Pursuits Of Privacy ~ Converting To Linux 07Nov20

With so many Linux builds with fast and efficient GUIs now available, and my mac hardware looking grim, I set out to build another Linux laptop. My first attempt was abysmally slow and I attributed that to the dated IBM Thinkpad. I found a cheap Lenovo T440P (Core I7 Pro Dual) and set out. I needed to replicate a rich daily driver from my MBP which allows normal surfing, email, strong calendaring, RoboForm password manager, and Photoshop editing but also a high end audio client driving my desktop DAC/AMP setups. Challenging but I have MLC as somewhat of a guide; he does often respond RTFM ~ and you know what that means: I am on my own. My starting point on Mint/XFCE was quickly disposed for Manjaro/XFCE due to core and package maintenance currency. Here are the (big) steps to converting from macOS to Linux:

1. Download Manjaro/XFCE .iso file and write it to a 4GB USB stick as a bootable image. Reboot target hardware and mount & install Manjaro from boot USB drive - I used a CowButt.
   
2. Reboot again and use update Manjaro capabilities to assure, apps & drivers are up to date. My T440P was decently recognized, so drivers were pretty clean (more later). I had external mouse, external keyboard, external and WiFi networking and external monitor all of which worked 1st time. Issue command "sudo pacman -Syu" to completely update your installation to most recent; this make take a while initally. Note - this is the only command you will likely need again to update Manjaro ArchLinux to current.
   
   
3. Assure your peripherals like, drives, external monitors, USB hubs, keyboards, wireless mouse, etc. are all working; adjust drivers as needed to make it clean.
   
4. Add your password manager into Firefox or as a separate app. I use Roboform and you should use something more than a scratchpad in your desk.
5. Use definitively Mozilla Firefox as your browser. Use the Mozilla VPN (just in beta right now on Linux) or Cloudflare VPN to assure traffic is masked from your ISP and others. Do this on your iPhone as well. Sure you aren't a perv who has anything to hide - but why give up your info to some company not paying for it, yet who would exploit it.
   
6. Configure Thunderbird email. Use Thunderbird... it's just "OK," but ok. This entails adding email accounts you use - use IMAP accounts to assure synchronization between devices (as IMAP email is kept on the server). [I own my own domain "irys.com" so no-one directly tracks it and I can own it forever - rather than having to shift from @yahoo.com to @gmail.com to @earthmail.net, etc. to @whatever-the-F.whatever-the-domain.]  I added my gmail accounts (used for spam-likely) and other accounts as useful.
   
7. Configure Thunderbird calendar. Again, use Thunderbird... it's just "OK," but ok. My main personal calendar is on Google (I know, work for another day). I used the tbsync add-in on Thunderbird to access my Google Cal account as CalDav. [I did it directly in TBird initially but found this add-in more flexible in read-write situations.] 
8. Subscribe to other key calendars whether .ics or CalDav: I add NAmerican Holidays, Astronomical Events, and Kala's Home calendar so I know when election day is coming or a meteor shower or when Kala has an appointment. Use TBird's +Calendar capability for this; you must know and have credentials to the network locations of the calendars.
   
9. Synchronize Thunderbird "address book" to cloud-based "contacts" you have. Again here I used tbsync to "scrape" my "contacts" on iCloud (synced with my iPhones and macs) and sync them to TBird AB. Then, add Birthdays scraped from the TBAB to another subscribed calendar in TBird Calendar.
   
10. Download and install Signal messaging, if you use it, and validate to your iPhone. If you don't use it, begin to so do - fully secure, fully open messaging. This is underappreciated and underused and that's unfortunate as iMessage is bollocks on Linux. You cannot do it reliably or well as yet.
11. Get your file server working on you home network with your new machine. I use a Win7 SMB server to keep files & images for, keep backups for, and record TV for every client in the house. Plex is the TV recorder and subject of other threads. Here I had to actually edit Win7 registry entries (rarely a good idea) to have the Win7Pro server advertise it's SMB1, SMB2 and SMB3 capability to Linux as I browsed over there. It's worked fine without these edits for macOS and iOS but WTF. Ultimately fully operational with full R/W/E access both on the LAN and remotely. I also set it such that these servers would mount automatically at each boot.
    
12. Add your printer and printer driver. Ok, this was strangely obtuse on Manjaro/XFCE IMO. I was super user in the terminal emulator to compile and install the printer package. I found, added, and tested postscript, etc. to my networked Brother laser printer after this but WTF? UPDATE - After doing a full system update I saw a new printer manager and adding subsequent printers and their drivers was simple and done via a simple GUI.
    
13. Test your skills with GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation) app for image editing, including loading and saving of remote (network server) files. Done with some pain in finding features - compared to Photoshop, but it is richer and more powerful. New blog entries feature images moded here.
    
14. Assure USB audio out works well. For me, my T440P does not have fiber out so I need for the USB ports to work high speed and bit-perfect with my WooAudio WA7 Fireflies @ the Nest and my Schitt Gungnir MB @ Blodgett DACs. It does via transcoding on PulseAudio for YouTube, etc. and my main HF audio system of JRiver MC didn't have an Arch Linux distro so I had to build something from their Debian package... damn it but I got it done! Full flac streaming, locally and remotely, from the library server @ Blodgett, on a repackaged build for ArchLinux, is running sweet.
    

You can't mess with me and I probably have more work to do but I am well down the road to a righteous conversion from macOS to ArchLinux. Features lost in the conversion seem to include iMessage, AirDrop (circumvented with iOS's recent CIFS additions), and Thunderbolt display support (big issue for me which I am still investigating).

UPDATE 21Nov20... Lost Features Update

• There is no directly or externally viable way to connect the T440P running Linux to an Apple Thunderbolt display... sheesh. Using the AT display with anything other than macOS on a mac is very elusive. This could be a blocking factor to a switch. Grrr...
• There is no viable way to run or receive iMessages on Linux (except for a virtual terminal like scheme). Not the end of the world but a bummer. Hmmm...
  
• There is no clean way to transfer music from Linux to iPhone (for the Apple Music client, due to it's obtuse file organization). One might be able to run Wine and some iTunes or iTunes-like thing in there to do it but I want a direct transfer. Yet...
• There is a way but I had to switch audio players on the iPhone, which uses its own and a simpler file organization, under iOS into which I can transfer the files. I chose FlacBox and use SMB to directly download to iOS from anywhere really: my Linux machine, my Win7 music store, my mac, etc.. There are even upsides from this switchover (though I did have to download the albums/tracks to iOS again) as I have more control over organization and playback and the player supports many formats, including high def (like flac).