Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Depends how you define it.
Most OSs are Linux based; smart phones didn't exist not so long since; now most of em are a Linux flavour.
Agreed.
You get those saying the PC is dead, without considering what a PC is; it's a personal computer, and it is very much alive, and even more personal and portable than ever.
IoT (internet of things) will bring so many new ways of doing the same old crap; the securty concerns are scary though; companies are ignoring. Just like IBM did thirty or so years ago.
I had been running OpenSuse on my laptop the last few years, and recently switched to Mint (which is based on Ubuntu). I had started with the cinnamon window manager, but it was kinda slow and had undesirable quirks though it looked nice, so I installed the xfce window manager - plain but reliable and consistent. Anyway, the Mint software management tools are more user friendly than the OpenSuse ones were, so I'm happier with the Mint. I could do the slackware thing, but at this point it's more important to me to have the OS be easy to use rather than super customized to my exact requirements, so it's a better fit than Slackware for me.
Cathy, I am not really familiar with anything modern other than Ubuntu. I know that if you want to try out different flavors of Linux without making any changes to your computer, you can download it to a USB drive or a DVD and then boot from that. If Microsquiff had given us that option with their various versions of Windows, there would probably be far fewer computers with 10 on them.
But then, the Linux folks have confidence in the appeal of their products, so letting us take them for a test drive is no problem.
That is probably what I'll end up doing just to test out what is available. I've been using Slackware for so long that I haven't really kept up with what is out there now. I remember Redhat being popular for awhile, but I didn't really like the installation interface. At the time, my husband did all of the work so I didn't really push using a different version of Linux. He still wouldn't mind, but I'd like to try it on my own this time around. I still have Slackware on my laptop for the really important stuff, so if I mess up the desktop, it isn't going to be a total loss. I have my installation disk so I can always just reinstall Windows 7 if I need to and not upgrade to Windows 10 again if I can't get things running under Linux. I would hate not being able to access the new memory, but I can't see running Windows 10 long term. I already hate it and it has only been on there for a few days.
Ubuntu looks promising. I researched that one a little today after reading about it here. I'll probably take a good look at it give it a try tomorrow.
Ubuntu based distros usually have the most driver support out of the box for multimedia/games. I am not a fan of Ubuntu itself because of Canononical's whole Unity desktop with software that many would equate to built in spyware, but as long as one avoides the Unity desktop much of that is mitigated. Something to watch for is distros which advertise PlayOnLinux as they tend to be focusing the distro on said multimedia/game support.
Sad you gave up. :| It's not a small and easy thing to do the change, it takes you quite a while to learn how things work and it's an ongoing process.
Admittedly, there are quite some things on Linux that should "just work", but it does not and you need to find out why on your own - but there's the internet to help you these days.
Saying "windows is the power" is a bad reason to stick to it, IMHO, but it's your decision after all and I can understand that things got you frustrated. But: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNLUS0o69wQ :)
As for Linux: don't expect things to be easy. You need to learn, you need to break things in order to learn how not to break it, that's the way of life - don't be afraid to break it, to make mistakes, it will happen, you will fix it, you will have gained knowledge and experience. The days you have spent are not lost. You have gained experience, and experience is always a good thing in life, you never know when it comes in handy. :)
On CUDA: First make sure you have 3D Acceleration in linux itself, no point in expecting IRay to work in GPU mode if the drivers are not installed correctly - and it's sometimes amazingly complicated to get it to work properly when you are new to it - thanks to both AMD and NVidia (where AMD is putting more effort into it, if you ask me.) But once you know how to get it to work, bookmark that tutorial you've probably used and there you go, next time it's easier. Pretty sure CUDA will work in WINE, there's quite some text about it when starting up DAZ Studio. Can't help you on NVidia though, I'm on AMD.
On DAZ 4.9beta: Don't use it. The CMS is broken because of the cloud thingy, the support, being a classy support, didn't care at all because they read "Linux" and straight went into "sorry not supported" mode. There also will be DRM and I have yet to see a single case where this is actually a good thing for the user. How about Genesis 3 and HD morphs, which would re-introduce the lost mesh details in comparison to Genesis 2, but they are proprietary and therefore cannot be changed and exported? That's good for the company, because it's supposed to earn them more money, which I'm cool with in general, but it's really a bad thing for at least some of us, definitely for me, so not cool with it actually.
