I'd love to see Houdini supported on BSD, The file system is to die for and it seems like a good decision as it's a rock solid OS.

Can't you install gcc?

I've never tried porting Linux software to BSD, mainly because I've only used it as a server, I'm guessing you provide a build non specific to linux distros like debian. I hear BSD are going to use clang in 10. I'll give it a try later on.

Out of interest the mac OS is a fork from BSD, can't you use those builds. Also I read somewhere that debian was integrated fairly recently on top of BSD , maybe worth looking into.


Regards

Mac OS use's FreeBSD for a lot of core features: Multithreading networking etc, but it isn't a BSD so to speak, in the same way that iOS use's BSD for a lot of things, but isn't considered a BSD, it seems going from Linux would be the way to go.

Do ‘gcc -v’ in a shell, and then pick the appropriate Linux build based on the version reported (4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4+). Make sure the system has the correct proprietary driver for Nvidia or AMD installed, as Mesa can only handle the GL1 renderer.

The only problem I face is that I'm running an amd driver(On my windows), On nvidias website they support Solaris, BSD, Linux and Windows, but amd don't, can you lend any help here? I used another computer for BSD, without any discrete graphics, on this one I have a HD7850.

This is fairly recent, so I think the answer is “no” for now.
http://devgurus.amd.com/thread/158861 [devgurus.amd.com]

If you do come across an Nvidia card, let us know how it goes.

-Alan

I read an article, and it says that Linux binaries run faster on FreeBSD, well at least this one did, it was an OpenGL bench mark. I think that's an incentive to switch, I'll be buying a Nvidia soon enough. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=linux_games_bsd [phoronix.com] << Article, http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=26204 [forums.freebsd.org] << Forum post discussing it.

Well, this is interesting, I was thinking exactly the same thing
the other day.
How good would be to have BSD the standard unix for our
industry rather than Linux.
Pretty much all the points where Linux is weak, and the reason
because it would never be a system for the masses, are
the points that BSD has solved.
Still being open it lacks fromf ragmentation, the development
cycle is much more predictable, always trying to keep
back compatibility.
Well the reasons because Linux is more or less a
nightmare to mantein and develop for, specially for proprietary
software companies like SESI.
So yes please make the move with an unofficial build to BSD
somebody needs to start to show the path away from Linux
to a better open platform like FreeBSD.

Are you listening SESI! Clang and LLVM is the future also, Apple and Google have made fantastic use of it, and FreeBSD 10 will make it default, It's got fantastic features like it's modular design which allows for Apps like Xcode to debug while you work. As they said on that page, “Linux is for Windows Haters, *BSD is for UNIX lovers”. FreeBSD is everything but one thing, and that is AMD Compliant. But NVIDIA hardly have a lack of options to choose from. It wouldn't extremely hard considering BSDs handling of Linux binaries, to make a test build, Eventually optimizing for BSD if people used it.

Delight0092
I've never tried porting Linux software to BSD

I'm not sure why you would need to do that.

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/linuxemu.html [freebsd.org]

I'm not saying that I've tried that but at least it's supposed to mostly work in theory.

Wouldn't it be better to have a version crafted to FreeBSD?

*Edit* I'm getting what you mean.

Delight0092
Are you listening SESI!

Well I don't think this is the best way to talk to somebody.
SESI is not blind but they can't go against the whole industry.
At some point Linux beat FreeBSD and won the popularity battle.
It is a pity because all of us suffer the lack of a centralized and coordinated development in the Linux world.
It is a real problem for any industry to depend on a system ecosystem like the linux one.
Well more or less all studios adopted RedHat as the facto standard.
I still think FreeBSD is much better crafted system then Fedora or CentOS, which what studios really use.
What I am saying is that in the same way SESI make a remarkable movement soem years ago supproting Linux as a growing platform, nowdays I think the professional UNIX should FreeBSD rather than Linux.
By professional I just mean used for production work.
Would be great if SESI make this step and try to convince other palyers in this industry to make the move.
The other UNIX used in our industry is MacOS, and definitely FreeBSD is closer to Darwin than to GNU/Linux, so I think it is much better for all software developers to mainly work for BSD platforms.

Delight0092
I read an article, and it says that Linux binaries run faster on FreeBSD, well at least this one did, it was an OpenGL bench mark. I think that's an incentive to switch, I'll be buying a Nvidia soon enough. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=linux_games_bsd [phoronix.com] << Article, http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=26204 [forums.freebsd.org] << Forum post discussing it.

Honestly, I would not use this benchmark as the sole basis for your decision. There are simply too many differences between the systems being compared. (Ubuntu running Unity Vs. PC-BSD running KDE) Even Linux distributions themselves can vary more than this particular benchmark when it comes to 3d graphics performance.

For example. http://jeffhoogland.blogspot.com/2010/09/best-linux-distro-for-3d-performance.html [jeffhoogland.blogspot.com]

If you simply like BSD, and know BSD well then I don't blame you for wanting to use it though.

