casualsnek

cassowary

Python2022–2025

casualsnek / cassowary

cassowary

Run Windows Applications on Linux as if they are native, Use linux applications to launch files files located in windows vm without needing to install applications on vm. With easy to use configuration GUI

Systems & Infrastructure Mobile & Desktop

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5Distinct people

6Mentions

1Explicit recommenders

3.6KGitHub stars

REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

My conclusion is that all mainstream operating systems are now iterative and constantly in a state of semi-breakage, just like all modern apps, in an attempt to be more…

jeroenhd used a recommendation phrase. One indexed comment matches. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.

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Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year6 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2022-02-04 23:07:45 UTC to 2025-10-16 04:59:35 UTC.

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges

UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
Period	Start (UTC)	End (exclusive, UTC)	Mentions	Submissions	Comments
2022	2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	4	1	3
2023	2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0	0
2024	2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0	0
2025	2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2	0	2

What Hacker News says

6 sources

beeflet·Oct 16, 2025

Not really. On linux, you have OpenSCAD (which is okay for some applications) and you have FreeCAD (which sucks imo). Right now, I just use OnShape which works in my web browser and is similar to SOLIDWORKS (and it's $0 for students). In the future I will try running windows CAD under linux using kvm and this: https://github.com/casualsnek/cassowary

In Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

jeroenhd·Oct 8, 2025

I believe Cassowary (https://github.com/casualsnek/cassowary) is an older tool that does pretty much this. My experience with it is that FreeRDP in rootless mode isn't very good for Windows applications that do anything special with window borders. Using Office and many other programs became a pain. When it worked, it worked really well, though. Reminds me of the same feature that VMWare used to offer many years ago for running XP/Vista programs on Windows 7 through a VM.

In WinBoat: Windows apps on Linux with seamless integration

oynqr·Dec 4, 2022

Take a look at https://github.com/casualsnek/cassowary. If your license key doesn't work/you don't have one, they really aren't that expensive. Might also work without any activation at all.

In MSN replaced journalists with AI publishing fake news about mermaids and Bigfoot

thaumaturgy·Apr 1, 2022

I suspect that recent efforts to make virtualization even more seamless is going to have a big impact on how we do daily computing in the very near future. My next system is going to be a lightweight Linux host with a pile of VMs and something like https://github.com/casualsnek/cassowary, with juicy enough hardware to make it feel like I'm only running one OS.

In Farewell, Elementary

jeroenhd·Mar 21, 2022Recommendation phrase

My conclusion is that all mainstream operating systems are now iterative and constantly in a state of semi-breakage, just like all modern apps, in an attempt to be more "modern" and to cut down on costs. I'm especially disappointed in Microsoft for their obsessive data collection. I've never experienced the "good old days" Apple fans seem to be referring to, so I can't comment on macOS (other than that it's clearly not for me). It's quite absurd, really, because while the Linux desktop environment is certainly good for novices and advanced Linux users, anyone that falls between those categories (and that's a lot of people!) will definitely struggle when they try to switch to Linux. You're either content with the default setup, or need to dive into the terminal at some point, and the fact commercial operating systems are making their UX wo

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rse than Linux would be impressive if it wasn't so disappointing. For what it's worth, I've managed to get Fusion360 running on Manjaro with a script a friend linked me online. I can't remember where I got it from exactly, but it involved auto downloading a bunch of Wine requirements and then just running the setup. If you're not interested in tweaking your system, feel free to skip over the rest of the comment. If you're willing to give it a go, I've got some experience with Windows stuff on Linux that you may be interested in. I barely use Fusion360, but the few times I used it, it worked pretty well in Wine. Even had decent 3D acceleration, though you can probably get a lot better performance with more trickery (DXVK etc. to enhance the 3D acceleration for example). Lutris (https://lutris.net/) has an install script (https://lutris.net/games/autodesk-fusion-360/), I recommend you give it a try. Lutris can help enable performance tuning tricks for productivity software quite easily, even if it's originally developed for playing video games. Might work for you, or it might not; if it does, it might just cut down on more unnecessary reboots. If it doesn't, you'll at most lose the time it takes to download the installer and remove the failed installation. As for the video conferencing, you might be interested in Cassowary (https://github.com/casualsnek/cassowary), a tool to run Windows executables in a Windows VM through RDP, with suspend/resume of the VM on demand to cut down on resources used when you're not using Windows. It requires a bit of setup, but the guide is quite comprehensive in my opinion. You can forward your webcam to the Windows VM through USB forwarding to get it to work with video, and modern RDP should just be an RDP stream so there shouldn't be too much quality loss. Even if the Cassowary setup doesn't work, you can probably use the VM anyway.

In Windows needs a change in priorities

shaicoleman·Feb 4, 2022Submission

Cassowary – Run Windows Apps on Linux using a VM as if they were native apps

336 points · Open discussion