As for the sliders: I have that problem as well, of course. It's annoying, but still I save so much time not having to dual boot when I'm coding and suddenly need a change to the mesh or want to test something out, for which I needed to boot to windows in order to use DAZ.
As for playing sysop: Yes and no, it depends on what you want to do. You definitely want to learn how to get Windows software up and running in linux (which can be hard or not possible at all), you definitely want to learn how to get you 3d acceleration to work. But then, it's up to you I'd say. If you're into gaming, install Steam, install a linux game, play it. :)
You can completely tear appart your OS if you want to, you can do pretty anything with it, in good and bad ways, but most of the time you don't have to.
Just don't go for an exotic distro when you don't have any experience with linux, pick Ubuntu or a flavor of it, which has a good software support and lots of guides/info on the net, run it on a separate disk or from ROM, get used to it. When you reach the point where you want to do more than it is possible with Ubuntu, if you ever get there at all, it's still time enough to pick a different desktop or distro. But, as said before, don't expect things to be easy in the beginning, expect frustration. It's worth it, if you ask me. :)
Ah and a late Merry X-Mas @all. :)
Ubuntu Desktop
Hey Cathy,
The distro is really a subjective (sometimes religious) thing. The best distro is the one that you are comfortable with and have support resources for. Slackware is definitely more for a hardcore "hands-on" user, so you'll probably want to lean toward one of the "installer" type distros based on Debian (.deb) or Redhat (.rpm) so that software maintenance is a bit more user-friendly. As was stated in the thread, the Desktop environment impacts performance more than does the base. When it comes to it, Linux is Linux. As far as DS goes, running under Linux can be a trying process. Slight changes in Wine, or updates to DS can render the environment unworkable. When it works, it usually works well.
Kendall
I used Slackware for a while two decades ago, but quickly decided that I much preferred Red Hat or Debian. I've been running CentOS (basically Red Hat Enterprise Linux without the logos) for the last couple year on a server/desktop system, but will probably switch to Ubuntu on soon. Any more, the only application that I absolutley need Windows for is DAZ Studio; everything else that I would use with it is already available on Linux.
Another vote for Mint.
It strikes me as having the typical easy program installation and updating of a typical Ubuntu based distro, but not so heavy handed in the "you must do it our way" as straigh Ubuntu.
And I like Mint's choice of Cinemon for the desktop much better than Ubuntu's choice of Unity (which strikes me as not living up to it's name, and invokes images of the mass mind-controlling monster from the DC comics universe).
Mint works well and is what i decided on
Hate the Unity desktop on Ubuntu myself however you don't have to use it if you don't want to just pick one you like and install and use it
Unity = the illegitimate offspring of some twisted Windows version and a toaster.
Personally, I'm still with Slackware...
I've tried most others and for a second choice, Mint is nice.
Well, I downloaded Mint to give it a try. I just have to clear up a USB stick to boot from there to see if I like it before I do a permanent install. Should be able to play with it later today. Thanks for all the help, guys!!
I've used Slackware for years, but my husband is the one who always has to install everything. I just can't seem to get a handle on getting it installed properly and then installing the software that I want. So, I wanted something that I can install and keep up to date. I did indeed install Linux Mint. I can't say that it has been easy getting all of my hardware working. I can say, though, that I managed to do it all myself. So far, I have it installed. I managed to get my graphics card working. I can even play a game. Provided I don't need sound. Sigh. Computer can access sound card and I get all of the test pings and whistles, but when I play a game, I'm missing something because I have no sound. Still working on it. I did get Wine and PlayOnLinux up and running. Along with a few other test programs that I use regularly.
My biggest problem when I first installed is that I had no internet. It took me all day to figure out what the problem was and I kept having to boot into Windows to access the internet then go back into Linux to try what I found. I finally managed to figure out the problem which was a super easy fix, but now I have no USB 3 slots working. I'll have to figure that out at some point. I do have my USB 2s.
