I am going to buy a new computer. Which linux is the easiest and most stable to install and run Maya, Houdini, Nuke and Realflow on?
I’v heard Ubuntu is the most user friendly. I had Fedora, but I don’t want that again. I’ve heard people consider CentOS. Thoughts?
Linux Mint is the best Ubuntu distro imo. Better GUI and more media support out of the box. It’s also the most popular distro on distrowatch.com with nearly double the number of dowload than vanilla Ubuntu, which also mean a greater user base to rely on if you seek help.
There was a time when CentOS had some organizational problems and wasn’t exactly what I’d call reliable but it has improved a lot the last few years. If you will be using Maya then CentOS is the best option in my opinion. Autodesk currently supports CentOS 6 which isn’t the latest so be mindful of that when downloading the installer. The LTS releases of Ubuntu are great if you don’t need Maya. If you’re curious it’s possible to install Maya on Ubuntu it just takes a lot of effort, here’s a 27 minute video about it…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRifZ7DWB5M
Linux Mint is not an Ubuntu distribution and isn’t developed by Canonical. It’s a derivative of Ubuntu which is a derivative of Debian. This distinction can be important, for example the timeliness of security updates. Not saying Linux Mint is bad or anything just that it’s not the same as Ubuntu just as Ubuntu is not the same as Debian.
DistroWatch gets quoted a lot but it doesn’t really mean anything. All it tells you is how many people visited the DistroWatch page for a particular distribution (whoopty doo!). They don’t actually track the number of downloads or active users for any Linux distributions. Forum activity might be a better indicator for the size of the community of active users. The Ubuntu forum has roughly 2,000,000 threads and the Linux Minut forum has roughly 160,000 threads.
You are splitting hair…
Here is what distrowatch list for linux mint:
[ul]
[li]OS Type: Linux[/li][li]Basé sur: Debian, Ubuntu[/li][li]Origine: Ireland[/li][li]Architecture: i386, x86_64[/li][li]Bureau: Cinnamon, GNOME, KDE, MATE, Xfce[/li][li]Catégorie: Beginners, Desktop, Live Medium[/li][li]Etat: Actif[/li][li]Popularité: 1 (2,450 clicks par jour)[/li][/ul]Linux Mint is an Ubuntu-based distribution whose goal is to provide a more complete out-of-the-box experience by including browser plugins, media codecs, support for DVD playback, Java and other components. It also adds a custom desktop and menus, several unique configuration tools, and a web-based package installation interface. [u]Linux Mint is compatible with Ubuntu software repositories. [/u]
[b][/b]_________
If it walk like a duck, quack like a duck…
Linux Mint is UBUNTU without the awful Unity GUI, the spyware but with all the codecs and media extension that the Holy Canonical pope decided were too evil to be included.
As for the Ubuntu forum… Since Mint is an Ubuntu based distribution, plenty of mint user also post in the official ubuntu forum since Mint is compatible with all that is on the official ubuntu.
It’s not splitting hairs. Linux Mint isn’t Ubuntu. More examples of how they are different… You can get 24/7 phone support with the developers of Ubuntu.
http://www.canonical.com/services
Ubuntu installs can be centrally managed.
https://landscape.canonical.com/
Please just drop it and stop spreading misinformation. I get what you’re saying that Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu but that doesn’t make it Ubuntu. As for the original poster this is pointless because Linux Mint works with Maya just as awfully as Ubuntu does so they’re both horrible options to begin with.
You drop it buddy… And better get your fact straight.
You have to pay extra for the 24/7 support from cannonical, so from the viewpoint of 99.9999999999999999999999% of linux users it’s totaly irrelevant since they don’t pay for that 24/7 support.
They both use the same kernel, the same libraries, the same binaries and the same repositery to said binaries. That makes them the same bloddy thing linux OS and software wise. The only difference is in the GUI which can be switched on either one of them and the codec support. You can install Mate or Cinnamon on Ubuntu and you could install Unity on Mint but why would you since it’s a piece of crap…
As for installing Maya on either Mint or plain vanilla Ubuntu, just follow the following thread:
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/installation-licensing/installing-maya-on-ubuntu/td-p/4905036
And, sorry to say, but if that is too complicated for anyone thinking about using Linux, then maybe you should consider using Maya on Windows instead.
Tuxon, with all due respect, I’ve seen you popping up in a lot of tech threads recently, giving people advice. We appreciate all help people give here, but giving iffy information and passing it off as factual won’t help anybody. Someone wants to know what linux distro to use, you are advising them to use a relatively small unknown distro with no support from the software makers he lists and which is based off of Ubuntu, which in itself requires long workarounds to install the software he wants to use.
My first genuine bit of advice to the OP would be to double check that linux is even the best option for them; quite a few people come through here saying they want to go down the linux route “because thats what the big studios use”, when really unless you’re pretty experienced with it, most people would be better served by osx/windows. Sure they’re not fashionable, but if you ever need help, the VAST majority of people on forums and at tech support will be better positioned to help you. If you go down the linux route, you’re automatically making things more difficult for yourself with very little in the way of advantages.
I love threads on linux for vfx, since I hope to build my own idiot proof linux box one day. But it’s always the same flame talk going on.
I was looking for Centos 7 lately for it supports the latest hardware, but apparently it’s not yet on the recommendation list of the apps I need. Not yet at least.
I too would like to see the same apps working without too much hassle, but apparently I’ll never be able to jump on board.
IMO centos is going to be the easiest to set up with those programs. Centos is pretty solid these days - at least version 6 (6.6). Version 7 is too new and I’ve seen it have compatibility problems with some programs that it didn’t with 6.
Ubuntu is perhaps easier in terms of holding your hand in general, but you’re still going to have to get your hands a little dirty with linux to get programs like maya to work. Normally maya just requires a few extra libraries to install on centos. Ubuntu will take a hell of a lot more steps to get redhat-based software to install and run. Then factor that in each time you upgrade your software. If you deal with those complications on a regular basis, sure then it gets easy, but IMO that negates the purpose of wanting to use ubuntu in the first place if you are going to give yourself the initial headache of installing redhat-based software on it.
As for Mint…I’m never touching that OS again because it doesn’t support OS upgrades. It’ll do updates up to a point, but later if you want to upgrade from one version to the next major version, you’re stuck other than doing a clean install. That’s probably a non-issue on a server or production machine though, but it left me with a bad impression that support is so short-sided.
If you go with CentOS be sure to setup the graphics drivers in such a way that they use DKMS. Don’t just download them from the manufacturer website and install them because things will break when there’s a kernel update. The link below is from a similar topic about picking a Linux distribution and pros and cons for each, easier to link to it than redo it here.
http://forums.odforce.net/topic/21031-best-linux-distro-for-houdini/?p=126029