Well, yes and no. I would not say it really runs properly, it is slower compared to Windows, Quixel Bridge is pain to make it work, fancy Epic launcher is useful for library of purchased assets from marketplace - that is pain to make it work.
Metahuman animator is Windows only, and the list goes on… so currently the whole Unreal package is not exactly linux friendly.
True! All the Unreal Datasmith CAD import stuff is crippled (due to licensing issues) under Linux as well.
Basically it’s a shame.
You don’t even need to compile it anymore. Epic provides it read to go inside one big .zip file these days.
Yes, I’m positive that my setup was incorrect.
I was being lazy by using the recovery CD instead of correcting it.
Ah good to know. Last time I gave it a try was when 5.0 came out, but with my mobile RTX 2070 I gave up quickly 
Well, I know I said I’d try some comparisons, but on Linux I’m using Blender 4.0.2. Now in Windows (also 4.0.2), the damned thing won’t even lauch properly (i.e. it opens the window, and hangs there with a blank window).
So I’m gonna call this a win to Linux. I can open the program, use it, and render in Linux. On Windows, I can open it as far as “Not responding”. I’ll leave it be for a few minutes, but I’m blowed if I’m going to wait all night. I could have rendered a complex scene by now on Linux.
EDIT: It eventually loaded, but I decided to see if it was my Gfx driver problem, so drivers now installing. Back soon with some tests
100% Linux based for the past 18months.
Have used Blender and Cycles for professional work within a 100% Linux environment, batch/network rendering with Flamenco on Linux.
Previously a Maya/vRay artist for the past 13 years.
Started with RHEL clone, Rocky Linux (I hope they survive the hostilities from Red Hat/IBM). Moved to Fedora (Much more modern Gnome desktop and mostly better, except for the occasional thing breaking due to frequent updates)
I have loved every minute of my Linux experience. It’s really not that hard if you’re committed to changing some habits and learning new things. (although I accept this is not for everyone as there is a pain threshold to break thru before it Linux feels like home)
Installing NVIDIA drivers is actually quite easy. If you are using Rocky Linux, just paste a few lines in the terminal (your mileage may vary depending on this being a moving ball. But it worked for me with 208oti and 3090)
For Fedora, you can install the binaries from the NVIDIA website, but there are a couple more steps. One being, booting into run level 3 (which isn’t really that scary) I come from the times when you’d need a boot floppy disk to install windows! It’s not really that much different.
Ubtunu distros are usually installed via software center with no hassle or have pre-installed drivers if you use popOS.
Performance wise, I believe there are some benefits to GPU rendering on Linux as it reserve less vRam for the OS. Windows can hog a lot and really reduce the amount of vRam available to render engines/Apps.
Most used GFX apps on Linux for me are:
Blender
Single distro agnostic deployment
Maya
.RPM offically supported on most RHEL including Rocky. I have it working on Fedora too. Have had it working on Debian distros but it is a lot of work and not really worth it.
VRay
.run installs on most distros but only offically supported on centos. Works fine on RHEL clones/Fedora too
Fusion Studio
.run installs on most distros/maybe licence manger could give issues on Debian, at least it did for me on popOS
Resolve
.run installs on most distros
Embergen
Single distro agnostic deployment
Substance Painter
perpetual licence via Steam
Substance Designer
perpetual licence via Steam
UE5
Single distro agnostic deployment
Krita
flatpak, distro agnostic
Gimp
Flatpak, distro agnostic - It’s worth noting that GIMP will finally get non destructive adjustment layers later this year. WE hope!
Photopea
Amazing browser based photoshop clone
Inkscape
Flatpak. An almost feature complete Illustrator replacement. I’ve had some crashes but it opens all my old .AI files with no issues, even complex ones with many layers and artboards.
Honourable mentions:
MOI3D
Works fine via Lutris/WINE
World Creator 3D
Works fine via Lutris/WINE
Plasticity
A great NURBS modeller, but bizarrely only compiles a stable .deb and does not officially support .RPM distros. Their github has a .RPM compile which seems to work fine on Fedora but when I asked their support they were really unhelpful.
XNView
Flatpak. A worthy alternative to Adobe bridge. Great for things like batch renaming and batch image conversion.
FreeCAD
Flatpak. A nice little CAD app. Mostly a poor mans Solidworks, but I find it useful to open 3D NURBS models downloaded from GRABCAD and convert them to mesh.
Meshroom/Alicevision
Single distro agnostic deployment - Linux compatible photogrametry software, works fully offline with no data being sent to cloud.
This mirrors my experiences on the two platforms. While I’ve never had Blender outright freeze on me for so long that it triggers a time out, it does tend to hang a bit when I first open the program. On Linux, it’s near instantaneous, no matter how many addons I have installed.
Though when it comes to actually working within the program itself, there really aren’t that many advantages for one platform other the other. It may render an image a little faster, or calculate a simulation a bit quicker on Linux, but overall, the differences are pretty marginal.
I’ll believe that when I see it. I’ve seen the GIMP devs promising this for over a decade now.
I’ll believe that when I see it. I’ve seen the GIMP devs promising this for over a decade now.
