Finding Ubuntu 14.04 replacements for stuff I like in Mac

Mac OS X is still the best, in my opinion, and this has been reinforced to me as I have been diving into Ubuntu 13.10 (although the end-user-usability has significantly improved since I first started using Ubuntu a few years ago).  Here are some things I like to use in Mac, and the ways in which I have managed to enable the same/similar feature in Ubuntu 14.04:

Tips:

• Use the NVIDIA proprietary driver, not the Nouveau driver.  Things just work better.

Text to speech (TTS)
I have used the built-in text reading on Mac for years to help me with studying while I am doing chores, running (with convert to mp3 Automator script), etc.  Ubuntu does not have an equivalent.  SpeakIt extension for Google Chrome is great, but it does not save output to mp3, and it only reads text in webpages.  When I opened Google Docs and pasted text into the word processor, the SpeakIt option disappears.  :(

There are some TTS engines for linux.  The default installations all seem to have very poor voice quality.  Here is a page that helps by instructing how to install additional voices for one TTS engine named "festival":  http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=751169.  It is not a system-level-solution for speaking selected text, however.  :(


Email
I really like Apple Mail.  I like having an email client that I have more control over regarding interface, storing local messages, and making all the email from my various accounts present in one interface.  The best I have come up with so far as a replacement is Thunderbird.  Here are some of my key findings to get similar functionality:
1.  Enable Unified Folders
2.  Use Virtual Folders to replace Apple Mail's Smart Folders
3.  Use Google Contacts for syncing address books.  gContactSync seemed to miss some syncing/is buggy for me.


Podcasts
Banshee seems, so far, to be the best for making subscribing to podcasts the easiest.

Update:  gPodder works well and seems decently organized, though it would be better if it just copied the iTunes format.  It is now my player of choice.  Unfortunately, you cannot browse for podcasts as you can in iTunes.


Photo organization
I discovered digiKam as my replacement for iPhoto.  I think I like it better than iPhoto 2011(?) for several things, and I might install digiKam on my Mac.  The big downside so far is it is a pain creating albums and exporting files to the desktop.

Update:  I recently discovered Shotwell Photo Manager, which is built-in on Ubuntu 13.10.  It has much more the look and feel of iPhoto (though not as advanced).


Surfing the net
I like Safari, but I have also used Chrome and Firefox plenty.  Chrome is nice because it offers lots of high quality add-on apps (and a lot of junk apps) that I am getting used to.


Writing code
Geany seems great for editing source code.  I wish there was more control over code folding.