Architecture without Windows

Intel D945GCLF2 running Lion Server

2011-10-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

I've got the little low power Intel D945GCLF2 based system at home running Lion Server now.

I use this system primarily to backup my projects at work to an offsite location. It monitors the Windows server at work and syncronizes a copy of it's data files locally for an offsite backup using Superflexible Syncronizer. It also contains all of the family photos, music, movies and raw video which it serves up using Twonkymedia's DNLA server for the home theater system and Zumocast for access to streaming music on our Droid 3 phones.

It took a couple of tries to get it running Lion, but it does it nicely with a modified kernel for the Atom processor. The server installation is interesting. Lion basically already has all of the services necessary to be a server, but the server software adds the ability to configure it properly for use as a server.

I've only just scratched the surface on Lion server so I'm not about to replace my Windows server at work, but who knows? If I could push email, calendar and addresses to my phone I might just consider it. (And yes, there are reasons why I don't have an iPhone that would allow for this…)

Another year

2011-10-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

Another year has slipped by and I can't say that I'm using Linux. I've recently cloned OSX Lion on my work PC and it's running marvelously. I'm still running Parallels in order to use Datacad, the AIA contract software and Masterspec under Windows.

One Year Update

2010-09-28T08:20:00.001-07:00

It's been a year since I started running Snow Leopard on my main office machine and now on my other Mac's and clones as well. I'm running 10.6.4 and everything was solid until I built a new WIndows 7 virtual machine in Parallels. I had my first crash in a year. I was running DataCad at the time and the system just went black and rebooted. It's a little hard to isolate as I updated Parallels at the same time as I installed Windows 7 so I can't totally blame Windows. I have not had any crashed with the new Parallels with XP though. I'm running Parallels 6 with Windows 7 in 64 bit on Snow Leopard in 64 bit and for the most part the machine is a delight. I can't say that I really have much appreciation for the Windows 7 bling as I really only have used it to load my old programs. I've worked my way around the networking and hardware setups and it is not too hard to navigate, but I much prefer the more intuitive nature of the Mac even though I've spent many years in the Windows world with Server and all of the various versions of Windows. Speaking of which, if it wasn't for Exchange Server, I'd probably "trade-in" my Windows server for a Mac. I must admit that I still like the connectivity I have on my phone etc. to email, my schedule and tasks via Exchange. So I guess I'll go off and see if I can get the machine to crash again. A year of non-stop operation without crashing sure was nice.

More speed less Windows

2009-09-16T13:31:00.000-07:00

Well I've brought the experiment into the real office. I've built an Intel Q9550 quad core based system with 4 gigs of DDR3 1600 memory running at 3.4 Ghz (overclocked from 2.83 Ghz and easily goes up to 3.8Ghz). It's based on OSX Snow Leopard 10.6.2 and while I'm content using Snow Leopard for most everything else, I'm still using Windows for my CAD software which is good old DataCad 10. On this machine I'm using Parallels instead of Fusion for running Windows in a virtual machine because the graphics drivers in Parallels work better with DataCad. In Fusion when you draw a square on the screen it looks like a rectangle. The aspect ratio is off and there is no way to change it in DataCad. Its been nice to be able to compare Parallels to Fusion. In my effort to use as much free software as possible, I even tried Sun's Virtual Box and while it does work, it has a way to go before it will be an equal to Parallels or Fusion. Right now I'm leaning towards Parallels as my favorite pick. They sweetened the deal by having two rebates. One just for buying the product and the other one for upgrading from a competitive product. $40 in all. While I'm quite content running Windows from within Snow Leopard, I did set up the machine to dual boot so that it can run Windows on it's own. So far I've had little need for this. It is also possible to run Leopard from within a Vmware virtual machine while in Windows but it lacks some of the graphics ability.

So where did Ubuntu go in this? I haven't given it up. When I get a chance I'll install a virtual appliance version of it to run on the same machine. Bottom line though is that when it comes to mission critical work, one really wants the best tools to work with. Right now, that is a combination of Mac and Windows.

Serving up tunes

2009-01-11T09:09:00.000-08:00

I've been away for awhile getting real work done. In the meantime, not much has changed in the options available to Ubuntu users for architecture. I have upgraded my systems to 8.04 and built a Mini-ITX based system as a media server. After a little tweaking for the obscure SiS video, it is rock solid, quiet and uses less power than a light bulb. It is based on the Intel D201GLY2 motherboard. While this little system is rock solid, I'm tempted to replace the motherboard with the newer Atom based Intel D954GCLF2 which has a dual core processor (still < $100 with processor). The goal for this system has been to keep the system at < $200. What does this have to do with architecture? What good is an office without tunes?

