Hi everyone. The whole linux thing has caught my attention recently - I do however know absolutely nothing about this platform, or how it copes with things in general - I do however hear it's very stable. - It also has amazon paint in the works!!!!!!!!
If anyone could give me any sort of feedback on weather or not this platform will take off, or what I can expect - It would be appreciated.
Linux is just the OS of tomorrow.
All major 3d packages are or will be availiable of it: Houdini, Maya, soft3d&XSI, renderman, etc.
Hardware companies such as HP, SGI, IBM support Linux and spend lots of money on it(billions of dollards).
Microsoft knows about the danger linux represents so they to a game facility.
Linux is Stable, powerful, FREE, true multitasks, multiusers as UNIX.
When all majors 3d2dvideo will be on LINUX, windows will only runs on the XBOX.
Mac is also is great menace to Bill's OS: G4s out perfoms Intel's chips, Mac OSX is a true UNIX os, Video and 2D apps are better on MAC and now with Maya, OPENGL and multithreading support it's a pwerful 3D platform.
Poor BILL.
Skelter,
Since you are a LInux and Mac advocate I have a question for you.
Q: Since OSX is based on a version of UNIX with the Aqua interface sitting on top as a seperate shell. What is your opinion if Apple chose to instead put Aqua on top of Linux, rather than their own proprietary version of UNIX.
I feel very strongly about Linux as well, but feel the Mac OSX is another trap like Windows has become..."applications being at the mercy of the company that owns the OS". In this case, Apple pretty much owns the hardware options too, so it seems like a double wammy to me. If the Mac interface is best, then why does it matter if it is on another UNIX like Linux.
No reflection on the quality or performance of Apple products. I am just trying to get someone elses opinion on the original question.
Urp
Hello.
Unix is the future and has always been the past of the industry. WindowsNT was a good for driving the market to faster performace lower cost solutions. The stablity and features of Unix have never been replaced. As new OSes like Linux and OSX mature I think they will become the dominate players. Linux is moving ahead strong with MacOSX coming in March.
I am also a linux,mac,irix advocate.
It is my understanding that you can run the Mac Aqua interface over Linux. I saw it in the Silicon Grail booth at Siggraph. They were running Linux on a G4 with the Aqua interface running their compositing software.
One of the beautys of Unix is that even different flavors can work very well together. We are an Irix, Linux and Mac shop. Using Irix for 3D and Video, Mac for 2D and Linux for serving and rendering.
It all works fairly seamlessly. The Irix machines treat the Linux as one of their own, rlogin and execute commands back and forth, share drives and data. Under MacOS9 it sees the Irix and Linux machines as Appletalk devices, under Mac OSX, I am hoping we will have the same unix functionality.
As for the MAC hardware they are well built, well performing machines.
Apple is not limiting the video performance. Third party cards are shipping in G4s and as programs like Maya move to the Mac more and more card developers are going to make better cards and OpenGL is ingrained in the OS.
to the original post, I would recommend trying to learn a little Linux. If you have a NT machine then you can probably create a dual boot system and have Linux available to play with. Things you learn in Linux for the most part are going to apply to SGI Irix and MacOSX.
As to stablity, we have had our Linux server and renderfarm for about 9 months. I have had to restart them maybe twice, same on our SGI Irix boxes.
Dougr,
What impresses me most is that a lot of the software platform wars between users could be illiminated because we could all pick and choose our what component we like best.
(1) Imagine a PC user running on a Mac with Linux. I am not arguing which platform is fastest and that's my point. If the user found a great price on the Mac, why not?
(2) If someone prefers the Mac interface, they can still use a x86, or Sparc, Irix or what ever they choose.
With Linux the computer industry can focus on making better applications and hardware and stop trying to guess which platform they should invest in. Something kind of interesting is the current wave of super computing developers.
Urp
Opps last post got cut off. My mistake.
...Something kind of interesting is the current wave of super computing developers, such as IRIX, SGI, HP and IBM.
Originally companies went off in their own directions making their own versions of UNIX. Now the companies that are getting back into super computing, are starting choosing to work with the same OS, which is Linux. Ironically, it is the opposite now, in that they are affraid to go off and create their own version, or risk painting themselves in a corner when all their competitors can work together.
With SuperComputing, HighSpeed Networking and large CG Studios, and Highend Graphics, Linux will trickle down from the top of the market, not grow from the bottom where the "good enoughs" are. It is not a simple thing to happen. UNIX is very difficult to program for in regards to Windows. However, there is no hurdle in it's way that hasn't already been solved many times on another OS.
Urp
I agree with your comments. Linux could offer a sort of platform independent option in the future. I think it is great that both hardware and software companies are producing products on the same standard, linux. Linux still enables people to build thier own machines much the same way windows has.
As far as Apple, they may be on a slippery slope. But they have always had the different os. At least with osx they are becoming more and more compatable with its unix core.
And you could just run aqua on linux on intel if you needed.
I don't know about the platform independence. It can only work as much as companies are willing to support. Even linux vendors are having some problems keeping the distros up to date on the various platforms (i.e. sparc).
I would love to have a sparc linux render farm, but software venodrs see that (and rightly so) as an extra platform to support.
The source code may be the same, the os may be the same, but it is still a different set of hardware and that makes a difference.
I hope that the software vendors can get past that, but from past experience, it is unlikely.
Tim
-I just program here, how am I supposed to know?
Im an advocate of throwing the mac os away.
it sucks. linux and window r the best choices cuz these OS will offer the most flexibility from gaming to high end sftware.
Th Mac OS definitely is the most limited in hardware and software. why would u wanna MAc when u cant play COUTERSTRIKE on it while using the same system to do 3d. I just dont get it. people talk about flexibility, but I just dont see it in the mac. its the most limited and will probably stay that way. and will always look like a feminine computer.
i wouldn't discount windows NT/2k that fast.
Compared with an Octane and IRIX my Dual PIII with W2K is way faster with maya, rendering and working (loading time for scene)
Irix and MacOS are good systems, no question, but I think PC hardware will develop much faster and outrun the other software. I don't like what I here about WindowsXP so, Linux will get more atention when more 2/3D software is ported, especially from IRIX.
my bet is for linux to get a big push in graphics business.
hheheheh, skelter, nice things you said. Maybe you should more clear about some aspects of it. Well, its my time, i will.
you are sure right that linux is the os of tomorrow, and sure you said that IBM, SGI, and others supports linux .. thats true. Now, we all know that windows sux and sure mrom my point of view Gates [censored] up it all with this os. But, we have to be ralistic. Bill Gates (read Microsoft) is not the only company making money. so does sgi, ibm and others. So, you will all agree is i say that investing in linux (sgi, ibm...) is more then anything a strategic move. see, why would a company like SGI from one day to another invest a lot of money in linux ? why ? just because linux is stable ? just because linux is so cool ? i dont think so 
take care all of you.