestro
GNOME and KDE have been able to do this out of the box from pretty much the beginning. The OSes are still mostly terminal-first (one of the big complaints, actually), and that translates into the DEs and Applications. A keyboard automation is just a sequence of commands.
This is probably one of the few areas where Linux almost definitely beats macOS or Windows.
> OnniGraffle
There's a large swathe of diagramming tools in Linux.
> Alfred App
Yep, both KDE and Gnome are able to handle this task as well as Alfred. Like automation, this is probably an area Linux will be able to shine above macOS.
> MS Office
LibreOffice would be the common alternative.
> MS Teams
They used to have an official client. They now recommend you create a PWA, and there are some unofficial clients that do pretty much that:
https://github.com/IsmaelMartinez/teams-for-linux
This seems to be the route they'll be going all around, similar to slack (web + an electron app).
> I test LLMs locally.
LLMs run fine on Linux, but you will be limited to about 16GB on the VRAM side. Though, you could technically use Asahi + Apple Silicon as the support matured if you want.
Most of these are open source applications, with cludgy UIs/warts and all; and aren't really designed by teams with UX masters, so operate oddly and require relearning. But if you were interested in making the move, they're options.