I’d love to have Rhino on Linux. For the time being this here is my solution:
Linux machine with 32 GB ram, A4000 GPU. VMWare Workstation set up to use 16 GB, but no GPU pass-through. Rhino and Grasshopper work nicely, but I had to turn off anti-aliasing and GPU-tessellation (wire-frames and lines will not show otherwise). Rendering is usable and uses all available virtual (and real) processors. I installed the intel-denoiser, which works. VMWare has come a long way, I am not aware of anything in Rhino not working right now (in the past things like clipping plane or the shading of mirrored sub-d did not work). I use shared network drives, to avoid storing anything on the windows-virtual disk.
In my case, Grasshopper will sometimes max out the memory, which will crash the entire VM. I keep a backup of my vmdk, in case anything gets corrupted.
I would use it if it works. Preferably Rocky Linux (CentOS). I would focus on the Rocky, Fedora, and Ubuntu distros. The first two are commonly used in the VFX environment, and Ubuntu is, as far as I know, the most widely used distro.
@CalypsoArt You’re right but the average user doesn’t really care about much about anything as long as things work. For many of us, the ability to use Linux and Linux-compatible software is a big deal - so essentially you have a very loud minority and a somewhat neutral majority.
Of course these decisions have to make sense financially but if you only do things for the majority, you’ll get stuck eventually: sometimes you have to focus on the advanced users and not just on new customer acquisition and making things easier “for the masses”. After all, the average user who expects everything to be plug-and-play is less likely to be an advanced user of any software and I’m willing to bet there are some hardcore Rhino and Grasshopper users out there who would be able deal with Linux just fine.
Honestly, with Windows 11 getting such a public pushback and Linux being adopted by more people and becoming more user-friendly over time, I don’t see why having having a version dedicated to Linux would be a bad thing in the future. Plus, Fusion 360, Solidworks, Autodesk inventor, Moi 3D, etc. don’t support Linux. From a competitive standpoint, having a Linux version of Rhino would immediately make it standout as the best CAD/3D modeling software for Linux.
To be honest, the average user also doesn’t know much about Windows. My family is all on Linux, but they don’t know much about it. They used to be on Windows, but that always caused trouble. Age ranges between 7 and 85. None of them are technically inclined people, nor do they know how a computer works. After enough Windows trouble I installed for each of them Linux, and they have been using it over a decade without problems. I have not had to do “tech support” ever since, in contrast with Windows where it was several times per year I had to help out.
I am pretty sure that the average working person on a computer is exactly the same. They don’t know how the computer actually works - as long as they can do the things they need to do.
I would like McNeel to deploy its available human and financial resources to first 1. iron out as many of the decades old bugs and 2. implement many of the essential surface modelling functions users asked for for decades.
Ditto here … Rhino 3D and Orca 3D are the only applications keeping me from using Linux for all of my work. I understand economics, but Rhino will be left behind someday if they don’t support Linux. My vote: x64 Debian-based linux, e.g. Ubuntu etc. A compromise solution would be to officially publish how to use Rhino via Wine (or derivative) or in a virtual machine … instructions that work, backed up by in-house support at Rhino.
I am very excited for this. I’ve refused to adopt Windows11 and I will refuse in the future. The only viable alternative will be Linux. Currently in the process of converting my laptops to linux but looking forward to see my workstations also running linux in the near future. Rhino is one of the essential applications. But I’ll also need Vray and a whole lot of Grasshopper plugins to be compatible as well..
Otherwise It’ll be sticking to windows 10 for as long as possible for me
@Viktor - Exceptional post! You’ve articulated what I’ve been trying to say
much more clearly. The distinction between McNeel’s strategic challenge and
user responsibility is crucial.
Your Ubuntu LTS recommendation (Option A) makes perfect sense - it’s exactly
what BricsCAD does, and it provides the predictability McNeel would need for
commercial support.
@nathanletwory - Given Viktor’s analysis, a specific question: Would McNeel
consider a single-target approach (Ubuntu LTS only for example) rather than trying
to support “all Linux”?
This would mean:
Officially supported: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (or next LTS)
This is how most professional Linux software works. It eliminates the
“distro fragmentation” concern while giving the growing Linux user base
an official path forward.
The VM workaround you mentioned is pragmatic for individuals, but doesn’t
address institutional use cases (universities, government agencies) where
the goal is eliminating Windows licenses entirely, not just running
Windows in a box.
Hard to say. I myself am a Kubuntu user (25.10 at the moment) on most of my computers, with Asahi Linux (Fedora 42, Asahi remix) on my M2 Max.
But if there is ever going to be something like a Rhino desktop app for Linux then Flatpak or AppImage could be a venue to consider, since in theory that could alleviate ‘distro fragmentation’ problems.
The VM workaround I suggested as a stop-gap measure, that way you don’t have to wait until something is provided for you - and indeed, it is probably not for everyone. WinApps or Winboat could also help in the meantime, although I have not tested those myself.
Flatpak is what I have used “most”, in the form of playing Beyond All Reason on my Kubuntu systems. For the Asahi system I had to use Proton (through Steam) and install the Windows version, since there is no ARM64 build of the game, yet that worked. Unfortunately it did not with Rhino 8 - installing went fine, but running it not.
Again, hard to say what it would be seeing that the the current sentiment is to not do a Rhino desktop app for Linux.
Hi,
Some time ago I switched from Windows to Linux Manjaro, but before doing that, I had to check whether I would be able to run Rhinoceros on Linux. I managed to do it because my computer has two graphics cards, and I assigned one of them to Windows, which I run using Virtual Manager. Under this Windows setup, I also use Substance Painter and Corel.
I’m another one who is poised to move over to Linux. But I use Rhino every day for earning a living. So I’m just waiting for someone cleverer than me to make rhino 8 work smoothly in Linux not in a VM. Is anyone still trying to get Rhino 8 working with wine or is it a lost cause?