If you end up using Linux, I'd recommend Gentoo, Funtoo, or even Sabayon. All of them can use, or do use portage, which is very similar to the BSD style ports system for package management. Gentoo is also a very hands-on distro that you can customize until your hearts content. (including the use of clang to build a majority of the system if you want)

Good luck in whatever you decide. I'm still interested to hear if you get BSD + Nvidia combination working with Houdini as well

Alanw
If you end up using Linux, I'd recommend Gentoo, Funtoo, or even Sabayon. All of them can use, or do use portage, which is very similar to the BSD style ports system for package management. Gentoo is also a very hands-on distro that you can customize until your hearts content. (including the use of clang to build a majority of the system if you want)

And then sooner or later you will have issues with the libc version not talking about the infamous libstdc in Linux …
At the end you will end up using RedHat (Fedora, CentOS).
Is the only way to ensure you use the correct libraries versions.
And because Linux distros and linux kernel developers enjoys so much to break the ABI and done keep backward compatibility it is really hard in the long term to use a different distro.
I love how Linux distros makes users lives so easy
If we would only have a standar ….

lisux

Alanw
If you end up using Linux, I'd recommend Gentoo, Funtoo, or even Sabayon. All of them can use, or do use portage, which is very similar to the BSD style ports system for package management. Gentoo is also a very hands-on distro that you can customize until your hearts content. (including the use of clang to build a majority of the system if you want)

And then sooner or later you will have issues with the libc version not talking about the infamous libstdc in Linux …
At the end you will end up using RedHat (Fedora, CentOS).
Is the only way to ensure you use the correct libraries versions.
And because Linux distros and linux kernel developers enjoys so much to break the ABI and done keep backward compatibility it is really hard in the long term to use a different distro.
I love how Linux distros makes users lives so easy
If we would only have a standar ….

Library incompatibilities are an area Gentoo does offer some relief compared to most binary linux distibutions. This is mostly due to how great Portage is, but it's also part of Gentoo being a source based distro.

Similar to BSD's ports, Portage has the notion of “slots” for installing multiple versions of packages. (even from different toolchains)

There's also excellent tools available like revdep-rebuild, which will find missing dependency across your system and build + re-link everything that used them.

It's also not entirely out of the question that you setup Gentoo identical to RHEL. Perhaps similar to what Bernard did here.
http://bernard.toneplus.com/search/?q=gentoo [bernard.toneplus.com]

FWIW, none of this comes easy though. Gentoo isn't user friendly in the least bit, and it takes a long time learn + a lot of pain and frustration.

Alanw
http://bernard.toneplus.com/search/?q=gentoo [bernard.toneplus.com]

Nice link, I have put a comment in Bernard's blog telling that
histories like this one just demonstrates why we shouldn't be
using Linux.
Again is not a long term solution.
I built Debian systems running several apps in a chroot environment.
And yes I made them working but then I found problems with X
system, later with the window manager, a long list of small
but annoying issues.
At the bottom it is always the same, every single district uses
different versions.
Look at the versions numbers of libc and linstdc in Beenard's epic
history.
It is not only that redhat picks up a version of libc different than
Debian for instances. They also applies their own selection. Of
patches onto it.
Too much for me .

lisux
What I am saying is that in the same way SESI make a remarkable movement soem years ago supproting Linux as a growing platform, nowdays I think the professional UNIX should FreeBSD rather than Linux.

I think your analogy here is stretching it a bit thin. When SESI started supporting Linux, the overwhelming majority of paying customers were on IRIX. I would argue that the business case of a “free” vs paid UNIX is a lot more compelling than the one of FreeBSD vs Linux here.

edward
I think your analogy here is stretching it a bit thin. When SESI started supporting Linux, the overwhelming majority of paying customers were on IRIX. I would argue that the business case of a “free” vs paid UNIX is a lot more compelling than the one of FreeBSD vs Linux here.

Definitely Edward, it is much more easy to convince companies to move away from IRIX to Linux than to Linux to FreeBSD.
But when the first Linux version of houdini come out some years ago other software companies were just waiting to see how the markets move, Houdini was one of the first, this is the reason because I put this analogy.
But I also think your understand my points about the problems caused by some decissions that has been done in the Linux ecosystem:
- The way Linux kernel is developed, breaking the ABI and forcing people to recompile the kernel for a lot of very common operations is absurd. This cause a lot of hassel with Nvidia drivers and keep away a lot of companies of doing proper support for their hardware. appart from the GPL problem of course.
- How everything is descentralized. The competition between distros just cause more confussion than good for Linux in my opinion.
- The lack of a back compatibility philosophy across many important areas of the system.

And many others.
don't take me wrong, I love Linux in some ways, I have been using it for the last 12 years I think.
But for me is clear that all of these points cause that Linux has reach it limit in expansion, in cant go any wider than it actual market.(I am not taking about embeded or mobile systems)
It is good for a niche of the server market, and a very specialized sector like our indistry. But even in our industry I have heard a lot of times developers blaming Linux because all of these.
It is so easy to develope in more stable, consistent environments like windows or macos.
But anyway these area just my thoughts I am sure other people can have good points to refute them.