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by Joel_Mckay 342 days ago
The reality is most commercial software and users are on Windows machines. It is fundamentally a Blender interoperability, and 3rd party platform license compatibility issue. We all wish it wasn't so, as many artists find the Windows file systems and color-calibration concepts bewildering.

Making a feature platform specific to a negligible fraction of the users is inefficient, as many applications will never be ported to Linux platforms.

Blender should be looking at its add-on ecosystem data, and evaluate where users find value. It is a very versatile program, but probably should be focused on media and game workflow interfaces rather than gimmicks.

Best of luck =3

2 comments

I agree with you, but I think this limitation is for much simpler reasons, like "the contributor only knew how to make this feature in Linux, and only in Wayland". cross compatibility for stuff a base as color grading can be a thorny issue.

If nothing else, it's better to have some implementation to reference for future platforms than none.

We've all seen too many plugins become version specific or indeterminately broken

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFZUB1eJb34

Someone needs to write a Blender color calibration solution next vacation =3

The significant majority of the film and animation industry uses Linux.
Linux RTX CUDA drivers are getting better, but really depends on the use-case. For a Flamenco render farm it makes sense for sure.

Creatives on wacom tablets and Adobe products etc. will exclude the Linux Desktop option. =3

Not just for the farm, the large majority of the movie and tv vfx and animation you see is done by artists using Linux workstations.
Not the artists I meet, they love their wacom tablets and pressure responsive painting programs... i.e. most of the other software is windows only.

I like Linux (use it everyday), but many CAD, Media, Animation, and Mocap application vendors simply don't publish ports outside Windows.

Most studios have proprietary workflows with custom software. =3

The applications I agree, Wacom tablets though have great driver support on Linux (in my experience more stable than Windows).
Indeed but this is a discussion about Blender and you posted originally:

> Making a feature platform specific to a negligible fraction of the users is inefficient, as many applications will never be ported to Linux platforms.

All the large studios use Linux, that's why all the third party software that is used in feature animation and vfx is supported on Linux. So I'm just saying 'negligible fraction of users' in the case of Blender (which as a project would like to increase adoption in professional feature animation and vfx) isn't really true.

I am sure Studios account for a small portion of the 4.5 million unique downloads each release. Note that less the 20% of users ever touch film or animation projects, 73% are single users, and most related user applications are Adobe products.

Stats are available from the published 2024 feedback data:

https://survey.blender.org/feedback/2024/

Best of luck, =3

Recommended reading:

https://www.poetry.com/poem/101535/the-blind-men-and-the-ele...