Tomorrow, I need to get sound working. I also need to figure out how to get Linux to not only see all of my hard drives, but be able to access parts of them. Once I get all my hardware up and running then I can figure out the rest. It's been a long day. It would have been a lot easier if I had thought I was going to have linux on this system when I built it. But, I didn't take that into account and so didn't make sure everything was 100% Linux compatible.
Although, I did take a break to go see Star Wars VII. My husband took the off a vacation day as it was going to be one of those use it by the end of the year or loose it deals. So, we went to the movies after he answered all of the important emails from work because there was some sort of a problem that couldn't wait until he went back in to work the next day. So, he spends the day playing Harvest Moon (Japanese version) while emailing work back and forth all day. And, of course, he is snickering at me a little because I'm trying to get Linux Mint up and running without his help.
So, I haven't even got anywhere close to seeing if I can get DS to run yet. I still have a few things to sort out hardware-wise yet. I have to say, though, that Mint looks great. The little bit that I actually got to play around on it was fun. It is setup a little differently than my laptop which has the Slackware build that my husband setup. If I can get everything working on the destop, I may have to upgrade the laptop and put Mint on it. I'm a few builds behind on the Slackware version I'm running because I haven't really used it much since I got the new desktop. It's one of those, as long as it runs LibreOffice and has internet, I'm good type of things. I can still do work on it while on vacation so I haven't really bothered with it much.
Right now, I'm dual booting it on the desktop until I see if I can get everything working on Mint. And sorry, I probably gave you way more information on my day with Linux than you really wanted to know.
Well I for one find your post and the whole thread interesting in that it puts a bit of perspective on Linux for people without a strong background in setting up systems. I hear too often people in the Linux community say that "Linix is so easy to install now anyone can do it." This is clearly not true and I think it does a disservice as it sets people up for unrealistic expectations. To say that it can be not much more difficult then installing windows on a machine with the right hardware if one is looking for basic internet, email and office applications and one is willing to look to alternative software would be a bit more accurate. Setting up a Linux box for advanced applications that push the hardware is still a bit of an undertaking.
I installed CentOS on my dying Dell inspiron and have sound, my webcam works, my USB's all do but not my wifi, have to plug it into modem, then can browse fine etc tried all the suggestions but cannot get that damned wifi to work even though I found a Linux driver for it on github, no idea where to put it.
not looked for weeks now as it really is a brick as I get overheating warnings on boot up, reason I risked Linux was expendable so not gonna pursue it too far but have a spare i5 mobo, a GTX 760 and a harddrive lying around so might get them all boxed up as a spare PC and try Linux again one day when can be bothered and its not so damned hot. (Australia)
CentOS is not the best distro for Laptop use. It is designed to be a server distribution (a clone of RedHat Enterprise Linux) and is put together for hardware that is more "enterprise level". CentOS/RHEL drivers tend to be a bit "dated" and not up to the latest levels that the desktop distros like Fedora and Ubuntu are at. Fedora and Ubuntu tend to be on the cutting edge and will many times contain software/drivers that are a bit more "untested" while CentOS/RHEL are using older, "tried and true" software and drivers that are more palatable for businesses. It is quite similar to how Windows Server is several revisions behind the Desktops as well.
If you are looking for distros that have the most support for the most architectures, then Ubuntu and Fedora are the way to go. The large teams spend a lot of time getting the drivers working for the largest number of devices. Many times one of those 2 will have working drivers for hardware long before the more "cafe" or specialized distros (of which Mint is one) will. Part of using Linux is knowing which is best for your situation and not just selecting something at random and running with it. There are many specialized distros that are set up for specific purposes (GIS, Remote Sensing, Robotics, Gaming, etc) that will have left out drivers and/or software that is deemed "unnecessary" by those putting together the distro. The team size also plays a part... It takes quite a bit of effort to test setups, and the smaller teams just don't have the manpower to test a large subset of hardware.
If you're looking for trying Linux and don't know what you're doing, it is best to select one of the "big boys" like Fedora or Ubuntu for the first exposure so that the most hardware is supported. *THEN* you can try the smaller distros once you're accustomed to the environment. Trying to adjust to a new OS is hard enough without dealing with specialized setups.
