I wonder if the steam deck will work for you. Its sacrifice of physical keyboard for portability will probably be the deal breaking issue if I were to guess, but not sure. I've seen plenty of people use them as computers for various field projects not game related. It's cheapest is 350 if you don't need a lot storage on the device and the storage is upgradeable. It's compatible with normal USB c hubs for if you do need a physical keyboard or w/e. There are definitely some hangups that may make it undesirable and from what you described some of them are definitely possible, ie if you want to pull it out in the field and do a lot of typing without setting up a dock and whatnot, it won't work for your needs. But if the fieldwork with it is mostly just start a program and connect a USB data source, and most typing will be somewhere with a desk (home office or w/e) then it may work.

I was personally looking for a Linux compatible laptop a while back (admittedly I asked the wrong community), and eventually came to the conclusion that my wife's steam deck was actually a great solution for my needs, the main times I needed a keyboard I could just setup a simple dock and plug one it (though if you get a USBC or Bluetooth keyboard the only use for the dock is for holding it upright or additional peripherals), and most of my on the go use of it doesn't need a lot of typing.

Sounds like he might want to marry a man then

Likely depends on what's needed/used as feed

What changed? I thought that is still what they did.

The coloring made me think the cat was on a half finished pizza at first, which certainly changed the tone of things

I need to know what manga this is

Hmm, I think fextralife's wiki might do this with their shitty stream that I'm pretty sure auto plays.

Same thing for any other software, see if you can get it running in wine, and see what the alternatives are and try them out until you find a solution you like. You need to accept there may be change, and may need to experiment and hit up Google to find solutions, but solutions do exist.

From a quick Google search, i found about 4/5 potential open source options

FreeCAD would probably be what I try first, but it's hardly the only option and seen some people complain that it feels archaic (but it's FOSS). I've also seen draftsight recommended a few times, and it has a free trial but is not free.

Also apparently fusion360 has a web interface that may be usable.

As much as i dislike google, chromebooks are perfect for anyone tech illiterate that just need a simple web browser that works. Every family member I've recommended a chromebook to has not needed additional tech support for it, which IMO, is a truly impressive accomplishment on google's behalf.

Do they just want attention? Or are they malicious actors from those that consider Lemmy competition?

I'm pretty sure it's wax lined paper they use