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After releasing Unity 2019.1 back in April, it was mentioned that the Unity Editor for Linux was moving on from experimental status and now it's very much official.

On the official Unity Blog today, a post appeared titled "Announcing the Unity Editor for Linux". What's really interesting, is that the Unity team say they're doing this due to increasing demand in the "Film and Automotive, Transportation, and Manufacturing (ATM) industries". While it's now only in "preview", they made it clear their plan is for full official support by Unity 2019.3.

Something they do also make clear in the post, is to check on "3rd-party tools" to make sure they support Linux too. Something anyone following us for a while will likely be aware of, is the amount of times a game has been said to come to Linux only to come up against a barrier when it comes to some sort of middleware. Hopefully with Unity pushing forward on Linux, more Unity plug-ins and tools will move to support Linux too. Just a good reminder to plan ahead for anything cross-platform.

Really great news, will be fun to see even more developers use Linux! It's one thing to have the games, it's another to have all the tools needed to build great games. Both are needed to attract more users, so this pleases me greatly.

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17 comments

Eike May 30, 2019
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Linas May 30, 2019
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This is great news. Combine with a rich IDE like Rider by JetBrains instead of Visual Studio, and there is basically no reason to use Windows for Unity game development anymore.
Purple Library Guy May 30, 2019
increasing demand in the "Film and Automotive, Transportation, and Manufacturing (ATM) industries"
Just goes to show, Linux rules everywhere . . . except the desktop. Makes you wonder how long Microsoft can hold out against the overall trend.
BielFPs May 30, 2019
I always confuse Unity with Unreal engine :P
walther von stolzing May 30, 2019
Just goes to show, Linux rules everywhere . . . except the desktop. Makes you wonder how long Microsoft can hold out against the overall trend.

Later next month, they'll be shipping a real Linux kernel with Windows 10, which is what the 'Linux subsystem' will run on top of. I'm not at all sure what that implies, though. The author of this article thinks it's bad news -- that it's the infamous 'EEE' strategy at work.

-- by the way it's weird enough that windows now has a native openssh server. It feels wrong somehow to be able to ssh into a dos command prompt. Pretty useful though.


Last edited by walther von stolzing on 30 May 2019 at 6:37 pm UTC
x_wing May 30, 2019
This is great news. Combine with a rich IDE like Rider by JetBrains instead of Visual Studio, and there is basically no reason to use Windows for Unity game development anymore.

Vim is all you need :P
Linas May 30, 2019
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Later next month, they'll be shipping a real Linux kernel with Windows 10, which is what the 'Linux subsystem' will run on top of. I'm not at all sure what that implies, though...
It's just a built-in virtual machine of sorts, and doesn't support graphical applications as far as I can tell. It is aimed at developers and sysadmins who build software for Linux servers, but do so on Windows. Which is more common than you would think. Java, Python, PHP, embedded systems, etc. are run almost exclusively on Linux, but are often developed on Windows due to some obscure enterprise policy, or unwillingness to make the switch.

One "good" thing about it is that Microsoft doesn't really get Linux. The reason they are including a full Linux kernel is that they could not get their emulation layer to perform properly. This one may be better, but it's not like there is a smooth 100% integration between the systems. Real Linux is still (subjectively) far superior experience. Which may or may not drive more people to try actual Linux instead.
walther von stolzing May 30, 2019
It's just a built-in virtual machine of sorts, and doesn't support graphical applications as far as I can tell.

The current system allows for graphical applications just fine, as long as you separately install an Xorg server for windows.

Real Linux is still (subjectively) far superior experience. Which may or may not drive more people to try actual Linux instead.

Yeah, hopefully.


Last edited by walther von stolzing on 30 May 2019 at 7:19 pm UTC
wolfyrion May 30, 2019
I was vouching for Unreal Engine to be the best Gaming Engine For Linux but it seems that Unity is the way to go if you are a Linux Game Developer.
Linas May 30, 2019
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Vim is all you need :P
My main requirement for a text editor is that when I type words, they appear on screen without me having to do any twelve-finger key combinations. :P
Linas May 30, 2019
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Xorg server for windows.
Didn't know it was a thing. Learn something new every day. ;)
edo May 30, 2019
thats big news
gradyvuckovic May 30, 2019
Nupe, too late Unity, already using Godot*! :P

(*Which is awesome by the way. There's a Vulkan renderer coming soon too!)
Beamboom May 31, 2019
I've given up on the Unreal editor, so next project will be to take a deep look on the unity framework. It would have been real fun to be able to materialise if only a couple of the conceptual ideas I got spinning in my head...!
Massinissa May 31, 2019
I've given up on the Unreal editor, so next project will be to take a deep look on the unity framework. It would have been real fun to be able to materialise if only a couple of the conceptual ideas I got spinning in my head...!
Why not try Godot ?
elmapul May 31, 2019
"Film and Automotive, Transportation, and Manufacturing (ATM) industries".
Film, it a bit obvious, some companys may be using Unity to make movies isntead of things like 3DS max,maya, bleder.

Automotive? maybe that is the reason:

https://www.ccn.com/elon-musk-epic-unreal-engine-tesla-fortnite
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1129888234081640448?s=19

as for Manufacturing... i have no idea
Voc007 May 31, 2019
Awesome to hear, originally I was going for Unreal Engine on Linux, but it was slow and crashed often. I have been using the Unity 2018 for about 4 or 5 months and it has been pretty smooth sailing, with a few crashes. Keep up the great work Unity Team :) Thank you
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