how well does it run as as opposed to windows or linux
ive used windows xp and linux (debian knoppix) was wondering if blender ran any better on a mac or if i should stay with windows
i can get blenders game engine to run on knoppix so i cant really use that
and suggestions?
ill use what even os i can get just aslong as it runs blender goes online and will let my tv card work too
Using any program on any LiveCD is a bad measure of a program. LiveCDs have to spin and load and all sorts of slow crap.
As for my experience, blender always ran smoother, rendered quicker and was more stable on Linux. I have the feeling that the reason is because it was originally developed on *nix (Irix of SGI to be specific).
Actually if you want to go back to Blender’s true ancestor you’d find “Traces”. That’s the original Raytracer developed by (I believe) Ton in (I believe) the late eighties on (I believe) the Amiga.
Parts of the traces code were used in the raytracing/renderer revamp about a year or two ago, and are now integrated into blender.
i had knoppix installed on the harddrive so it wasent on a live cd
i get that segfualt error when i try to use the game engine
there was a long rumming topic i started on that last i remeber no one could figure out why it wouldnt work right
(though i may be wrong)
how well does it work on mac if any mac users would be so kind as to provide some input and im refering to the os not the hardware
hmm, i use a mac, and i think it runs pretty zippy on my hardware (look at my sig)
im not sure though, i have nothing to really compare it to because i barely ever use windows (is that something to be proud of? 
)
I’ve done some test on rendering, and it rendered my scene’s 33% faster on Fedora Core 4 than it did Windows 98se(dunno how much better XP is now with memory management).
i think im just going to do this
im going to put my linux back on there
and either try to figure out y its not working and fix it if i can
or use vmware and put a windows on there just for blender
if i can fix it ill post info
You can get Blender to run faster on Linux by using NICE values.
NICE values tell the kernel what is more important compared to other programs. The lower the nice value the more processing time it gets.
NICE values go from a range of -20 to 20.
To get this extra performance type in console. “nice -20 blender”.
It does make it run smoother stunningly enough. 
I suggest you try installing Ubuntu or Kubuntu. If I’m right Dapper Drake recently came out which can have Xgl support.
blenders speed on linux is in my experience highly dependant on how you have set up linux.
A custom (and well) compiled kernal with proper gfx card drivers will give better results than a out of the box install without anything done to it.
for all that to be done, you may as well just sign away the next few months of your life to pulling out hair.
Linux is the Balding OS.
Alltaken
Linux is the Balding OS.
Only if you compile it.
Lets not talk about that.
I’ve done some extensive benchmark with respect to BLender performance on different OSes (except OS X) Blender Binary (the stuff you download off the internet) in Linux is generally 1-5% faster when rendering compared to Windows XP. But If you compile your own Blender using optimized compiler flags, it is ~20% faster. (render time went down from 2min to 1min35sec)
For more info see my webpage http://mpan3.homeip.net/
Hey, my baldness is from sitting in front of a rack of CRTs irradiating me all day, everyday, for decades. What’s OS is on screen is irrelevant. 
Yes, a tweaked kernel and tweaked compiles for all your important libraries and apps is essential. Distros go for compatibility, can’t make any money if everyone is badmouthing your OS all over the place about constant recompiles.
A great example, AMD/AMD64 guys running AGP Nvidia cards on Fedora. Fedora ships with agpgart hardlinked, so Nvidia card guys who think they have it so much better than ATI guys, who REALLY want to piss off the ATI guys, recompile your kernel so agpgart is a module and then don’t use it. Now that it’s a module you can unload it and can use NVAgp, and pick up even more speed and stability.
But just to know that little tidbit, you’ve got to be a geek artist. Just downloading a linux distro because it’s “25% faster” is stupid - the years of your life you’ll save by not learning linux, when you never really had the desire to anyway… priceless.