It’s ok, I think it doesn’t try to update or anything, so there would be no reason for it to stop working at any time once it’s working. (why is the mac version so much cheaper? It’s like… I can get a old macbook to run it together… Need to think how much ram is needed now…)
Because not all features have been (fully) implemented on the Mac side.
A short version of the story is here: Rhino - Rhino for Mac vs Windows Feature Comparison
A link to a full list of missing commands is at the bottom of that page - shortcut
i believe also because probably one poor lonely guy was writing it for a long time? 
Note that as more features get added to the Mac side, the price will go up until the two platform versions are feature-parallel and price-parallel. Note the $200 price rise for Mac Rhino scheduled for 1 January.
–Mitch
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for those wondering how it performs under WINE - the answer is badly. With Crossover it installs without hassle (but until recently you could only use it only for 32 bit version, and I doubt that since Crossover enabled 64 bit support they refreshed the recipe for Rhino). Outside Crossover I haven’t figured out which extras I need to add to WINE to make it work - but have to admit I haven’t pushed really hard because of glitches that happen anyway.
First of all expanding extra commands hidden under icon by click and hold sometimes works… sometimes not. There are also quite a bit of commands that glitch - surface analysis for example.
I can use it when I prepare lessons for my students on my home machine , but that’s about it. For production purposes way too buggy.
A shame as it makes me work less and less in Rhino - even though I love it. But I moved quite a bit of my work to dcc apps which work under Linux (and at the very least I have a choice there Modo / Maya / Houdini / Blender).
So while I can understand the reasons for not developing Rhino for Linux I have to admit it also means as soon as I find a replacement for it on that platform it will probably mean even less working in Rhino, if at all (ok, I’ll have to do some because of the mentioned lessons).
Two and a half years later, any luck running Rhino on linux nowadays?
None that I know of.
Not personally. I run it on a separate Windows partition that I only use when I’m designing things.
Rhino for Linux could be faster than Windows.
Linux has a great many high-performance computer options, while the upcoming MacPro, is going to miss the mid/high performance mark, and instead focus on cost-is-no-option film work.
If the upcoming AMD processors are not flawed and live up to the hype, they are going to gut intel, and in-turn make the Mac-Pro seem like the too high-hanging fruit on the tree.
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There are two other major obstacles:
- Qualified Linux developers
- Enough paying customers to justify the development and support costs of a third platform
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems
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I don’t agree with his politics, but otherwise, John Carmac would make a good addition to the Rhino3D team. He would want to incorporate VR, as well.
Maybe if Rhino compute takes off…
For public Internet servers Linux is generally counted as dominant, powering about twice the number of hosts as Windows Server—which is trailed by many smaller players including traditional mainframe OSs.
The supercomputer field is completely dominated by Linux—with 100% of the TOP500now running on this OS.
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FWIW, I would buy a new Rhino license at full price if it means I can ditch Windows. I know a lot of people, myself included, that would make the switch to linux if it’s possible to have our workflow unaffected. For me, Rhino (and now, Maverick Render) are the only two programs that are holding me back from switching. I understand the stigma around linux but it has advanced so much in the past few years and with the hardware that’s available today it’s a real shame not to take advantage of what linux has to offer.
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The real problem is user interface. There is still a ton of platform specific UI code in Rhino (both for Windows and Mac). We’re getting better at writing cross platform UI, but we are many years away from having a codebase with completely cross platform UI code in the core.
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yeah, but you can look at this data a bit differently. How much of the Windows crowd includes your customers? Not many as neither gamers or office workers need Rhino. How big competition do you face on Windows? Quite big.
While on Linux you have none 
.
I don’t have the numbers on people that are willing to switch to Linux if there’s a version for that OS, netiher the ones of possible exisiting users that could be your customers. For sure folks from vfx / prop making workshops could be interested as they’re already deep into Linux.
Personally the reason there’s no Linux version made me use Rhino way less than I had been. In the past I’ve used it on a daily basis. Nowadays - 2-3 times a week, as I’m able to do quite a huge chunk of my work in DCC apps which are easily available on Linux (Modo / Maya etc). Also one of the reasons I’m delaying the upgrade - even though I have pretty sweet setup with VM and PCIE passthrough (and Looking Glass project) for the times I need to use Windows.
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Take a look at FreeCAD …
https://www.freecadweb.org/
I suppose one of the reasons that FreeCAD is available on multiple platforms is that they use QT for GUI.
yeah Rajeev, I know this one. But it has been pretty badly suited for industrial design last time I’ve checked (for mechanical - okeyish). That’s why I’ve said that on Linux package like Rhino would really have no competition.
Hope that if one day Rhino team decides to work on UI (which IMO would be welcome) they’ll choose one of the cross platform toolkits (Qt for example) so hopefully one barier to make Rhino cross platform will be gone.
Rhino picked Eto.Forms to be its cross-platform GUI library.
As you are probably aware, the “workbench” concept that they use to extend the functionality is something similar to Catia…
There are many third party work benches… many still in development. Please do take a look at
https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/External_workbenches
The “Curves” and “nurbs” workbenches … in particular.
I am no expert in GUI, but why picking an under development library (correct me if I am wrong on this point) over well established and proven libraries such as Qt and WxWidgets?
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