Kendall
This particular statement is worth pulling out and emphasizing as it is often at the heart of many issues people have with Linux (along with the following explanation in the original post.) As to using Ubuntu itself vs a derivative, while I agree with the basic statement, I have to add the caveat about Canonical's Unity desktop which as oft mentioned is considered very invasive by much of the Linux community (that have been using Linux for a long time rather then the newer users.)
The fact that Canonical created such a desktop as their default and continue with it is off putting enough for some to avoid using the default Ubuntu distro at all. Realistically, as long as the desktop is switched out, it shouldn't be an issue but it does come down to having to be comfortable with the distro and the people behind it as well.
I'm not sure how the whole 'Unity Desktop' issue will play out in the long run as the trend is to monitor everything by any company of any size, so either there will be a backlash at some point or people will adapt to the concept and it will be seen as a non issue eventually.
Well, thanks. That makes me feel a lot better about such a long post. This morning I managed to get sound working in everything. I managed to get Netflix, Youtube, Amazon Prime Music and Videos working as well as sound in my games. I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to get those working in Linux, but it was relatively easy with a little research. I haven't tried Hulu yet, but assume if the others are working, Hulu should as well.
I'm still hard wired to the internet. I think I forgot to mention that I had to plug into a cable once I got internet working as Mint can see my wireless, but so far I can't access it yet. I haven't even tried researching my USB 3 problems yet. However, I do have all of my other hardware up and running now. I just have to go back and take a look at what others did to get DS running now that I'm sort of ready for it.
Since Blender works natively in Linux, I'm going to attempt to do a test render of something in it today to make sure I have all of my hardware set up to be able to render. I'm not that familiar with Blender, but my husband is and he gave me some files to test to make sure everything is running correctly. Wish me luck. If I don't have any problems, I should be set to give DS a try either tonight or sometime tomorrow.
Just go slow and keep good notes on everything so that when something doesn't work or stops you know what you did just before to help trouble shoot any problem
Ahh, good thing I'm a writer. Taking notes is one thing I'm very good at.
The other is research. So far, I have been able to figure things out if a little slowly. Well, I think it is slow. I suppose having everything up and running that I have running inside of 24 hours isn't too bad. Getting ready to run my test render in Blender to make sure everything is working graphically that should be running. Fingers crossed.
...this is exactly what has put me off. I can configure hardware and build system OK but when it comes to dealing with the nuts and bolts of configuring an OS I'm the proverbial fish out of water. Windows can be a pain, I agree, and I'm really not thrilled that in a few years I'll be forced to deal with MS's iron fisted policies after 7 reaches its end of life. Could get 3 more years with 8 but then I'd have to deal with the "Fisher Price" UI.
If I could be assured sure that everything worked right and there was no instability running my 3D software, I would make the time to learn how to set up and configure Linux and ditch MS for good,
Well, for what it is worth, I'm practically a beginner when it comes to setting up an OS. I have always let my husband do the setup with input from me on which pieces of extra software I need. I've looked over his shoulder a time or two, but never installed anything from scratch. I wanted to do everything this time and he said, "Go for it." Admittedly, he can get me out of hot water if I royally screw things up, but so far I have had most things working relatively easy. Not as easy as installing Windows. But it was definitely quicker since I didn't have to deal with doing all of the updates as soon as I got Windows installed. That is one thing that really irritates me about Windows. When I updated to Windows 10, my computer was completely out of commission for a whole day while it did the whole download and reboot thing all day long.
I admit the internet thing slowed me down when I installed Mint, but I figured it out. Of course, my first thought when I figured out the problem was that I probably shouldn't have had to do anything with the BIOS settings because I find that scary. I'm always afraid that I'll mess up so badly my computer will be toast. But it was just one setting and I could always go back if that didn't work. Fortunately, it worked.
I think, if you try another Linux distro, give Mint a try. It looks a whole lot like Windows 7, without the bad and irritating stuff, which I can appreciate. With the exception of my wireless connection and the mystery of the USB 3s, I have everything working. At least, I think I do. I guess I won't really know until I go to try something and it doesn't work. I, also, don't have all of my software installed yet. And, everything was up and running before the length of time it took to install the Windows 10 upgrade which I will be so glad to dump if I can get DS up and running next.
