Allow me to start by saying this, I am not a Windows hater. I am truly tired of Microsoft refusing to scrap code & build a new OS from scratch that does not contain (short list as examples):

• security vulnerabilities
• outdated code
• un-optimized code
• the need to be connected to operate
• telemetry
• ads
• bloatware
• forced usage of Microsoft software such as Cortana, XBox Gaming, Edge browser especially in Pro/Workstation versions.

The current alternative are:

• stay with Windows 10 until 2025
• wait until Windows 11 becomes stable along with community developed Tweaks & optimizations
• move over to macOS/OSX
• move over to Linux

Some of you like me, already have a Mac of some kind making a complete transition easy.
I have been running AV Linux MX Edition on an older Dell Laptop as a test platform which has been very smooth & error free. AV Linux, AV linux MXE and Unbuntu Studio, are all branches of Debian for audio/video creation & editing.

Resources:

• List of Linux distributions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions
• Linuxaudio.org https://wiki.linuxaudio.org/wiki/start
• Commercial Software https://wiki.linuxaudio.org/wiki/vst_support_and_commercial_apps
• PipeWire https://wiki.debian.org/PipeWire
• Pro Audio on Linux using Ubuntu and Bitwig

Christopher Barnatt has started a new series titled: Linux Survival Guide
#1 - Distros & Drives
#2 - Running Windows Applications
#3 - GPU Divers & Printing

October 2025 Update:
Professional Audio on Debian 13 (Trixie) with USB-C Audio Interfaces
Best Audio Interfaces for Linux: 2025 Guide
Linux Audio Interface: A Comprehensive Guide
10 Best Audio Interfaces for Linux That Actually Work (july 2025)
Support for Focusrite Scarlett audio interfaces on Linux

 

Last edited: Oct 11, 2025

Linux-based OSes have come a long way. If you're patient, using distros ike Arch Linux, where you have near absolute control over your OS, is quite nice. No interruptions from the OS, you decide when to update, and the overheads introduced by WINE and Carla aren't too bad if your PC is capable enough.

The only gripe I have is that reclocking on some NVIDIA cards is not supported on Linux-based OSes, and power management for NVIDIA cards is dodgy at best. The card is either idle or running at max clock when it doesn't need to. For AMD hardware this is a different story.

 

Are you doing this in the context of music production (engineering, etc)?

 

MAC is a GUI placed over the top of UNIX. All anyone has to do that knows Linux/UNIX commands is open the Terminal window and list any directory (ls) or change permissions (chmod) if they know all the switches(rwxr-xr-x etc) and most of the important UNIX commands work.

Microsoft purchased Vax/VMS a long time ago and rewrote the code, albeit not well which is why WNT initially was so security lame because it's GUI was over the top of badly written code. I like Windows to be honest and MAC too for different reasons. A large proportion of the most secure software firewalls were Squid (Linux) for a very long time.

These days in any of the environments with the hardware available, you can virtualize anything inside whatever you are running, so the O/S is irrelevant providing the O/S itself does not halt your productivity on a regular basis. Each person whether the O/S or the DAW, has to choose the one which best suits their needs. I believe it is as simple as that.

EDIT: go forward one alphabetic letter in the following from Windows NT (The start of NTFS) from these .............Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and Virtual Memory System (VMS)
HAL ------> IBM
VMS ------> WNT

 

Last edited by a moderator: Oct 12, 2021

Total transition from Windows back to macOS/OSX and now adding Linux as daily OS of choice for audio production.

 

Go for it!

 

LINUX X64 (AMD64/EM64T) DISPLAY DRIVER

Also see the Level1Techs forum for info concerning native NVidia drivers in Linux.

 

I keep trying Linux for DAW work every couple of years. It's getting better but the audio routing and drivers always at some point cause me so much hassle that it ends. If core Linux can produce a ubiquitous kernel extension for stable low latency multichannel audio and plugins the same way CoreAudio works with AU, I would no longer require WinX or MacOS.

For video, mux and rendering Linux is already there. I still hold out hope.

 

Yes I totally hear you. In so many ways, Linux as purely an operating system can run well on machines every version of MAC from Mojave onwards and Windows XP upwards cannot. So theoretically, Linux has the capacity to not only maximise every single resource in any computer build, it is the only one that truly multi-tasks where when an app has what MAC or Windows would consider a fatal error needing a reboot, Linux can still function. Security aspects are also by far more solid.

I do not blame Linux because that choice in some cases is up to the third-party vst, vsti and software app developers who chose the market that would make them the most money, too often bypassing Linux. In other words, I believe they went for popularity and money versus stability.

 

Ah, I'm aware about drivers. Drivers downloaded from the official site almost never install properly, at least from experience, so I always download them from the official Arch repo.

What I meant is, with some NVIDIA hardware, neither the proprietary nor the open-source nouveau drivers offer the same low-level access to the card's performance that you would have in Windows.

For instance, currently for Linux there are no third party utilities for NVIDIA cards like MSI Afterburner that allow me to, say, lock the card to a specific clock speed and voltage, at which I know I'll get the same performance with quieter fans and less power consumption on certain software, as if the card was running on performance level 3. There's the built-in nvidia-smi CLI utility, but last time I checked, it will only allow you to reclock much newer cards (say, Ampere architecture) and server-grade cards.

Not even the power management options in the control panel make a difference.

None of this, however, is the Linux kernel devs' fault. It's NVIDIA that refuses to allow this kind of access in Linux.

 

I am a Mac user, don't shoot. Is there some reason why you "pc hardware" users do not just run with 2 partitions for different OS?
what is the benefit of not just having both available to you? I understand why you want an installed linux, because running it from a persistent usb drive is not as speedy. But why not just a Lilo or other bootloader and then whatever linux and windows on separate partitions, as switchable OS?

 

Linux has certainly come a long way and I am curious about recent developments. I do have a Windows 10 machine that does a decent job, but Mac provides me the easiest learning curve as far as DAWs are concerned.

Use the tools that make your job easier and efficiently. Whether Windows, Mac or Linux. I do like this thread to see where it leads and learn a thing or two.

 

tag. i just wanted to placemark for reference. dual boot here too, and havent looked back. if anything i just want to learn more about it, like this thread.
yes agreed about nvidia, but since im using each OS differently its not an issue at all

 

f11 key is your friend. why stay shackled to the limitations of one OS

 

Or F8 on ASUS mobos.
No need for GRUB or LiLO.

The only downside is your F8 or F11 can wear out if you have a cheap $10 keyboard.

 

Linux has come a long way and i use it exclusively but dual boot for sure so you have options at any given time.Here is my Linux setup with Renoise (native),Bitwig (native),Fl Studio (Wine),Reason 11 (Wine),Waveform pro (Wine although it has a native linux app too).Most vsts like Spire,Serum etc work with LinVst or Yabridge, but you will have to do a lot of work and research.

 

hi Saint, very glad to see you. check out the new linux distros since kernel 5.0, particularly its ability to let programs notify you of updates through software center. of course this is a mixed topic some good and some bad but it was definitely a big change.
yes true about drivers, but distros are different enough now to re-look at a couple. my vote is dual boot

 

Good luck on that!!!

 

working great since 2018 when i built the machine. i even have an original builders load disc for w10 that has never seen the internet. infact its been that way for so long that windows finally gave up and stopped asking for internet, so he is now 3 years internet sober