I’ve been trying to do the same thing for years. Mostly just for fun / is it possible. I’ve come to the conclusion that “it depends”.

Things that really help:

• Keyboard & trackpad
• Cloud storage that works across all your devices (synology NAS, o365, dropbox, etc)
• O365 subscription / Google docs environment for working with office
• Cell phone connection
• A good note taking application that supports templates

Things that used to suck but Apple has improved:

• File manager
• Zip file support

Things that are actually easier:

• Writing on documents digitally (some professions still do a lot of manual writing on paper - this digitizes all that automatically, but you can still work with paper processes)
• Smallest size (great for travel)
• Engineering sketches / paper math / (maybe drawing I dunno not an artist)
• “Grandma computer” all she does is facebook anyway - but she can’t click on stuff and get viruses
• Media consumption-books, reading docs, audiobooks, etc.

Things that suck:

• iOS applications are neutered versions of desktop programs (think iOS word/excel - they work, but they can’t do the big boy tasks)
• File management is still clunky if you have a format iOS doesn’t recognize. Have fun with that tarball or 7zip file. It’s possible, but clunky.
• Small screen eliminates many professional tasks (coding, drafting, admin with multi monitors)
• No ability to use corporate programs like a specific vpn
• No ability to run virtual machines/real programs - (although that changed a couple of days ago - Google UTM SE)
• Good luck keeping your files synced unless you’re running some kind of cloud storage. Synology NAS works really good for me - but not everyone has that option.
• $$$
• Gaming? LOL

Summary: Student who takes a lot of notes and writes a lot of papers? It’s actually a pretty good option.

Old person computer? 100% check. It’s really the best option if you don’t want to forever be family tech support.

Secondary travel pc for work? Works great here too and small for plane trips. Battery life rules.

Real work? Coding, engineering programs, etc - hard pass. Writing and artists? - maybe…. General office worker who interfaces with everything via webpage? - yes if you can deal with the small screen and lack of mouse support.

Gamer? Come on now, you already knew the answer to that ;)

Agreed there were native linux games written for linux, but remind me because I forgot - I believe Doom had been ported or something. Because I remember running it both at home in linux and I remember people running it in the computer labs off the Unix mainframe.

I went to college in 93, and they ran a Unix mainframe with thin clients connected to it in the computer labs.

I didn’t really know much about any computers then, but I learned quick and had nerdy friends teach me a lot. Home computers ran DOS, but this fancy thing called Linux had entered the scene and nerds played with it.

I remember it being a bear. My comp sci roommate did most of the work, but he’d dole out mini projects to me to help him out. You had to edit text files with your exact hardware parameters or else it wouldn’t work. Like resolutions, refresh rates, IRQs, mouse shit, printer shit - it was maddening. And then you’d compile that all for hours. And it always failed. Many hardware things just weren’t ever going to work.

Eventually we got most things working and it was cool as beans. But it took weeks - seriously. We were able to act as a thin client to the mainframe and run programs right from our apartment instead of hauling ourselves to the computer lab. Interestingly, on Linux, that was the first time I had ever gotten a modem and a mouse working together. It was either/or before that.

It was both simultaneously horrific and fantastic at the same time. By the time windows 95 rolled out, the Unix mainframe seemed old and archaic. All the cool kids were playing Warcraft 2 and duke nukem 3D.

I’ve actually had someone thumb their nose at linux because of that name. “You mean the hat OS? The one those weird guys use? No thanks.” I’m paraphrasing but ya, that association is there for some people.

*puts on his flame retardant suit

For android or pc, it’s Firefox and ublock origin all day long.

For iOS it’s trickier. Generally the ad blockers don’t work like you expect, and many aren’t free.

But I have found a solution that’s worked for years, but people are going to flame me.

Brave browser for iOS. It just works. Even for YouTube videos. You hear how they are a shady company-they are probably selling my firstborn son right from under my nose. But I’ll be damned if I’ve ever seen an ad come through.

Sigh, my condolences. I’m shouting right beside you. I first learned about linux in 1993 in college. I got it working on a shiny new 486 with super vga graphics. We were allowed access to the college’s aix mainframes and thus the internet via a slip connection - but only through Unix like systems. Linux was amazing, I couldn’t believe we had x going, and loading up cad, matlab, maple, ftp, fsp, irc, nettrek, and everything else possible in the computer centers - but over a telephone line from our apartment.

Magical.

Funny how it really only became my daily driver three ish years ago - despite using it forever. Cuz games - glad that’s changed finally.