Very true. And it’s not the most intuitive software. It feels like the way it is funded and organized is fundamentally flawed. I think it is likely that Adobe will make a browser version of PS before gimp sorts its act out.
I use Photopea mostly. It seems to work with big PSB files I created with PS on Windows no problem. But these days I like to do 2D image editing using Fusion Studio and nodes.
Here is a link to the GIMP roadmap:
https://developer.gimp.org/core/roadmap/
Here is a snip of the non destructive layer status:
I believe this is the guy spearheading non destructive layer editing:
Now that I have it open on Windows, I’m testing two of my scenes. Just rendering (as the OP requested). One is a quick render, and one is a lengthy render. I have noticed on Windows that I failed to pack all the textures, but c’est la vie. I re-added on the quick scene, and am just ignoring on the longer one (it won’t make enough difference to matter for the sake of one texture).
I’ll come back with times shortly.
OK, and the results are in. Just on render time, there is a fraction of a second difference between the two. To find a winner, I would probably have to make several renders, and still, the difference would be so small as to be not worth worrying about.
This is based on exactly the same scenes, with exactly the same settings, on exactly the same hardware, on both complex and simple.
Where I DID see a difference is the time it takes to open Blender. On Windows, with very few addons, it took an age. On Linux, where I have most (of my) Addons enabled, it opens almost instantly.
For the record. Simple scene. Preparation time on Windows and Linux was too small to measure. Render time was 39 seconds each. On the complex scene, preparation time took 1m 1s on Windows, 1 Min 8 sec on Linux, Total render time was 11m 55s on each (given the fraction of a second I discounted). That suggests that, on very complex scenes, there may be an advantage on Linux, but to be honest, probably not worth worrying about.
For the record, all rendering on GPU, RTX 3090 24Gb VRAM.
Well, that’s good to hear and enough proof for me, apparently, blender is only faster on CPU (which is still important)
Also if the scene has lots of objects for BVH processing, even if you use GPU that first step always runs on the CPU so you still get an advantage, might not be the case with your scene.
This confirms that while there’s not as much advantage on the GPU side, at least there’s no penalty when using linux, which is also important. Also turns out running blender on WSL is also faster, so If you only have windows and a beffy CPU that’s something interesting to try out.The reason for that might be the GNU compiler, not the entire OS which doesn’t help that much surprisingly.
Also, if you’ve seen my first link, turn out simulation is about x2 as fast!! in Linux thought, so my takeaway is that there’s more to gain than to loose on linux for Blender, very good news!!
Also not related to Blender, but Firefox performs much better in linux, my older humble i5-5200 outperformed my more powerful i7-9700K windows machine on this webpage https://www.calormen.com/jsbasic/ (You can try the 3D sample, it’s simply a faux 3D hat)
I thought this was an interesting test since I got interested in retro programing and tech and I wondered if that was artificially slow or emulating basic on top of JS was more demanding than I thought, turns out maybe is the second, and that run way too good on linux :P.
they perform the same if you subtract the time windows took to send your data to microsoft
worked as IT in oil&gas where i could travel 1000km to the middle of nowhere in the desert just cause someone messed with x11 config files!
now, it even remember the layout based on what monitors i’m having on and off (like if I switch the wacom on) I literally forgot how to configure that file anymore.
I share that opinion, when people ask me how is blender, my answer is the Linux of DCC. and they get better with more adoption…
hoping for more apps support
Funny enough, that is pretty much what I would expect.
Can you define ‘an age’, since for me, Blender takes a few seconds before the cube shows up on the first run. If I close it but don’t restart PC and open it again a bit later, then it’s near instant.
I went and made a cuppa whilst it was opening on Windows.
Nah, something is very wrong there somewhere. Assuming a fairly recent CPU (past 10 years or so) and Windows/Blender on a SSD, you should be seeing a cube in under 5s.
Ryzen 5900X, and yes, on an SSD. I put it down to Windows being carp.
Running on a 5900X as well and SSD, with a 3 year old Windows 10 install (latest updates applied of course). Still, I guess if you never use it, then it doesn’t really matter.
Either way, from an OP point of view, the render difference between Windows and Linux is largely within margin of error, at least with full desktop UI loaded.
If one was going to build a render farm, then headerless, CLI Linux installs would likely come out ahead a bit more.
Point being, if one is trying to decided between Windows and Linux as the main desktop, day to day usage, then Blender performance and likely expecting noticeable general performance difference between the two shouldn’t be a deciding factor.
Not to say there aren’t other valid factors for choosing one over the other.
Linux has other benefits than outright render speed, which is mostly won during the BVH stage.
I can mirror the experience of having long load times for Blender. Takes some 5 seconds to see the default cube even with no add-ons installed. Issue seems to have gotten worse since version 4.0. Brand new windows installation, with no previous blender installs.
General operation of loading, editing, sculpting and simulating meshes is a lot faster on linux. A lot of the “hang” is avoided. The performance feels as if using a PC from a higher tier of spec.
Reduced memory footprint allows for heavier scenes. Nvidia owners should have a look at the link bellow. Maybe they have fixed it for Win 11, I don’t know. On 10, the windows tax is quite substantial.
