Recently, I came across quite a few 3d modelers that were Linux applications. But I had no way of trying them out due to the OS thing. Then I found an appy called Wubi which basically allows Linux to be installed/run under Windows. I also requested a CD a while back for a free Linux version called Ubuntu which arrived today! Woo hoo! I have a second HD as yet unused to try the thing out, and install as many Linux based modelers as I can find; Sourceforge is loaded with quite a few freeby's to kick the tires on so to speak. Well, here goes nuthin'. I post again as I get underway with it and report back any potentially useful info for everybody else to share...BNG
Might want to disconnect your Windows HD's before you try it.
Why? Ubuntu has never hurt my Windows hard drive, installs perfectly fine on the hard drive you choose, and with GRUB it dualboots fine too.
Ubuntu is well worth looking into. Or Kubuntu. I've got on better with Ubuntu to be honest though if you prefer KDE to GNOME then thats up to you. Its easy to use and it can look more aesthetically pleasing than any other OS if that floats your boat or is an important thing to you. Compiz Fusion heh heh.
Which modelling programs are we talking about here?
Presently, no specific modelers in mind as up til now I generally just bypassed looking into the detail part at Source forge as Linux based programs were out my reach up to then. Sadly, I waxed the CD sent to me after it got stuck in one of my drives, after installing Ubuntu and dual booting into it without first removing the boot CD. I was so afraid that if I rebooted again then it might over write my XP install; I freaked out and try to use a paper clip to open the tray door while Ubuntu was still running. Anyways, the paper clip thingy came into contact with the disc surface and basically trashed it.
I'm DL'ing another version called Ubuntustudio, but on a dial up I expect to wait more then a week as the size is just over 800 megs (than God for resumable DL's). As I understand it, there are several applications that can safely install Linux under Windows without trashing your Windows install; Wubi, is one such appy and came with the original CD. However, I understand in order to maximize the performance of Ubuntu it really should have it's own dedicated partition; there's also another appy for that too after Ubuntu is installed under Windows...BNG
Hmmm...
Downloading Ubuntu now.
www.vmware.com
Their server edition is free, no 3d accell of course (their home edition has 'alpha' 3d support, the only virtual computer that supports anything relating to 3d at all actually).
In most cases its safe to use a partitioner such as Gparted (on the Ubuntu Live CD) to resize your NTFS partition and make way for an Ext3 (Linux) partition. There is also Windows Software that you can use to get an Ext3 partition to show up as a lettered drive (e.g. E: drive) and be fully read/writable in Windows. Not only that, but within linux, it is possible to symlink your Windows folders anywhere within your linux file system, so you can have any Windows folders accessible from your desktop or /home/$USERNAME folder as if they were physically there on the linux file system.
What I would recommend though is if you're weary of repartitioning your system, that you use a second HDD as your linux hard drive, and have that set as the bootup hard drive. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the latest *buntus will automatically detect your Windows install and add it to the boot menu.
Virtualization software such as VMware is useful if you dont want to have to reboot to select your environment, you can boot Windows from within Linux and vice-versa. There are free VM softwares you can get for Ubuntu from the Automatix util (and possibly from the 'add new programs' menu when the universe repository is enabled).
FYI: The only linux-native software which I've tried is Blender, and though its interface is too arcane for me, it looks powerful. I've gotten BZ2, BZ2ME, Photoshop 7 working flawlessly under kubuntu, and there is a nice compatability database available from appdb.winehq.org (I am the maintainer for the Battlezone 2 application)
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I've gotten BZ2, BZ2ME, Photoshop 7 working flawlessly under kubuntu, and there is a nice compatability database available from appdb.winehq.org
Problem: http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=5633 (http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=5633) has a blatant falsehood:
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Version 1.2 is the latest non-beta patch provided by Pandemic Studios
Bull****. 1.2's regarded as beta by Activision, the only people with the ability to make the call. The installer says so itself. Please don't misrepresent cold hard facts, regardless of what you feel about other issues.
-- GSH
Well, I do the best i can. :-)
Semantics aside, give me a suitable declaration and I will change it. Help and ideas as opposed to strict criticism in the wording would be great since that tends to be preferable to walking on eggshells.
Don't freak out over it, if you are using a second hard drive Ubuntu won't touch your Windows HD unless you specifically tell it to. But yeah I'd be wary about messing with the Windows partition I never get on with them :lol:
Dial up? Ouch... Latest version on the Ubuntu website is 7.10 Feisty I think, thats the one I'm on anyway, around 685 megs or somthing. Theres DVD versions too but I think thats out of the question for you :lol:
Nope the latest are *buntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon". I noticed that the upgrade process tends to botch things a little more, like certain features introduced with the latest *buntus not being implemented (ie: tracker desktop search, certain compiz fusion things) bu default during the upgrade process. A fresh install of Ubuntu tends to show off its latest features a bit more, and I have to say that compared to 7.04 Feisty the improvements are significant -- as I have tried installing Ubuntu Fiesty than upgrading to Gutsy when a customer of mine didnt want to drop an additional $100 on a new Windows CD (due to a lost product key). A pure Gutsy install is better.
Oh is it Gutsy? Whoops :lol:
Yeah I ran a fresh install on it, last time I upgraded things weren't perfect so I nuked it and started again. Didn't loose any files, just whacked them onto the Windows drive and dragged them back when I was done. Obviously lost all my settings and stuff though...
I didn't realize 7.10 had some compiz stuff in it like wobbly windows :lol: I just installed the full compiz fusion and I think its fantastic.
All your settings 'n stuff should be in dot files in your home directory. Generally just copying out your home directory, and copying it back keeps everything perfect between installs (and reinstalling your apps from apt or what-not of course, but a good script can do that too automagically :) ).
So, what's the smallest Linux install version available for low end systems? I can always add more memory to help things run more efficiently, and I'd like to use something that can handle DVD production as well. Though, the primary function is still more less to work with some of the Linux based 3d modelers I came across.
My first real encounter with Linux came after purchasing my previous PC with an ill fated version called, Lindows. But MS didn't like the name and essentially killed it in it's tracks, and forced the company to change the name to something else. Anyways, I ended up buying XP Pro and installing that OS instead; I still have the Lindows CD laying around somewhere collecting dust. I like Linux because of it's open license nature and really feel that it has a lot of promise at some point in the future, and I understand that it has in some regards surpassed Windows in terms of OS stability.
DamnSmallLinux is the smallest Linux, generally useful in embedded systems. :)
And the name of that other one is now FreeSpire, and it is still very Windows looking in its default themes. Does not really matter if you system is powerful or not, (K)Ubuntu is still good, as is really any others, *nix scales a heck of a lot better then Windows does.
Quoteand I understand that it has in some regards surpassed Windows in terms of OS stability.
When has it not been more stable?
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 .......
:lol:
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.
Quote from: OvermindDL1 on January 21, 2008, 08:14:03 PM
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.
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...
Quote from: OvermindDL1 on January 21, 2008, 09:31:30 PM
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.
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).
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 .
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...
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
I love it, period :lol: