Wine has just made a major new release that apparently offers a whole new level of Windows compatibility, so I am wondering if the modern versions of Sketchup Pro will now work with it. Has anybody tried it?
I would like to run Sketchup on Linux, because the Linux workstations I have are much more powerful than my Windows machine, have larger screens, and I use them much more frequently. So, it would be a major convenience upgrade for me if I could switch to using it on Linux.
(It involves some work to do this and I don’t even have Wine installed on my workstations right now, so I don’t want to go to all the trouble of installing and configuring Wine if it does not work. That is why I am asking if anyone else has already tried it.)
It seems to me that one crucial aspect will be whether Wine implements suitable OpenGL libraries in their graphics drivers. That isn’t really a Windows compatibility question per-se, and I have no clue what Wine may have done. Without that, SketchUp certainly won’t run.
I, too, would like to use Sketchup on my Linux machines, and I have had some small success using Sketchup Make 2017 via WINE, although anything using the Ruby API doesn’t work out of the box. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a workaround, but I haven’t tried anything yet.
Anyhoo, my real reason for commenting is to muse publicly about the notion of Sketchup being made available on Steam, and thus leveraging their Proton iteration of WINE. Obviously I have zero idea what the developers have in mind when it comes to their business, so I can’t presume to dictate what they should do. However, I can say as an avid Steam user on Linux, it might be a way to get what we all want. On top of that, maybe the exposure would be good too? Again, I have no idea if that’s even a concern.
SketchUp for Web offers the solution for Linux users. The fact is, when surveys have been done regarding SketchUp for Linux, the vast majority of Linux users expected it for free. Without enough users to pay for the staff to develop and maintain a desktop Linux version, it’s pretty clearly a non-starter.
Huh, that’s really surprising, considering Linux users routinely (not always, but usuually) voluntarily pay the highest price for the Humble Bundle promotions (at least, according to The Humble Visualisations). Not that it matters, this is an age-old issue. Even if Linux users are willing to pay a premium (hypothetically even double what the price is for everyone else, and TBH I would), it would still probably be a very small number of sales in the long run. It’s hard to justify the business case for the amount of work vs the potential gain. It is sad, though. Sad times indeed. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to use the Web version because that’s the one that works the most reliably.
Nah, I tend to disagree, I mean Steam wouldn’t have bothered with Proton if it truly was a case of beating a dead horse. Plus the fact that Windows now offers a baked in Linux experience, and so on. And, to me, Sketchup would be a nice fit right in the Steam database, leveraging Proton, and Bob’s yer uncle. Still, if I am relegated to simply using the free version for my lowly, unimpressive hobby, then so be it.