AlexanderESmith

I disagree with the overall substance of your argument.

Sure, if you’ve already designed something on paper and want to feed numbers in and get a part, CAD is clearly superior. I don’t work that way.

I will use (and recommend) the tools that have the least friction for me. I would not increase the time and headache to complete a project just because someone else thinks another workflow is better. I don’t need CAD because 3D printing tolerances are not that tight. Some people need/want CAD because that’s the only kind of tool they’ve used to make 3D objects, and that’s low friction for them. That’s cool too.

I’m suggesting Blender here in case someone (OP or a passer-by) hadn’t considered it, and didn’t realize that it’s up to the task of creating 3D printable objects. It definitely can, I’ve done it dozens of times, even with matching measurements against existing parts (which - it occurs to me now - is most of what I’ve done).

Also, I exclusively use Blender VSE for video editing. Mostly because it’s the best free/open-source option I’ve tried, and I don’t need to add another tool to my workflow. I never really liked the Adobe suite, and most non-adobe tools try to cosplay as them. It’s a lesser form of a thing I already didn’t like.

Unless you have a graphics background and no CAD experience. In which case, Blender will be far easier.

I was just posting in another thread about how I remade the armrest of my Traveler Guitar to be more comfortable. The one it comes with is super uncomfortable to me, so I redesigned it to be shaped more like a Squier. Images here .

All I really needed was some cardboard, some calipers, and Blender. Though, to get the measurements just so, I had to make a bunch of little virtual rulers (the yellow strips). In CAD, you wouldn’t need those since the measurements are described directly in the process of making the part.

I know that there is a large difference between CAD and general 3D modeling, but I’ve designed all my custom 3D printed parts in Blender and have had zero issues with fitment or scaling.

You know, it only now occurs to me that - in 20 years of setting up fairly complicated spreadsheets (for everything from finance to asset management) - I’ve never used a macro.

I honestly don’t know why you would, since per-cell functions update automatically. I certainly can’t imagine why it would need to make system calls. Whole thing seems like a massive security issue with no benefit.

Didn’t say it was the only way, just the best way. Most effective attacks are still against humans, not computers.

In no particular order;

• Detecting “installed” software is iffy. Linux can have all kinds of things running on it that aren’t “installed” as-such (same as Windows with portable EXEs, Linux has AppImage/etc). Excepting things like that, you can detect installed apps through the package managers (apt/pkg/yum/snap/etc).
• OS updates in Debian-likes and Redhat-likes are controllable out of the box, but I’m not familiar with a way to prevent a user from doing them (other than denying them root access, which might make it hard for them to use the system, depending on what they need to do).
• I’ve had a lot of good results with OpenVPN.
• lol antivirus. Not saying Linux doesn’t get viruses, or that there arent antiviruses for Linux, but the best way to avoid getting them is still to just avoiding stupid shit. Best thing I can offer is that if you have some kind of centralized storage, check that for compromised files frequently, and keep excellent backups. And make sure your firewalls and ACLs don’t suck.

@Macaroni9538

I’ve been using Clevo laptops for years. Large user base, lots of great Linux support. I just run Ubuntu, haven’t had many issues (and no critical issues).

They usually get rebranded, and I’ve gotten them through IBuyPower, Origin, and… can’t remember the other one. My most recent one was just straight up marketed as a Clevo, got it on Amazon.

You might have one or two odd issues (like having to install custom code to configure the RGB key backlights), but there are plenty of users to ask for assistance on various forums and repos.

@ShitOnABrick

I’ve been using nVidia cards on laptops with Ubuntu much exclusively for ~15 years . Only problem I’ve ever had was once when I accidentally uninstalled something using apt-get and it took the nvidia drivers with it (because I’m was stupid).