WorldCAD Access

Running Linux in Windows 10/11

The tyranny of Linux The promise of Linux is that it would free us from the tyranny of Microsoft and Apple and their operating system "tax." But then the two near-monopolists broke the narrative by making their OSes (mostly) free. Instead, Linux imposed a different kind of tyranny: choice. Here's a chart from 2016 of many kinds of Linux available back then; since then, choice has magnified. Choice I was a faith-filled follower, until I wasn't. After keeping up with Mint Linux upgrades and several others (hey, they're freee!) I finally realized that Linux would never be successful as a... Read more →

What it's like to use a $200 Chromebook

$150 cheaper than 11 years ago For the most part, the tech media ignores Chromebooks, given their obsession primarily for products whose names start with i or Mac. In contrast, I've been continually amazed by the high-end Chromebook I've been using for three years now, the Acer Spin 13 with its metal body and fast CPU. The icing on the cake for ChromeOS is its ability to run Android apps, which is a significant advantage Microsoft is trying to copy but makes less sense in the Windows environment. (I had bought the very first Chromebook by Samsung a decade ago,... Read more →

CAD for ChromeOS is Possible in 2021

More popular than MacOS There are no native CAD applications for ChromeOS. This need not be the case, as proven by Krita, a native Android program meant for tablets that runs as well as a native program on Chromebooks. Here's the point I want to make: Krita for Android is not a reduced-function version of the one that runs on Windows and MacOS. It is full-function. CAD software written for Android, iOS, and Web browsers are all reduced-function versions, even from leaders in this field like Graebert and Autodesk. ChromeOS was originally envisioned as a browser-based operating system, and I... Read more →

VM on Linux in ChomeOS -- too slow for me

It's not Elementary Linux running in ChromeOS gets a bit more functional with each release of the browser-based operating system. It still starts, however, in terminal mode, although Web sites will tell you how to install a GUI (graphical user interface) so that you don't need to type endlessly-long command-option strings at the prompt, such as this one: sudo apt install qemu-kvm libvirt-clients libvirt-daemon-system bridge-utils virtinst libvirt-daemon virt-manager -y Now in 2020 it is possible to install VM (virtual machine) software on ChromeOS's Linux subsystem, and then run multiple Linux GUIs. ChromeUnboxed, for instance, shows how to do this with... Read more →