Hi all,

So I just bought a new laptop and have been toying around with the idea of making it a dual-boot XP/Linux setup. I'm wondering what you all think is the best flavor of Linux for running Houdini easily and efficiently with.

A buddy of mine in IT said that Ubuntu is probably the easiest to use, so I checked into it a bit. The latest version of Ubuntu is 9.04, but the installer for the latest build of Houdini is for Ubuntu 7.04. Would I be ok running with this setup? Or should I grab the older version of Ubuntu and run Houdini on that? Or a different flavor of Linux altogether? Thanks for any suggestions.

I've seen reports of Houdini working very well on Ubuntu 9.04 and nVidia video cards. Just make sure you download the DAILY build and you should be fine.

I run Ubuntu 9.04 and once I got last week's build, everything has been golden.

I've very happy with Ubuntu, have been using it for some time. 8.04 wasn't the best of breed, 7.04 was better, and 9.04 which is what I'm using now seems to be good.
Improved acceptance of nvidia drivers as well. They may even have resolved the problems with broadcomm wireless in 9.04

Good to know. Thanks guys. Out of curiosity, are you guys running the 64- or 32-bit versions of Linux/Houdini?

64 bit only! There is no 32!

Seriously, no need to look back anymore. 32 bit is only for those older machines that still aren't broken enough to kick out of the pipeline…

Cheers,

J.C.

Hah! Good answer. I was just wondering because I wasn't sure if my laptop is capable of running a 64-bit OS. It's got a Core 2 Quad Q9650. From what I understand, all of the Core 2s are 64-bit processors, so I *think* I should be ok…? :? Guess I'll try installing it tonight and see…lol

Any Intel Quad is capable of supporting a 64b OS. Most of the Core2 duos do as well - it just the older Core duos (minus the 2) that are 32b only. Pentiums and Celerons are totally hit or miss due to marketing re-branding.

Out of curiosity, I'm on an 8-core Intel Xeon Mac at work, running 10.5.5. It's my understanding that this is a 64-bit OS. Is Houdini for Mac a 64-bit app? We've been having issues lately with Maya, being that there's no 64-bit version of it for Mac.

Yes. For other hardware requirement queries, feel free to check this out:

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=415&Itemid=269 [sidefx.com]

or follow the Products > System Requirements links at the top of the page.

Oh…great, thanks for that link. (Not sure how I missed it…) Good to know!