unix audio/DAW only OS

[ispot]

i'm probably dreaming and too naive, but something i've been thinking about for a long time: Wouldn't it be awesome if some companies in the audio industry team together to create a lean unix based OS specifically for DAW/audio usage?

a minimal distro with proper low latency audio drivers/system. no bloat. lean window manager focussed on audio browsing and organizing, maybe with build-in audio editor. option to boot straight into DAW, focus on CLAP. only a minimal web browser + text editor added.

i've tried switching to various linux distro's in the past but it's impossible with so many plugins being windows/mac only. also the whole Jack/alsa/pulse audio thing feels janky and cumbersome.

i'd pay bux for this, especially if a lot of plugin devs would hop on

[FapFilter]

do you think your situation will be much better if the market share of your OS will be 0.00000000000000000000000001% instead of the 3% of "Linux everyday distros"?

just get a Mac if you want Unix with good prospects on actual software support

[ispot]

valid point. i'm on Mac already for quite some time, but if it was possible i'd go Linux all the way.

[AudioBabble]

not sure if it's what you had in mind but... https://www.elk.audio/start

[FranklyFlawless]

i'm probably dreaming and too naive, but something i've been thinking about for a long time: Wouldn't it be awesome if some companies in the audio industry team together to create a lean unix based OS specifically for DAW/audio usage?

Only if the entire distribution is gratis and libre open-source software.

[ispot]

not sure if it's what you had in mind but... https://www.elk.audio/start

looks interesting! but geared towards linux/raspi/fpga boards like Axolotl. i was aiming for a desktop OS.

@FranklyFlawless yes imho should be open source.

[whyterabbyt]

i'd pay bux for this, especially if a lot of plugin devs would hop on

in general, they wont.

also, this has been mooted as an idea time and time again. Its even been implemented (in various different ways regarding plugins, though) as actual hardware, eg Receptor Muse, a long-gone product by the (former?) owners of the website known as KVR, and Mod Devices stuff etc etc, but has only ever been a niche product, and is unlikely to change much in that regard.

[ispot]

i'm realistic about this and know this 99% won't happen. but from developer standpoint, wouldn't it be much more convenient to have an open source OS where the audio devs themselves are more in control of the OS its audio glue instead of running after apple's ass to catch up with whatever Audio API they dictate whenever they want?

[whyterabbyt]

i'm realistic about this and know this 99% won't happen. but from developer standpoint, wouldn't it be much more convenient to have an open source OS where the audio devs themselves are more in control of the OS its audio glue instead of running after apple's ass to catch up with whatever Audio API they dictate whenever they want?

if it was more convenient, then developers would already be doing it... But in terms of open source, Linux already exists, and its clearly a small niche. The 'conveniences' of an open source OS are not a major factor to audio application or plugin developers, or their users.
(Of course hardware developers do leverage that convenience sometimes, but as part of more proprietary devices, eg Korg and more recently Ableton)

But for a commercial developer, what's the advantage of targetting a niche OS that only a tiny fraction of customers would ever use? Convenience doesnt pay wages.

Also; 'catching up with APIs' is what initiatives like CLAP seek to address, but from the perspective of maximising the applicability.

[whyterabbyt]

The other thing obviously, is that when you think some sort of thing would be valuable in the open source space, Im afraid the onus is on you to build it. The philosophy there is pretty much that if you're not going to scratch your own itch, noone is going to scratch it for you.
Once it existed, developers might weight up its convenience. Maybe.

But there's a reason most of them dont target Linux, and its not to do with the OS API at all, and its the same reason most of them still target Apple, despite the API inconveniences.

[newjunkcity]

...to create a lean unix based OS specifically for DAW/audio usage?

i've tried switching to various linux distro's in the past

but if it was possible i'd go Linux all the way.

There's also the question of whether you actually mean Unix, or 'Unix-like' (e.g. Linux/GNU - GNU literally stands for "GNU's Not Unix!").

If you meant Linux, there's already Bitwig and Ardour, but they're obviously not open-source.

[newjunkcity]

If you meant Linux, there's already Bitwig and Ardour, but they're obviously not open-source.

