My friends and family have long given me crap about jumping off the iOS ship a few years back. (Who doesn’t hate the green texts?) But yesterday, I officially burned all bridges and booted a Linux distribution called Ubuntu on my daily driver Macbook Pro and completely overwrote the hard disk.
This is computer speak for burning the house down and starting from scratch.
Long story short, this means my Macbook Pro still looks like a Mac from the outside, but the inside is completely different now. Everything about operating it is different (aside from the process of powering it on).
Why did I do this?
The Scottsdale Public Library has one aisle dedicated to technology which is the only aisle that I frequent each week. A couple days ago, I noticed a book that I hadn’t noticed before, “Ubuntu Made Easy“. Since Ubuntu is what powers my Virtual Private Servers, I decided why not give it a read.
This is one of the best parts about renting books from the library. I don’t have to sit there and hem and haw anymore about whether it’s worth the money then feel guilty when I hate the book 10 pages in. I can just rent it, read it, and return it if I don’t like it. (And for anyone who laughs at the pointlessness of saving money on books, I address this very issue on my blog The Frugal Feline. Turns out, savings on a book a month for 38 years is more than the average American has in retirement savings.)
But back to my story.
I got the book, started reading it. LOVED the author and how he communicated. And started to feel inspired by the idea of using and open source operating system. (Windows and MacOS are closed source operating systems, Linux is the most well known open source operating system.)
So, I decided to use Virtual Box on my mac to run a Linux distribution called “Elementary OS”, and the experience sucked. I have used Virtual Box to go through a Udemy course on ethical hacking, but otherwise I think it’s a terrible feel for what it is really like to run a different OS on your machine.
Next option? Dual boot.
Dual booting is where on startup you can choose between 2 or more operating systems to run on your device. Pick macOS? Your machine will run like nothing ever changed. Pick a different OS? Your machine will run an entirely different OS.
Again, long story short, I realized that Catalina had split my hard drive into two volumes taking up the entire 128GB of storage on my hard drive. This meant that I could not dual boot a different operating system to test it. The funny thing is, I only have about 2GB worth of personal data on my computer. Everything else was B.S. that macOS was using.
When I realized that I couldn’t even partition (split my hard drive into 2 sections, one for macOS and one for Ubuntu) 20 extra GB of storage to dual boot a different operating system to give it a try, it was the straw that broke the camels back for me.
With a chip on my shoulder and the confidence that I never wanted to have to deal with the closed Apple ecosystem on my computer ever again, I booted Ubuntu from a USB stick and overwrote my hard disk which effectively removed all signs of macOS.
This feeling is pretty similar to quitting a job. Its thrilling. You know there’s no going back. You fear the unknown, but are also energized by the unknowable possibilities now. There are a few times in my life I’ve felt this feeling, and they’ve all turned out to go pretty well.
There are many things about working with computers that are frustrating, but nothing and I do mean nothing bothers me more than bloatware. Apps you can’t delete because they are ‘factory’. Etc, etc. Even android does this with Google stuff. I am just waiting for my chance to get out of the iOS and android ecosystem all together as well. No wonder we have to keep buying phones and computers with 2x the memory and storage each year. It’s because our devices are filled with crap from the start!
A new kind of life
Things are different. Don’t get me wrong. But I’ve got wind at my back feeling like I am no longer tied to the apple ecosystem. I no longer have to purchase a Macbook for fear that I won’t know my way around a different OS. It is scary, but it’s also freeing and exciting to know that I can just start over and it’s not a big deal.
I wanted to share this story because I am sure that I am not the only one feeling a little bit left high and dry by the company that I grew up using. I spent my entire adult life using iOS and macOS until yesterday. And I don’t intend to ever go back.
It’s not as scary as it sounds. Do a little research. Back up your computer. Heck, most things are in the cloud nowadays anyway. What do you have to lose? Aside from that collection of cat photos, of course.