My Blender tests seemed to work okay. I was able to render the test shots in Cycles and OpenGL seems to be working. I can't think of anything else I need to test out to make sure it works before trying to install DS and get it working, preferably in 64 mode so that I can render in Iray which I love even though I do CPU only since I don't have an Nvidia graphics card. One of these days, I'll have to sit down with Blender and try to figure it out. For today, though, I managed to load my test scene and render it. It actually took longer to figure out how to save the render than anything else. I've attached the resulting Blender test jpg. I'll be very happy when I can also put up a test render actually run in DS.
...again I'd give it a try if it didn't cripple my 3D work. None of what I use supports Linux and the hacks like Wine just are not stable enough.
Not a big fan of Blender. Tried it several times over the years and it still makes me feel like I'm at the controls of a 747-8 in an inverted flat spin.
I have to admit, while I use this computer for my work, my work isn't 3D work related and I am up and able to work as long as I have access to a LibreOffice or, in a pinch, paper and pen. All of my 3D work is hobby related, at the moment. Any prospect I have of actually earning money with my 3D is somewhere in the future and not right now. I'm doing this for fun and because I love learning new skills. My income isn't threatened if I can't get DS or any other graphics program to work in Linux. Since I don't know what you do, I can only respect your decision to not try it right now. My suggestion was only for when you are in a place where you feel comfortable giving it a try again. I'm not trying to push.
I do like documenting my experience here for others who are interested, especially newbies who, like me, aren't techy. It has been interesting so far. And, I admit that I'm a Linux fan since I have been using it for years. Once Linux is up and running, it works so much better than Windows, IMO, and I never had any problems with crashing or viruses or any number of other problems that plague Windows. I had almost completely gotten rid of everything Windows and was ready to completely do away with it on my old laptop, which I had as a dual boot for a few years with Linux being the main OS, when I stumbled on DS. I held off getting rid of Windows to give this new software a try and got hooked. And, I was fine until I started doing more complicated scenes with more geometry and kept crashing DS to the point I needed more memory. That facilitated the need to upgrade to Windows 10 to see if more memory had fixed my problem. I would probably still be using my Windows 7 without a thought of putting Linux on my desktop if Windows 7 Home didn't have that annoying limit of 16 GB or memory. I was one of the few who wasn't having problems with the Window 7 update now to Windows 10 nonsense because my button didn't work. I'm still not sure why it did suddenly work when I did upgrade. I can only assume that they fixed whatever problem they were having with it. Now, I wanted to get everything firmed up before they make upgrading mandatory and I don't have a choice anymore. If that happens, I would rather be using Linux where I have more control.
This, and the fact that Linux boots almost instantly even on old rust covered hard drives (non SSD) is something that doesn't get mentioned very often but should. Linux has a fraction of the code base of Microsoft, some of which is bloatware and old code that was never optimized. Some of course is the added features Microsoft supports that Linux doesn't. The point is, if Linux does everything you need, it will be a much more optimized and streamlined experience. One of those added features with Windows over Linux is GPU rendering however, which is hard to get running under Linux. Another is the latest version of DirectX, which could hinder people interested in game development or anything using a game engine such as VR.
Admittedly taken out of context, but I think this statement would accurately describe the experience of the average Windows *or* Mac user trying to install and use Linux. Unless your needs are met by the apps that are native to the OS, wham. You're back at the controls of the 747. Given that not all Windows-only programs will be usable or stable under Wine, it's still a science experiment. Only die-hard techno geeks like us will even try it!
I installed the Zorin OS on a very old IBM Thinkpad with only 2GB of Ram, and it's pretty lightweight. That's one of it's "selling" points.
http://zorinos.com/
And for those of us that use multiple operating systems, and develop for them, DirectX is a hinderence, since it's not cross-platform, and probably never will be. That's the biggest issue that exists with a cross-platform software application that I'm helping to develop. The application is written in .NET and the only thing that we can't do on Linux/Mono with the existing Windows codebase is the sound, which is DirectX based.
Who here has heard of/used BeOS? I'll give a hint, it's from back when Steve Jobs was involved in NeXT and SUN workstations still ruled the graphics world. I still have a copy somewhere, but it's on floppies. The concept was a fully object oriented OS.