I’ve been using Macs all my computing life, and relied heavily on headless Linux boxes for most of my computing career (I must also admit to two stints as a Windows user, during internships at FAST Search&Transfer and SpaceX respectively). Besides a small Linux laptop, which I got as a failed experiment, I’ve never before used a Linux box as my main machine.
That all changed when I started my postdoc at Caltech and decided to become a full time (at work at least) Linux user. I chose Ubuntu as the distro. On Ubuntu here are a few tips to get the same experience as my favorite OS X software.
Note that many of the Ubuntu solutions are available on OS X as well; I had simply previously been partial to OS X only applications. In the early days these were often superior, now many are beginning to show their age, and I think that cross platform has its unique advantages particularly in working with and supporting colleagues in their quest for productivity.
| Purpose | OS X | Ubuntu |
| Edit text files | TextMate | Sublime |
| Organize Research papers | Papers.app | Mendeley |
| Resize windows on grid | SizeUp | CompizConfig Settings Manager |
| Site specific browser (standalone web apps) | Fluid | Google Chrome Shortcuts |
| Multiple desktops | Native | Unity tweak tool |
Applications like Spotify, Emacs, Chrome and Eclipse I used on both OS X and continue to use on Ubuntu. Are you a fellow user who switched from OS X to Ubuntu? What are your tips?
Having done the opposite switch recently, I would like to offer an alternative to Mendeley, that lets you use native PDF viewing on whatever OS you are working on (on Ubuntu I used qpdfview because it was less bloated), works cross-platform, can sync with my personal Dropbox, and can automatically create bibtex files for you when those are needed for papers and the like. Presenting: Zotero: https://www.zotero.org.