Are there future plans for a native full linux version

Started by JohnMesh, September 23, 2014, 09:47:32 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

JohnMesh

Hello community,

my name is John and im very new to this forum.
We (currently "we" is a samll team of free developers and freelancers working together on some projects) are mainly on a linux environment and are wondering if there are any plans to port keyshot to linux?

Would be very nice to get some information about this

Chad Holton

There's not a huge amount of people requesting this, so I doubt it will happen any time soon. I did have an early version of KeyShot working on Wine a few years back. Seemed to work fine from what I remember. I just had to specify where my resources were.

JohnMesh

Thanks for your response, i know about wine but native is native :-)
I really cant understand why there is not such an amount of requests, maybe this lacks due to the possibility of a beta version?
Keyshot is well known in the windows/mac world but why should a linux user request it if there is absolutely no sign of a linux port shown on the developers side?
Well we (me and our team here around) are an exception as some colleagues worked with it before and gave us a hint to take a closer look.

However it would be very interesting to hear some developers opinion. Would this port be done with a huge amount of coding or is it more easy way as there is a native mac unix based version around?

John


KeyShot

KeyShot already runs on linux, but we do not see a business case for KeyShot on linux. Furthermore, linux is difficult to support due to the large variety of distributions and incompatible libraries, so at this point in time our linux version will remain internal.

JohnMesh

WOhhh, i didnt expected such an answer like this :-) good to know that its already ported.
Just from an interesting point of view on which distribution are you running it?
Why dont pick one distribution only and support it such like autodesk do it with fedora (okay they also support rhel, but one one dist should do the trick also)?

From what i can say the incompatibilty between the distributions is not that complicated but thats only a user point of view.

So if we would give it a go and would like to buy keyshot on linux, there is at the moment no chance as this will remain internal only?

Regards
John

Chad Holton

This is my opinion and not necessarily KeyShot's: The only reason I had used Linux is because it was free. I stopped using it because it was a pain to use with certain hardware. All the free software that came with Linux was real nice though. I even installed Linux on some of my friend's computers (they all ended up going back to Windows later). Anyhow, in your honest opinion, do you think that there is really that many Linux users that will pay $1000 + for rendering software?

JohnMesh

Its sad to hear that you had trouble using linux on certain hardware. Its even more sad that your friends went back to windows later.
I dont want to turn that thread into a "Do you really think linux users would..." but what about Maxwell, Indigo, Renderman, RenderdotC, SitexAir... etc.? I think they dont sell it because of some kind of respect to the linux community, or do they?
Why would a studio or an artist that uses a linux environment dont pay $1000 + for a very good rendering software?
I would agree that these softwares are targeting more to bigger studios but a $1000 + rendering software is not really aiming to home studios or leisure users.

But thats only my personal opinion.

However its sad that there is indeed a working linux solution that at the moment stay internal only because of lack of possible business approach.
Thanks for all that very useful information, i will check back from time to time to see if business model changed.

Happy rendering :-)

John

Chad Holton

It is sad that my friends switched back but at least I don't have to hear them complain about their printer not working with it or something.  ;D I enjoyed using it but don't have the time to mess with another OS these days.

Considering the target audience (Engineers, Designers,etc.) and the software they have to use (mostly Windows based because of the CAD programs used), I doubt very many use Linux for work purposes to justify creating (and training Luxion employees to support) a native Linux version. (again speaking my personal opinion)

It's been a couple of years since I really checked out Linux, maybe it's worth trying out again. Why do you use Linux over Mac or Windows?

JohnMesh

Ah the good old printer issue :-)
Im personally a linux user for several years now and i cant say for truth that printers are no issues anymore (well they never was, but there was a time where the setup was a bit "tricky") if you havent a really specialised printer setup.

All i can say is that linux runs amazing fast compared directly to the same machine running windows and you are in the pipeline for clustering, animation, vfx, network.
Its highly customizable for any target. Take Dreamworks for example, there is a reason why they are running more than 1,000 Linux desktops and more than 3,000 server CPUs.
I would never change back to windows especially as i saw what business model microsoft is turning into.
And about osx the things are simple: to expensive on the one hand and i dont like to get told what kind of restrictions i have to follow :-)

Chad Holton

That's probably the main reason I don't use Mac much... it's like they are trying to protect me from myself or something.  ;D

I still have an old version of Ubuntu installed on my i7 machine. I'll have to dust it off and test out the performance difference. What distro are you using?

JohnMesh

Quote from: Chad Holton on September 26, 2014, 07:04:03 AM
That's probably the main reason.... it's like they are trying to protect me from myself or something.  ;D

Exactly  ;D

Well we are running CentOS/RHEL here but i would advise you start with something more "boutique" like distribution like ubuntu 14.04 as LTS (long term support) where you are sure to get the latest updates for the next 5 years and there is a good chance 14.04 got an evergreen which will result in permanent support. I personally started with a dual boot system.

The main question is if you would more likely go with a *.deb system or a *.rpm based one.

Ubuntu for example comes with .deb package management where CentOS/RHEL comes with the .rpm packaging.
Ubuntu is more user friendly and has a wider spreaded package base which might be useful for starter. But all major vfx, animation etc. apps are shipped as rpm packages... hard choice.
In general you can also run all rpm packages on a deb based distribution and vice versa but thats not really the easiest startup for someone that would like to try linux  :o
Let me ay it in other words: if you only would like to take an actual look into linux then go with ubuntu, if you would more like to check some animation vfx apps on linux then go for CentOS or opensuse.

RPM:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions#RPM-based

DEB:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions#Debian-based

JohnMesh

Just wanted to update this: we have purchased Octane Render now as this has full linux support. We went for the standalone+maya-render+modo-render.
Amazing fast :-) and we are more than happy with it.

However we wish you all the best with keyshot so far.
Maybe in a far far future keyshot is able to support linux users as well  :o