My last operating budget for "windows" 10, building out 3 machines (two of which were internet access boxen).
0 $. Used the same optimized GS win10 22H2 image on all three all activated with either MAS or KMS scripts. who pays for keys anymore...

 

arent you worried exposing folders with cracked Kontakt and other software on your channel?

 

what the hellll brooo giving me heart attacks like that! where did you see that?

 

That's totally fine with me. Every one uses what they want to use. It's just that lots of those who went to linux are trying desperately to get others switch over to it. I hope this desperation is fueled by a need to learn, trying new things, or other some such healthier reason than idiotic windows doomsday EOL b.s..

Well yeah. It's open source, so of course it's "supported", but as a SERVER OS. For media production it doesn't contain nearly half the stuff that makes things run smoothly in a production atmosphere. And as for media production, there are very few dev's that really support it. Even as a daily driver OS it lacks, IMO. Believe me when I say I have been watching the progress of linux over time and every so often I'll try running a build of it to see for myself what has progressed and what hasn't. IMO, the graphical user interface portion of linux is nowhere near any kind of shape to be a contender in any arena let alone media production. If it ever does I'll be one of the first to jump on the linux bandwagon.

 

In the video above, while explaining the Wine Bottle stuff, we can see folders named bobdule and TCD just something I briefly noticed

 

that's what I figured and I rewatched it and saw just one brief moment that is very easy to miss. but thanks for pointing that out. (bobdule's kontakt didn't work for me though btw).
also for me if licensing/licensed version of an app doesn't work, but a pirated one works - I see no issue using the pirated one and calling that a win

 

Just use the portable v8 version. But.....install it in /drive_c/ProgramData/

 

it's better than the common situation encountered by new Linux users in their first couple months. The experience of security disillusionment. Pretty quickly the world of permissions, firewall rules, kernel updates, questionable repos, privilege escalation exploits, etc. result in the "I have no clue what i'm doing using this" epiphany.

 

yeah, I ended up sticking with that one. native access works on linux, but it's a pain, same with ilok...

 

I'm a hobbyist, not a professional—I only record my own projects and my band. I've been using Debian with the Liquorix kernel on KDE for 4 years.

The beginning was challenging because the amount of commercial software available is roughly equivalent to Linux's market share. I overcame GAS, learned to work with what I have, and started creating my own solutions—like developing a Linux driver for the Machine MK3 Micro (https://github.com/sikorak666/maschine-mikro-mk3-driver) and contributing to the WineHQ knowledge base.

Linux becoming a solid option, especially as more developers are keeping their foot in Linux's door: Bitwig, Presonus, Focusrite, U-He, Toneboosters, Kazrog, Ugritone, Harrison, and many others already mentioned here.

Many programs can run using WINE and yabridge—and this isn't virtualization. Some work better than on Windows, others worse. It requires experimentation and debugging, but this is just the beginning of Linux's journey in audio production. Even Glenn from SpectreSoundStudio discusses Linux on his channel, so the topic is reaching the mainstream. Once that happens, developers may start recognizing this niche. A few years ago, gaming on Linux was a pipe dream. Now, thanks to SteamOS, both gamers and developers recognize the platform as stable and efficient. Linux needs the same momentum—a snowball effect among developers. JUCE and HISE enable cross-platform development for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It's not rocket science.

Linux has its challenges—Wayland is still evolving and Xorg is ancient—but both work, and Wayland is being actively developed. JACK and PipeWire deliver lower latencies than macOS.

There are know-it-alls on this forum who seem to think they know better and have a compulsion to comment on every Linux mention with overt hostility, as if it's personal. For some, it's compulsive; for others, it's just bitter resentment.

 

Last edited: Oct 30, 2025 at 11:08 PM

Keep up the good work, man! You touch on some of the similar thoughts I have: since I'm tech-savvy enough to use Linux and troubleshoot it, I can switch to contribute to that snowball effect, so that everyone can profit. While I'm (and other people smarter than me) figuring out how to make my stuff work, I can help the people who have less experience have a smoother time transitioning, if they so choose.

This shit is so confusing to me. You come into my house uninvited, insult my shit... why? Do you really not have anything better to do? Go pirate a VST and make some music, that's definitely a better use of everyone's time...

 

There is no resentment about Linux by other Linux users, only a reality check that Linux for Audio is hardly the Che Guevara Open Source solution the loudest new users always seem to make it out to be. Even when semi-experienced users have to visit the forum and rage they cannot figure out how to download amp simulations they have actually paid a Windows based developer for.

Any Linux user wants to stay 100% open-source, using Ardour, Zrythm, or LMMS, and LV2 plugins. But the best sounding or most used tools such as Kontakt, Serum, FabFilter, UAD, and even various Amp Sims are all Windows and macOS-only. So the solution is to bridge them through Wine or run them in a Windows VM, effectively depending on the very closed ecosystem they’re trying to escape. Meanwhile proselytizing about it.

Imagine the results of a thread on here, " I just switched to Windows 2 months ago, and let me tell you all just how great it is!".

And then expecting to be met with anything other than the same annoyance as yet another Reaper fanboy thread? It's not the OS people give you a hard time about.

 

Yeah nah. I like my stuff to work right from the get go. I don't have time to 'maintain' or 'build' components for my OS. I do that shit at work all day. I come home and just want to make music, which my Mac does right out of the box with no tweaking required but installing my RME drivers and Cubase..