Scratch that, Ardour is open-source.

Edit: https://git.ardour.org/ardour/ardour

[Frac-Capitaine]

do you think your situation will be much better if the market share of your OS will be 0.00000000000000000000000001% instead of the 3% of "Linux everyday distros"?

just get a Mac if you want Unix with good prospects on actual software support

It is the vicious circle of Linux :
Actually 2-3% of marketshare > developers which hope to earn money will not develop on it > no new (pro audio) users on Linux > 2-3% of marketshare > etc.

I don't mean by that developers are not rational, but the quesiton is elsewhere imo. What happen to Microsoft or Apple, or X? They 'catch' killer app. This is how their marketshare grow. Why IBM leave the game? They failed to have killer app for OS/2.
If gnu/Linux distro (by that I mean the Linux community) provide an audio killer app/distro, things will change. I didn't see yet or in development this killer app, especially for audio (Pipewire is not... even if it seem to work well - not tested).

Someone will say that it exist Ardour, LMMS, etc. But Ardour, LMMS, etc (open source audio soft) looks awful (even they work well). What make a good app (and especially a killer app), it is his functionalities, his ergonomic and his esthetic (we are no more in the 90's with console app... or Win 3 like GUI)

What is close is Ubuntu Studio, but it isn't provide with Yabridge when installed. It 'could' be a pain for beginner to install it without issue (I had to try 5 times for making it work, due to 'dependencies'...).

I invite you to read it: https://itvision.altervista.org/why.lin ... rrent.html. Good resumé of the situation, which is more general about desktop oriented GNU/Linux distro.

[audiojunkie]

do you think your situation will be much better if the market share of your OS will be 0.00000000000000000000000001% instead of the 3% of "Linux everyday distros"?

just get a Mac if you want Unix with good prospects on actual software support

It is the vicious circle of Linux :
Actually 2-3% of marketshare > developers which hope to earn money will not develop on it > no new (pro audio) users on Linux > 2-3% of marketshare > etc.

I don't mean by that developers are not rational, but the quesiton is elsewhere imo. What happen to Microsoft or Apple, or X? They 'catch' killer app. This is how their marketshare grow. Why IBM leave the game? They failed to have killer app for OS/2.
If gnu/Linux distro (by that I mean the Linux community) provide an audio killer app/distro, things will change. I didn't see yet or in development this killer app, especially for audio (Pipewire is not... even if it seem to work well - not tested).

Someone will say that it exist Ardour, LMMS, etc. But Ardour, LMMS, etc (open source audio soft) looks awful (even they work well). What make a good app (and especially a killer app), it is his functionalities, his ergonomic and his esthetic (we are no more in the 90's with console app... or Win 3 like GUI)

What is close is Ubuntu Studio, but it isn't provide with Yabridge when installed. It 'could' be a pain for beginner to install it without issue (I had to try 5 times for making it work, due to 'dependencies'...).

I invite you to read it: https://itvision.altervista.org/why.lin ... rrent.html. Good resumé of the situation, which is more general about desktop oriented GNU/Linux distro.

What a hatchet job! While there are admittedly some truths in that list, there were easily several mistakes and inaccuracies. A lot of it was outdated too. Why trust anti-Linux writers who make it their mission to find fault? Why not talk to those who actually’USE’ Linux instead?

[Frac-Capitaine]

What a hatchet job! While there are admittedly some truths in that list, there were easily several mistakes and inaccuracies. A lot of it was outdated too. Why trust anti-Linux writers who make it their mission to find fault? Why not talk to those who actually’USE’ Linux instead?

Main issue are still effective (The article was written 12 year ago...), for example the point 26, that is imo the biggest problem and still accurate:

26.! Very bad backwards and forward compatibility

As developer, rewrite everything after each API/ABI change of the OS or library, imo it is the OS or Library that should take care of it. As result, I will not take time to rewrite things or make unstable things due to dependencies problem.

Some people can be happy with linux, without issue, it is not the question. But the question is for the "average Joe". Below a comment about this post which is still accurate today :
https://itvision.altervista.org/why.lin ... 1390808252.