I’m using blender frequently and I want to use it with linux
that version may recommend to the date that works best for stability and acceleration 3d
I am Kubuntu user (Stable 14.04 LTS). You can also try Linux Mint, OpenSuse, Fedora, Ubuntu and family…
In any of them you need to install the proprietary drivers for the video card. Usually you do that from the drivers manager in the Linux distribution.
All of them should work, really… It’s more about the videocard drivers.
Ubuntu 14.04 really zips. Much snappier and responsive than Windows. I unzip the Tar files in the Downloads folder and use them directly from there. But I also don’t have a good video card.
You can try Linux Mint. Good for Windows users switching to Linux. I’ve used Blender in all of my Distro without proprietary drivers and it just works miraculously. But if you wanna use it for productions use proprietary drivers to optimize GPU capabilities.
I’m using Arch, Fedora 21 and Ubuntu 14.04.
Hi @c17vfx,
Use the ppa of my friend Thomas Schiex:
https://launchpad.net/~thomas-schiex/+archive/ubuntu/blender
Blender exist in two version:
1 last dev every week
2 last offcial trunk version
Good luck!
openSUSE
it has a LONGER life time than fedoras tiny tinny 13 months
OpenSUSE 13.1 LONG TERM SUPPORT
or
OpenSUSE 13.2
but suse like fedora is in the RPM camp (.rpm’s)
Debian and Ubuntu and Mint are in the DEBIAN CAMP ( .deb’s)
and the twain shall never meet
think of it as the USA 1860’s north and south
I use Linux Mint 17.1 and like it a lot. It’s by far the easiest distro to get up and running, especially with things like video and music codecs. They just work, at least in my experience. I have had graphics driver issues as I use Octane which needs the latest driver so it’s kind of bleeding edge. I just install the driver directly from Nvidia and, once you know how, it’s very easy to update it. The drivers from the repos were missing stuff and mucked with so they were harder to get working.
Once the graphics drivers are squared away I haven’t had any problem running Blender on Mint, Centos, Fedora, or Ubuntu.
Hi c17vfx,
Probably your best solution is to download and try several GNU/Linux distributions, compare and see which you prefer. Most can be used Live (without install).
From a downloaded ISO you can either create a boot-able USB, or burn to DVD. If using Windows to create a USB, I recommend Rufus (very easy to use).
Running GNU/Linux Live from USB is preferred, boots quicker and is more responsive, DVD tends to be slower due to slower transfer speeds. That being said, some systems are not happy running live from USB, in which case you have the DVD fallback option.
As for GNU/Linux versions, my preference is Linux Mint 17.1 (Cinnamon edition). Mint is available in four (desktop environment) flavors, Cinnamon, MATE, KDE and Xfce. There’s also LMDE 2, previous versions mentioned are easier for someone starting out.
Blender downloaded from blender.org, or BuildBot, can be used as soon as the archive is extracted.
Hope you have fun along the way, finding a GNU/Linux version you feel happy with.
David
I’ve tried out a lot of distros. I had a streak where I would usually use a distro for about a month, but this was broken by my current favorite, Debian.
I would recommend Linux Mint to new users. It’s easy to setup, easy to use, and just a good all around beginners distro.
Debian is my current favorite distro. It’s probably the most stable distro you’ll ever hear of, but it’s not for new users. While it’s much easier than something like arch, there’s still a lot of setup involved.
So basically you need a linux distro, that is quite recent and has about the latest proprietary (from the maker eg. Nvidia, not open source) graphics drivers in repository. Drivers need to be in repository, if you want everything to be easy and want the system to behave nice even when updated. You just have to look around with these.
I have been using linux-distros about 10 years on my main OS. There usually is no need for others. I don’t want to make any configurations and want to use about the latest versions of softwares and drivers. That’s why I’m using Sabayon. It’s so called rolling distro, so there are no actual releases. Well there is, but there is no need to care about it. I’m using weekly repositories, so there might be updates every week. I could use monthly or some other, but it makes no difference to me. On installation, I selected KDE, because I know it is the vanilla version of it: no extra bells or whistles. KDE does not get on my way, it just provides good windowing and services to conf the system, eg. firewall or automatic login.
