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2020

Will 2021 Be The Year of The Android Desktop?

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In the Linux community, there is a longstanding trope aptly referred to as “The Year of The Linux Desktop” in which everyone predicts the year that the Linux desktop usage rates are the majority instead of the minority for typical home users. It is no secret that Microsoft has been hemorrhaging Windows users to MacOS, iPads, Android Tablets and even ChromeOS at a high rate, mostly due to the fact that the typical home users computer needs have vastly changed over the past few years to be more “browser-centric”. Many companies have tried to push Linux desktops as a alternative to Windows however they often failed, ChromeOS was the first consumer Linux distribution to see widespread home usage and widespread education usage. I would argue that 2020 may have been the year of the Linux Desktop, especially with many schools issuing Chromebooks to students for remote learning due to COVID however I feel that Android might be next.

DexOnLinux/DexOnChromeOS – How To (NO ROOT)

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Samsung announced a new feature with the Samsung Galaxy Note 10, the ability to access Samsung Dex on a Windows or MacOS device. This in my opinion was a game changer as it could allow users to use the insane power of their Galaxy Note 10/Note 10+ devices on inexpensive hardware. Samsung released a client for MacOS and Windows but as usual left us ChromeOS/Linux users out in the cold. It turns out that there is indeed a way to use Samsung Dex on Linux and X64 Chromebooks like the Pixelbook (Affiliate Link), Pixelbook Go (Affiliate Link) or even Samsung’s own line of Chromebooks, It does need a bit of inexpensive hardware and WiFi to setup .

ePaper Dashboard POC

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I was a bit bored after work and decided to mess with a ePaper Display I purchased a while back ago to try to create a basic dashboard. This is a complete hack but it shows some of the potential uses of this display. I posted a few photos of my dashboard on Facebook and several people asked for the code and instructions to build their own. This is a quick write up, not a planned article so please dont expect much proof-reading to happen.

ChromiumOS for the GPD Pocket R84-13054.0 Released – Major Update

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Attention all ChromiumOS for GPD Pocket Users. There is a new update that is currently rolling out. This update has been in the works for a few months and brings countless new features to GPD Pocket Owners. I have been running this build on my personal devices for a few weeks and am very happy with the stability and performance of this new build.

Yes! – 3D Printing PPE For Medical Staff and Frontline Workers is a HORRIBLE idea but here is why I will continue to do it

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Over the past 3 weeks, I have been running 2-3 of my 3D printers almost non-stop to crank out face shields, masks and ear savers that are being donated to first responders and other frontline workers in the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic. As of this posting, I have personally donated over 150 Face Shields and 30 face masks at no cost to those who are working at the front line to help to get this pandemic under control. I have had several people comment that I am wasting my time with printing PPE for first responders and I wanted to respond to some of these comments:

Upgrading Crostini to Debian Buster (10)

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The Chromium team is hard at work with bringing new features to Chromebooks, recently a change was made to set Debian 10 (Buster) as the default operating system for the Crostini “Penguin” container. Unfortunately this change does not upgrade existing installations of from Debian 9 (Stretch) to Debian 10. You are in luck though as upgrading your existing container is pretty easy, here are the steps.