Okay, all you who post on every post "you should just switch to Linux". Here's your chance. I'm someone who really does want to run Linux on the desktop. I run Linux servers at home, was a Unix sysadmin for years running Linux on the desktop in the '90s. But now I'm in sales and run Windows at work (actually very happily with some help from StartAllBack and Rufus).
I want to replace my Macs at home. Since they removed upgradable RAM and disk, I am no longer willing to pay the high tax for the few little things they do better. But there is some functionality I just cannot seem to find replacements for. This is where you folks who say "I should just switch to Linux" come in. Tell me how please:
Requirement 1) I have heavily invested in my local music library on iTunes. 1200 albums. I have little to no interest in streaming services. I want to organize my music with * ratings from 1-5 and from that have smart playlists that autopopulate and sort themselves by * ratings and genre. I have more than 40 of these types of playlists and it's completely unworkable to populate them manually.
Requirement 2) I must be able to sync my music library in full to my phone. I use an iOS phone now, but I could even be convinced to switch to Android if there was a good solution. I am not willing to go in and select 100 different playlists manually to sync. It must completely replicate what's on my desktop on my phone, 100% locally, including all the afformentioned smart playlists. I travel a lot for work and want my music always available even when there's no network.
Requirement 3) My job really doesn't require much more than Office and a browser, but it requires very heavy use of those things. Firefox is fine for the browser, so no trouble there, but I need full fledged Outlook, OneNote and most of the features of Excel at a minimum. Word I can take a bit of a hit on as long as I can save something that others can open. Ideally I would want to run the Windows version of these tools. I will not be able to live with only the browser versions, that I'm 100% sure of.
Requirement 4) I'd really like some sort of decent photo management tool. I can probably manage just by keeping them organized in folders and having google photos suck that in, but I don't much trust Google, so would like to have a second tool that can also do a good job at replacing MacOS' Photos app. AI image recognition and search a-la Google Photos would be the cherry on top.
Requirement 5) I need to be able to scan in batches from my Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner into Evernote. I use this on mobile, other OS', etc. and have a lot of organization built into it now that I really don't want to try to migrate from.
That's it. 5 high level requirements that must be met. Is it possible?
I use rhythmbox, but my usecase isn't quite as extensive as yours. I don't think it has smart playlist capabilities, for example. But it is able to rip MP3s from CDAs, which is cool.
I haven't found anything that will work 100% with iphones on Linux, but I no longer have iphones, so it's been a while since I've looked.
MS Office used to work fine enough under WINE. I've had 0 luck with 365. There's LibreOffice, which is a great replacement for most things Office (minus Outlook). Thunderbird, I think, has an exchange plug-in. On my home computer, though, I use Outlook web, which has worked just as well as Desktop for my use cases so far. I understand you want Desktop Outlook, so this may be a deal breaker. However, Desktop Outlook New is heading towards WPA anyway, and MS is trying to sync the functionality between desktop and web, so this may only be an issue for a little while.
I don't have this use case for my computer, so I can't really help here. But others on this thread seemed to have provided some nice options.
not sure you'll get integration into proprietary software like Evernote, but there are built-in scanning tools that "just work" with every scanner I've thrown at it thus far. I do not have the same scanner you do, though.
I recommend grabbing a live ISO of a distro you're interested in trying (Mint seems to just work for most people, ElementaryOS if you want to maintain that macos look/feel), and just trying it out on RAM. No installation needed, and you can get a better feel if this will work for you. Don't expect a perfect fit, though. Workflows and solutions will differ from Mac to Linux, just as they do from Mac to Windows. This was one of my reservations, and why I kept finding myself back on Windows and Mac. The end goal, IMO, should be to get out of the walled garden in which you've found yourself. Once I realized that, once I switched my goal from 'finding exact replacements' to 'getting out', switching was much easier and smoother. Good luck! Post any questions you have, and we'll do our best to guide you right. This is a great and super helpful community (mostly lol).
In terms of recommended distros, I would say have a look at endeavourOS.
A nice compromise between the abstraction of eg Ubuntu and the technical requirements of eg Arch.
I've recommended this distribution to quite a few new users to great success.
Personally, I haven't been a fan on arch systems, but enjoyed the tinkering. Endeavor does seem to be more geared towards someone unfamiliar with arch, which is good. I may give it a try. Thanks for the suggestion!