When I update the system, I use command line, because there is a command list on sabayon.org, which makes it easy and very robust. It’s easier to see what the updater does, when using command line. Sabayon is also great, because it uses same software as Gentoo, and that distro has very good documentation and powerful user base.
https://wiki.sabayon.org/index.php?title=En:Entropy#Fresh_Install_-_What_to_do.3F
And about KDE or any other window manager looking good or bad: who cares how it looks? Because when using desktop, you don’t look the window manager, you look the software you are using: Blender, Firefox, Krita, word processing etc. I have not set any background images for years, because I’m not seeing it, because applications are on top of it.
thanks guys for answers,
several years ago it was very comfortable use ubuntu,but now there are too many distros would be easier if you join and take out a single version.
for now testing “fedora 21 mate” like old times 
Actually there is only a handful of really different distros: Debian, Fedora/RedHat, Suse, Arch, Gentoo, Slack, and perhaps Ubuntu. Others are just derivatives and just adds or removes some flavor. Some times the derivatives gives easier installation and UI by default.
So one should choose one of these or from highly popular derivatives. Why popular? Because most of niche linux-distros are already gone. New ones appear, exist awhile and disappear. Popular distros usually stick around.
@ c17vfx - In connection with your followup reply (too many distros), the link below (if not visited it already) maybe helpful, it lists GNU/Linux versions by popularity.
Good to hear you are presently enjoying Fedora.
My recommendation if you use “nvidia gtx 900 series” using linux mint 17.1. 970 In my case, the problem you can have when using Cuda. For this model you can only use cuda 7.0.28. If gpus 700 600 500 …, you could use cuda 6.x forward smoothly. Fedora is fedora cuda support until 20. Also for those who know that if they use more than one monitor must update the Linux kernel to 3.19 for NVIDIA GPUs for problems resolution
Been trying out Linux on and off (probably twice a year), installing/uninstalling, just to see if I could finally give up my current OS. I started with Mephis several years ago, which stopped being maintained just a few months later. I kept an eye on Kubuntu because of its resemblance to Windows. Of course, there are lots to try. Good part is you can try most of them on a USB stick to see which one suits your preferences. So far I’ve got Bodhi, Elementary, LXLE, Mint, Lubuntu, Mukulu, Porteus, Slitaz, Tahr, Tails, Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Zorin, even ReactOS, which is not actually Linux, on a single USB stick. I finally settled with Linux Mint’s latest version and so far it’s giving bits and pieces of positive results after some frustrations over driver issues, changing boot order and all that. (I always dual boot with Windows like most people do.)
good point to consider !
install nvidia driver propietary is hard work but finally work ,but no cuda option enable in blender
next test “ubuntu mate” i love mate enviroment.
As vilvei said, the majority of distributions can trace their lineage back to a handful of distros with only a few still active, primarily Red Hat’s Fedora, Slackware, Debian. And then there are the source-based ones like Gentoo, and the popular ones like Arch Linux.
My humble opinions:
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Red Hat’s Fedora tends to be a testing bed for Red Hat.
[LIST] -
Used by Linus himself!
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Most suitable for those willing to learn.
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OpenSUSE is another similar distro sponsored by SUSE.
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Slackware is one of the oldest and the most conservative with their packages.
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Most suitable for advanced and technically inclined Linux users.
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Gentoo is for the those who want total control over their system.
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Again, most suitable for advanced and technically inclined Linux users.
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Arch Linux is a bleeding-edge distro
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Most suitable for power users and more advanced users.
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Nice compromise between control and convenience.
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Debian is probably the most non-linux-user-friendly and where Ubuntu comes from; and SteamOS is based on it.
[/LIST]
I used Gentoo for awhile but it was tedious and not worth it to me. I tried Debian and more convenient distros, but I needed more power. Finally, I happily settled on Arch.
However, I would also suggest Mint (which is derived from Ubuntu), for newer users, particularly because of the Cinnamon UI which it develops as an alternative to the Gnome UI (you could say sets it apart from the copycats ;)).
This should give a good rundown of the top 10 most popular distros:
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major
I have to disagree with you here. Debian isn’t a difficult distro, especially if your comparing it to arch, but it’s not for the new linux user. It requires a lot more understanding on how to setup linux, and you definitely have to be fairly comfortable at the terminal to use if, which isn’t asking a lot, but new users tend to want to avoid it as much as possible, especially if they came from a Windows background.
I do think your statement is accurate for Debian based distros though, and more specifically, Ubuntu, and Ubuntu based distros. These tend to be extremely new user freindly, since they have more graphical controls, and the terminal isn’t as important.