There are many use cases where Linux can be the best option for the operating system. But we're talking about audio production, mixing, mastering, etc. Knowing your tools and having a productive and reliable workflow is the requirement no matter what OS you use.
When it comes to paying for software and licenses, that point becomes moot when you are all using software from sister site anyway. There are plenty of legal free options if that is the goal. It's great to say you can look and even audit the code for open-source software, but let's face facts. Few people using audio software within the scope of this discussion are doing so, or would know what they were looking at if they even did. Like the commenter above about CLI, touting the benefits of Linux; but who is exactly that sort of user; while running the most Windows-like linux distro they can find just to say they are running nix and just slowing themselves down the entire time.

There are always limitations in audio software, which a experienced user in the software will just know exactly what to do. Then there will always be someone who doesn't know what they are doing, who will come up with some "brilliant" new feature to request because they cannot understand the idea of workarounds. Your comment was about time management. For all the various tweaks and modifications people come up with to have all of this "more control", you'd think we'd be hearing all this new music reflecting that. Nothing could be further from the truth.

 

My original comment was about a user who understands that tools like Linux or Reaper are more advanced and give him more power but simply doesn’t want to spend time learning them. He dismisses the very idea of doing anything himself prefers something that doesn’t require much involvement, the same like choosing fast food over homemade.

We’re not talking about constantly editing or compiling code or writing scripts many of todays nix users are like those on other major OSes don’t do that, as you said yourself. What we’re talking about are the capabilities this type of software offers and the flexibility to expand it if you suddenly need to.
Simply declaring something “bad” or “unsuitable” because you don’t want to get too involved, spend time yet still expecting results, is exactly the mindset I was critiquing. Dismissing curiosity and exprimentation the chance to do things your own way instead of following the beaten path when you want it as inefficiency completely misses the creative side of using tools differently. Tools which, let me remind you, were created precisely to encourage that creativity...
But to each his own...

 

We shouldn't become technological slaves to our own inventions. Technology should make our lives easier and more convenient. We need easy-to-use, error-free, inexpensive, or free software that also protects our data and our privacy.

 

and based on abandoned code, I don't even think when that port becomes abandoned, just like 99% github stuff that's maintained by individuals (regardless of being made for Linux or not)

 

I'm happy to report that it works just fine even under Asahi Linux on a M1 Mac. Portable.

Abandoned or not, these third party RME apps seem to go a long way, just like the RME hardware. Or thanks to the way the hardware is designed.

BTW, what's the thing with the DSP in the Babyface Pro FS? A simple 3-band EQ and a not particularly inspiring reverb/echo. Am I missing something?

 

it's a complete mixer and audio interface at once,
-EDIT- Babyface and Babyface Pro doesn't have some DSP functions like Dynamics, because of its usb-powered-only design limitation,

let's say you want to record a drum kit with a playalong/metronome, not only you can individually set individual levels at basically zero latency (as it stays within mixer), you can do individual panning of all the sources (as far as I know, no budget audio interface on market has pan knobs on its hardware inputs, usually both mic/jack inputs are "mono" for direct monitoring),
or if it's a whole band, every physical output is an aux/submix where you can freely route anything to anyone's headphones, utilize onboard DSP Dynamics as simple brickwall limiters for headphones so musicians won't go deaf, and when recording for ex. bass slapping you can make use of DSP dynamics/comp and its headroom without clipping recording path, EQ can help with ambient noise or agressively emphasize frequencies for deaf musicians (as option that can be used for monitoring but not for recording that can remain clean),
and if you want to use it for live streaming you can even choose whether to use onboard DSP "for record" so it gets printed into audio driver path, utilize its internal Loopback to for ex. stream your DAW output into any other pesky app without adding any other cpu load (compared to software loopbacks)

if you'd want simple audio interface without any of those feature, then I'd say NI Komplete Audio series are decent at way lower price and Linux can handle them fine

 

Well, thanks for clarifying, but I was under impression that most of it is already provided by the bbfpromix app. Everything except the EQ and reverb/echo, for which I don't care much.

Having learned the craft back in times when tools were much sparser that today, I'm used to EQ things at the source, by mic choice/placement.

The reverb in the headphone mix, on the other hand, is very important and the one in the Babyface DSP is not good enough for my taste.

I would use the DSP compressor for what you described, but it's not available in the Babyface Pro FS.

Everything else, different routings, mixes, levels, panning, mic pre gain, phantom power, I can control using the bbfpromix app.

That's why I meant that the loss of the EQ and reverb/echo isn't such a big deal and certainly not grounds for declaring the entire Linux platform unusable for music production.

 

Feels like a Jason Statham line… just before delivering a knockout punch to a laptop, with a reminder of Windows 10 support ending on the screen