I’ll try to be very short to this, since there are already a few topics about rhino on linux. This one is about ways of making a linux version economically viable for Mcnell.
Mind that this was almost a decade ago, windows has become unbearable to use with all that AI stuff and by the end of the year the windows 10 will no longer be supported. This is a interesting crossroad for Rhino, because i don’t see in the near future a opportunity to be the top player in a market that is in it’s period of largest growing in terms of user numbers.
I’m willing to contribute to this, since Rhino is the only software that i can’t dispose of when switching to linux. I’m an architect student and i’m observing that a lot of professionals who are not in large firms can’t stand the tyranny of autodesk anymore. I’ve managed to finish entire projects from sketches to documentation using only Rhino and i think a linux version would make this workflow the standard for people avoiding to use windows and autodesk software.
I mean, if i had not bought Rhino already, a selling point for me would be the fact that i can run it in linux if i want to. And more and more people are willing to do this. For me, the straw that broke the camel’s back was copilot and recall but we can all expect more spyware from them in the next years.
If the possible increase of licenses sells is not enough, how much would be necessary? Could we, the users, pitch in to make it happen?
I know that Rhino is not focused in yielding money for shareholders, it’s a employee-owned and therefore cannot afford to dispose a lot of money to develop a new branch if it means to decrease the remuneration of the people involved at the same time the work is increased. But, let’s not forget that relying on microsoft or apple for the future might be a risk as they are relying in predatory tactics and might be invested in ways of “eating” part of the profits on the licenses sold to operate in their software.
Crowdfunding or some kind of pre-purchase for a license renewal for those whom already paid the Rhino license but are willing to pay again to use in linux could be a safe choice for the company to insert itself in this growing market.
the interconnectedness with Microsoft is difficult to avoid due to the .NET gui (I believe it’s Windows Presentation Foundation) for Grasshopper which could be 1/3 of the code. Much of the rest is in C#
I love what it does and think it’s great software, but realistically they aren’t coming from a position of neutrality to port over to linux. Instead a lot of it was designed for tight windows integration and it’s slowly being emulated better for ex- Mac users (like me!)
As a fellow Windows hater, I asked Grok what would be an ideal off-ramp for Grasshopper from the Windows integration, and it suggested refactoring the GUI in Dear ImGui + SDL2
It says this would result in a 30%-50% reduction in code length and at least a 30% responsiveness increase
But, it should be noted this is a massive technical challenge! Ideas for Rhino 10..
If there were an alpha version of Rhino for Linux, then I would not upgrade to Win11 and go with the penguin. I guess I’m not alone, if our licenses will remain independent from the OS. I’d support such a development and buy another funding license immediately
Interesting could be some kind of officially sanctioned toolkit to make Rhino run under Wine. Such a toolkit could make some plugins work as well, such as Karamba3D. That could be interesting for Mac users too, who currently lack access to many of the plugins. (although then there is the CPU issue too)
Regarding market: I’m sure you’re aware that some of the major 3D packages are available on Linux. I presume these target the movie and gaming industry. If you could get these guys on board, then there is money too.
Grasshopper runs on the Mac. All the .NET code that is in Rhino uses .NET core, which is cross-platform. No need for - what I never heard of until today - Dear ImGui + SDL2.
also, since McNeel staff obviously is bored 24/7 we could start a crowdfunding to release Rhino OS which runs across all devices including the wristband watch of your choice.
I cannot speak on behalf of my workplace regarding the willingness to crowdfund. Supporting open-source projects might be somewhat simpler in terms of making such commitments.
That said, I’ve often voiced over the past year or so my desire to reduce reliance on Microsoft technologies, with a particular focus on seeing Rhino and Revit available on Linux. (I’d love to move away from Autodesk as well, but there’s a whole educational workforce issue around BIM that complicates that.)
I was quietly hopeful that Rhino might come to Linux after the Mac version, but I have limited understanding of what it takes to run Rhino on alternative platforms.
Is this crowdfunding idea based on anything new, or is it just a revival of the decade-old McNeel discussion? I’d really love to hear from McNeel directly about what it would take for them to seriously consider Linux.
I fully support the increased focus on avoiding dependency on Microsoft, especially here in Europe. While McNeel being American might reduce the relevance of “protecting against shutdown by Trump,” McNeel ranks far higher on my trust scale than Microsoft, which has unfortunately sunk quite low.
But to sum up, my post is a +1 for the Linux desire.
Have you considered trying to install Windows 11 on them anyway?
Apperently it is possible to bypass the TMP check and have it installed.
There is an app called “Rufus” that does this for you, but I don’t trust stuff like that to mess about with security settings so I will try doing it manually instead, but I have not gotten around to testing it out yet. (I have a dual Xeon 52GB dell T5500 that deserves to live longer, so this will be my test machine for that)
I have not tried this yet, so do some research first!
I have looked at it all, but none of the solutions look viable in the long term.
I also have one last sting in the tail, one of the those machines is running my last ‘live’ install of Tsplines on Rhino 5 and I’m loath to touch ANYTHING that might have me lose the ability to open/check/edit old files that contain that data.
Maybe that machine is not going into the bin, just into storage incase it is needed in the future.
We did buy windows 11 desk top work stations late last year for office work. We just now are forced to look at new mobile/out of office updates thanks to microsoft, not the performance of the hardware.
I don’t think that it’s necessarily a revival. It’s just that’s so much things has changed in the last 10 years that a lot of what has been said about rhino on linux maybe won’t hold as true for much longer, specially about the user base. Also, they couldn’t predict how awful the “microsoft experience” would become with all that bloat, spyware and AI s***.
I wouldn’t consider this more of a topic to debate about where does the users and the community see themselves in the next 10 or 20 years: Will we all still be dependent on giant predator companies like apple or microsoft? and OF COURSE it’s the staff opinions that shapes the decisions made, but i think it’s important to share our thoughts on this.
I recall reading on here an internal experiment of compiling Rhino for a Linux target, specifically for Rhino compute. How did that work out @nathanletwory ?