Fine for the hobbyists, but no professional music producer or studio will ever be caught dead running Linux. They have bills to pay, not time to waste building systems from scratch and pulling from repositories just to get running.

 

This is actually not true.

It's true, there will always be a source of wisdom that decides to enlighten everyone with its opinion, convinced of its own righteousness

Seriously?! Cannot figure out how to download? lol xd

 

You've hit the nail on the head.

I'd like to add: Who knows what the future holds (Example in the Year 2100-2300) ? Maybe a team will develop a new operating system, Linux will inherit Elon Musk's billions. It's nice to know that you have a backup operating system like Linux, for example, just for online internet use, which is free and stable. Who knows what the future holds?

 

And that's okay! I have to say, I was thinking in that direction as well, but 1) I do like tinkering with computers, so it's fun to have these problems and solve them 2) Mac can't do everything I want to do either, so it's still some kind of hybrid situation either way, which I found absolutely despicable with windows

One day, man, one day!

 

The problem with multimedia in Linus is : drivers and support

Hardware manufacturers are not developing drivers for linux.
You can use generic linux drivers for your audio cards but you are going to have stability problems

 

The main Linux' problem is that people don't understand it, just parrot the same old superfluous "facts" you've heard on forums about it, and even those who tried it, haven't really tried it. I've put a little effort into learning Linux' ways after "graduating" Windows (up to 7) and never looked back because of few reasons: I can run everything I need and make music with (I use Reaper since its beginning), even most of the Windows plugins I like, as efficiently or more, as on Windows. I don't need more plugins, just less.

You can't really make music with virtual OSes as they are emulators and slow and inefficient. VMs can be used for browsing the Internet, simple programs that don't depend on hardware, installing programs and testing them. I don't use any VMs currently. WINE is not an emulator, it's a translation layer between Windows and Linux code that runs very efficiently and gets better all the time.

Linux is freedom! But to be truly free you have to know a thing or two hundred. You have to accept the differences and learn how to use it. It's absolutely worth it.

Linux, in my experience, runs "You turn it on and do your thing." way, actually. Once you make it work like you want it to and stop tinkering with it. I am running the same Debian Linux I installed in 2014. I just upgraded all the way from 7 to 12 and soon 13. It's as solid as a rock. I changed computers, changed boot disks, still using same OS. How about doing that with Windows?

It's very important to choose the right Distribution, Desktop Environment, and Window Manager. It took me a while, about a year, to discover which ones I liked best. These things can make your experience with Linux either easier, or shit, so choose wisely and patiently. I use Debian with MATE DE and Marco WM (I like Xfce with its XfWM, too), if you're interested. This DE and WM are pretty light on resources (~800MB on startup) and work smoothly. On Linux, you shouldn't rush to upgrade programs as you do on Windows. It often happens they cannot work until you upgrade some other libraries (dlls on WIndows) and when you do it can break your other programs. Always first try to use "Stable" versions of everything. That's why I leave upgrading to Debian "filtering" and testing team and I would never use Arch for a production computer. Doesn't mean I don't love Arch, but you really do have to know what you're doing with it. A Windows user would be like "I just need to install all the newest programs and libraries", this is a very wrong policy in Linux and will cause you a mountain of pain. Yummeeee

You can run multiple Desktop Environments with one Distribution, and often you can choose to run a different Window Manager with them, and even Compositing Manager (hardware accelerated graphics UI). It's all pretty flexible. Once you understand the very flexible, freedom of choice concept, that you don't have with Windows and MacOS. When you do, you will be able to make things run smoother than on any other OS, and you won't be any corporation's slave. It's worth the effort!

Cheers!

p.s. regarding WINE. What I find extremely useful about it is that it can run all the versions of Windows, all the way from 2.0 onwards. All 20 versions so far. It can run x86 32-bit programs and plugins. So you can do stuff with WINE you cannot do in Windows, and without any background processes, bloatware and spyware. I run some really old 32-bit plugins with it, and I like to play some games from 2000s sometimes that don't work well even on Windows 7.

 

Last edited: Oct 31, 2025 at 2:10 PM

Care to elaborate on that? I'm using MX21 and from what I understood it is not so eazy-piezy to upgrade to MX25 when that is stable (iMX25 is on beta currently). Of course, you can always try, but when chances are bad it is better not to waste time.

 

It's comical how some in this thread feel threatened by the mere suggestion of Linux, and yet are completely silent about each subsequent Windows 11 AI's code update completely breaking their OS, taking control away, more and more, until eventually Windows is only offered as a cloud service through Windows 365, until it's so unusable, that finally all the audio companies will scurry to support Linux, just as Steam did with Proton.

Windows is very clearly not an operating system intended for the end user, it's just a prison that one is forced to use because they're a victim of a monopoly. Competition is extremely important.

There are no winners here, there's just the least worst option, and I'm fully willing to switch to Bitwig/Reaper because I'm 100% done with Windows 10 constantly breaking, forcing me to reboot, and I morally refuse to use Windows 11 and "fight with it" with hack tools that will just get patched out, as Microshit is desperate to get everyone using their MS accounts and buying Windows 365.

If I have to deal with Linux headaches so be it, I'd rather read a 500 page book on Linux and fight to become decent at it, rather than embrace Copilot, all the Windows horrible bugs, and Windows subscription models. You can if you want - everyone has their line in the sand.

But for me, there's simply not a future where Microsoft is going to apologize, and completely change direction in favor of the end user.

 

Last edited: Oct 31, 2025 at 2:41 PM