Bricscad Under Ubuntu

2008-01-04T17:41:00.000-08:00

Bricscad V6 will run under Ubuntu even though there is not an install for it. So what is Bricscad? Bricscad is an Autocad clone for lack of a better word. It uses native Autocad files, and the command structure is very similar to Autocad. The differences are primarily cost, and the fact that it will run under Linux. To run under Ubuntu, I downloaded the TGZ file for Fedora and Redhat, uncompressed it and copied the Bricscad folder to the /OPT folder. Executing the Bricscad V6 script loads Brickscad in Wine. At this point it will ask for a serial number. If you are installing the demo version, this can be a problem. Presumably, if installed under Fedora or Redhat, the installer automatically enters a serial number for you. When installed manually like I did, you need to manually enter a number. Thankfully, the nice people at Bricscad provided me with a temporary demo number that I could enter for thirty days of trial. So far it looks promising. This is probably the best CAD solution for Linux at this time. V6 offers compatibility with Autocad 2004. It does require Wine, but the people at Bricscad tell me that they are working on a native version to be released in Summer that will run under Linux. The PC version of V8 is available now and is pretty amazing. Admittedly though, I'm not very fluent at Autocad so I'm not a great judge of the operational differences. Definitely worth checking out.

2007-12-17T08:43:00.000-08:00

I lack success in getting the original yellow labeled Datacad 10 disk and V 9.5 parallel hardlock to work in Ubuntu. Here's what I've done so far:

Obtained the aksparlnx hardlock device driver source code from Alladin. Able to compile it into a machine specific loadable device driver to load with modprobe aksparlnx.

Obtained the aksusbd harlock installer from Alladin. Converted the .RPM package installer to .DEB with Alien. Can get aksusbd daemon to load.

Obtained winehasp.zip from Alladin. It contains winehasp.exe. This is supposed to allow protected programs to run under Wine. Can load winehasp.exe with Wine. It also contains the WIN32 HASP HL API. This would presumably replace the API that Datacad uses and supplies. I think they would have to link it in to be able access it. It is supposedly universal for Wine or Windows and automatically detects which. Otherwise, I don't know how to implement it.

The versions of software that I've been working with on this are: Ubuntu 7.04, Wine 0.9.50 and Windoors 0.9

What's the hardware?

2007-11-13T14:39:00.000-08:00

The test bed is a 2GB Intel Core 2 Duo based Apple Mac Mini running OS X Tiger with Vmware's Fusion to allow virtual Linux and Windows machines. I currently have Ubuntu Ultimate V7.10, Kubuntu V7.04, and Windows XP running concurrently with OS X Tiger. Yes, on the same machine, at the same times! Fusion is the ultimate have your cake and eat it too software. No messing with Bootcamp and no need to set up as a dual boot machine. The virtual "partitions" are simply large files that I store on an external hard drive. I can literally command+tab between Linux or Windows and OS X. The first time I had Internet Explorer running in an OS X window on the OS X desktop was a wild experience. Soon I expect to have IE running with Wine under Linux without the need of Windows. Free is the word.

I have another machine setup specifically with Ubuntu Ultimate. It is a 733Mhz Pentium based machine called a Micron ClientPro. It was destined for the scrap pile but got a last minute reprieve for this series of tests. It runs surprisingly well and runs most applications as if it were a much more powerful machine running Windows. Before tossing out one of those old machines, load it up with Ubuntu and take it out for a spin.

Google Sketchup

2007-11-10T08:15:00.000-08:00

Google Sketchup will run in Wine under Ubuntu. Toolbars and menu items appear black until cursor is moved over them. Usable but a little distracting. Much easier if you know the keyboard shortcuts. I'll try on another machine to see if it displays the same problems.

What is Ubuntu?

2007-11-09T15:54:00.000-08:00

http://www.linux.com/distributions/114365

http://www.ubuntu.com/

The beginning.

2007-11-09T15:27:00.000-08:00

How can you have architecture without windows? That's crazy you say. How do you see out of a building without windows? Why use windows when you can use Linux instead! This blog will deal with my adventures into using Linux instead of Windows in my architectural practice. The particular flavour will be Ubuntu which is based on Debian. So join me in sharing your experiences in practising architecture WITHOUT using Windows. As an added bonus we will try to do it for free.