I've been a mac user for the last 15 years. Only 3 machines in that time! I still use two of them; one is a 2017 imac, the other is a 2009 macbook pro.
On the imac I do some CAD and CNC machine programming (running Fusion 360), and I make videos and other graphic type things using Adobe software.
For the past few years, the macbook has been relegated to music/general web browsing duty in my garage workshop. Lately, even that was asking a lot. It had become extremely slow, wouldn't even try to install Fusion 360 (OS was too old), and can no longer be updated. Also the battery was completely shot and I had to put probably 10 lbs of force on the track pad before it registered a click...dragging and dropping files was getting physically painful.
[Slight sidetrack, but relevant] At work we recently had a machine go down due to a dead PLC. I'm the guy that deals with stuff when it breaks, but I have almost no knowledge of the "computer side" of machines, so I hired a local automation controls company to help (we didn't have a backup of the program
and even if we did, I wouldn't know what to do with it). With their help we got everything fixed, but I'm very mechanically inclined and love fixing/making things, and knowing how things work in general, so it bugs me not knowing much about these electrical components I use and rely on daily.As I mentioned, I also do CNC machining out of my garage. My machine is an old 1996 Bridgeport Torq Cut 22 and the control is PC based (Bridgeport DX-32). After the PLC death experience at work, I want to be sure my own machine is properly backed up, and as is my nature, I want to have the tools/know-how/ability to do it myself. And then I want to learn PLC programming, and just dive deeper into machine controls in general.
So my computer journey has taken a hard turn from design, video editing, and web browsing to also needing to connect with components like PLCs, programming them, making them play nice with other components, backing up drives, cloning drives...and probably a lot more I don't know about yet...basically more back end knowledge in general. Perhaps I could dive deeper into the mac OS and make it work for what I want, but that seemed to mean buying a new laptop since mine was basically useless, and if I'm buying a new machine, I can't help but notice that NONE of the programmers we hired showed up with macbooks...but it gets worse...they had windows machines eeewwww! Then I started thinking about Linux and realized that a perfect first project would be restoring my old macbook and installing a Linux distro! All stuff I have never done, and gets my feet wet in this world for very little money and low consequence if I screw it all up or if it just doesn't work out.
So I ordered a new battery, track pad, and SSD, and while I waited for them to arrive I decided on Mint 20 Cinnamon and burned onto a thumb drive to try. Learned how to boot from a thumb drive and all of the sudden I was looking at Linux! Installed to another thumb drive and kept playing. Wow was it fast compared to the old mac OS!
Now I have all the new parts installed in my old macbook, Mint is the only OS on the new SSD, it runs faster than ever and I learned a ton in the process! I have a long way to go but am already seeing the huge potential in having the knowledge and ability to make things happen in a Linux system. It seems anything is possible! As it goes, I'm still working out a few kinks, but this forum has been a huge help. Thank you to all the knowledgeable people who offer their help!
Next, I'm going to try to get Fusion 360 working in Mint on my old macbook [I see some have done it...not me yet. It would be VERY useful to be able to reference the CAM workspace in Fusion for machine setup information and to edit programs on the fly.] Longer term, I'd love to find good alternatives to the Adobe programs I use that are all Linux friendly. Then I'd have no excuse to keep the mac OS on my imac
plus I wouldn't mind dropping that adobe $ub$cription.That's my journey into Linux! Thanks for reading, and thank you again to all the people who contribute here!
Cheers
