Installing Linux as an alternate OS to use 3d modelers designed for it.

[Lizard]

I'm gonna give linux a try, I've got a spare 250Gb hard drive and I'm currently downloading openSUSE 10.2 - this appears to be about the only version of linux that currently allows Softimage XSI to run in any form of useable manner so it's not like I had a great deal of choice.



I've had absolutely zero experience with linux and haven't got a clue what I'm doing , so this sould be fun .......

[OvermindDL1]

Heh, I still prefer BSD, well, not quite as fun on a desktop, but it sure beats *nix on server stuff (and you can set it up as a desktop, there is just a lot more configuring to do since there are no real pre-made setups like Ubuntu or what-not, dragonflybsd and desktopbsd still have issues).  I can't wait till version 7.0, it is quite noticeable faster.  Heck, 7.0 is so better made then the 6.x series, the current cvs trunk is faster more stable then 6.x...

So what is it about Suse that is so special to SoftImage?  All the *nix's can run things the same, just need the proper libraries for each thing, and if SoftImage is in a proper installer then the proper dependencies should be installed as well, wondering what those dependencies are.

[Lizard]

Heh, I still prefer BSD, well, not quite as fun on a desktop, but it sure beats *nix on server stuff (and you can set it up as a desktop, there is just a lot more configuring to do since there are no real pre-made setups like Ubuntu or what-not, dragonflybsd and desktopbsd still have issues).  I can't wait till version 7.0, it is quite noticeable faster.  Heck, 7.0 is so better made then the 6.x series, the current cvs trunk is faster more stable then 6.x...

So what is it about Suse that is so special to SoftImage?  All the *nix's can run things the same, just need the proper libraries for each thing, and if SoftImage is in a proper installer then the proper dependencies should be installed as well, wondering what those dependencies are.

nothing particularly special about SUSE, just that softimage linux support seems to really suck at the moment , there's only a couple of distro's that work reliably, a lot of them will let you install the software but then have trouble loading and saving scene data, even the newer version of openSUSE (10.3) has similar issues . 


not sure if these issues also cover commercial linux packages or whether it's just the free ones that cause problems.

[OvermindDL1]

I've never really heard of such issues with anything.  Generally if one *nix program runs somewhere, then it generally runs everywhere.  They must have done some really bad programming for that to occur...

[Lizard]

I've never really heard of such issues with anything.  Generally if one *nix program runs somewhere, then it generally runs everywhere. 

that point was made on the XSI forums


it's a pretty crappy state of affairs really, never mind though I'll give it a whirl and see what occurs.

[OvermindDL1]

Is it a binary app, or is the source code available (not that I really need to ask, I can guess the answer).  The way *nix apps work is that when installed they compile on the system and they just work, if they are distributed as binaries then that can never be guaranteed, hence why the *nix community *HATES* binary apps.  Spreading a binary app around different 'nix's is like trying to get an app you compiled for Vista working in 98, it might work, but chances are it will not, however if compiled native then it would probably work fine if you didn't use any proprietary api's.

If they just ran their build system on the different distro's and gave a binary out for each, then it would work fine I'd bet (assuming you did not customize up the system in some weird ways, in which case that gets back to needing a source distro, not a binary, remember, the *nix community *HATES* binary apps).

[Lizard]

well I've hit a brick wall anyway, my XSI license doesn't cover me for the Linux version of XSI just the Windows one, I didn't know they even sold seperate licesnses for Linux and Windows, I've got the setup files for the Linux version on the disk so I thought I'd be able to install it on any operating system I like .... grrrrr .

[OvermindDL1]

Different licenses for... wha?
They are starting to seem a bit too much like money-grubbing-bas****s.  That makes no sense, especially if they included the *nix installer...

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

Tanks OM, I DL'ed the D.S. Linux embedded version that runs via a batch file and it seems to work most excellently. Now hopefully I can kick the tires on a few 3d modelers designed for Linux. The install also included a browser called, Firefox, and some other utilities for working with files between the OS's. There's even a paint program as well.

PS: work goes on learning Blender, but I'm starting to get the hang of the UI a bit more and even signed up for a user forum account at Blender and started posting a few questions for other B3D users...BNG

[Raven]

I love it, period