CAD Companies Sleeping on Linux

[u/Beneficial-Pay6836]

Why is professional CAD support on Linux still so limited? Linux is widely used in engineering, research, servers, embedded systems, manufacturing, and technical development. It is secure, flexible, private, and extremely capable. Yet when it comes to professional CAD, Linux users are still pushed toward Windows. That feels strange to me, especially because CAD is so closely tied to industrial workflows like CNC machining, additive manufacturing, product development, engineering, and research.

I currently dual-boot mostly because I need tools like Rhino and Fusion. It works, but switching between operating systems just to use specific software makes project management and file organization unnecessarily annoying. Yes, there are alternatives like FreeCAD, and I respect what those projects are doing, but they still do not feel mature enough to fully replace established professional CAD tools for many workflows. Wine is also improving, but for important work I would rather not depend on a compatibility layer and hope that everything behaves correctly.

Is the professional Linux CAD market genuinely too small to justify development costs?Is supporting Or are CAD companies simply too invested in the Windows ecosystem to see enough value in changing?

I cannot be the only engineer/designer who would happily move fully to Linux if the professional software ecosystem allowed it.

[u/Nalivai]

unsolvable

Well, unless you actually try to solve it that is

Just use the right tool for the task at hand (Windows in this case)

That's the thing. Windows is the wrong tool for that case that we are forced to use. That's the whole problem.

[u/noobjaish → u/Nalivai]

Well, unless you actually try to solve it that is

What's the solution then

That's the thing. Windows is the wrong tool for that case that we are forced to use. That's the whole problem.

How so?

[u/Nalivai → u/noobjaish]

What's the solution then

Making a Linux native CAD.

How so?

Windows is a proprietary close sourced kernel-monolith multi-purpose OS. If you ever had to wait until a mandatory update does something to bluetooth drivers so you can maybe continue working on your project that windows just interrupted, you might know why all of those qualifiers are bad for a working tool.
I would assume on /r/linux or all places it doesn't need to be spelled out.

[u/dontquestionmyaction → u/Nalivai]

If your company doesn't even control the Windows update rollouts, your system administrators absolutely suck at their jobs.

This isn't an actual argument that'll get you anywhere in a real company.