Why Linux is Becoming Impossible for Audio Developers to Ignore

[Tiles]

Sure, users can define what they consider an acceptable license.

Developers can also define what they consider an acceptable customer base.

If Linux users reject a licensing model and the developer still makes most of their money elsewhere, what incentive exactly is there to change?

[Largos]

Sure, users can define what they consider an acceptable license.

Developers can also define what they consider an acceptable customer base.

If Linux users reject a licensing model and the developer still makes most of their money elsewhere, what incentive exactly is there to change?

None and I am happy for them to sell their crap to mugs elsewhere

[Tiles]

So you'd rather have no software at all than software with a license you don't like. Fair enough.

And that's pretty much the situation we're in right now.

And that's why many professional users are effectively locked out of Linux.

[Largos]

So you'd rather have no software at all than software with a license you don't like. Fair enough.

And that's pretty much the situation we're in right now.

And that's why many professional users are effectively locked out of Linux.

What do you know about "professional users", when you're anonymously typing essays on forums all day?

I have plenty enough great software with permissive licenses that I am happy with so it's not a choice that I'll have to make.

[BertKoor]

Someday she will find her knight in shining armor.

Meanwhile she'll just echo whatever hand has fed her

[Tiles]

So you'd rather have no software at all than software with a license you don't like. Fair enough.

And that's pretty much the situation we're in right now.

And that's why many professional users are effectively locked out of Linux.

What do you know about "professional users", when you're anonymously typing essays on forums all day?

I have plenty enough great software with permissive licenses that I am happy with so it's not a choice that I'll have to make.

The topic was software availability and incentives, not the lifestyle of commenters.

I’m not going to continue this in this direction.

Have a good one.

[TechHaus]

One of my favorite Youtube tech channels just released this 2 hours ago:

I Left Windows a Year Ago... Was It Worth It?

But wait, she just said she switched to Mac!

Someday she will find her knight in shining armor.

Very goofy, boys.

She left Windows. What do you think you install on your desktop when you don't want Windows on it?

Did you watch any of her videos about all of the self-hosted services and applications she has now? I wish I had the gumption to do all of that.

Guess what my second computer is? A M2 Mac Mini (I don't use it for work, though. I use it like she uses her laptop.). BUT, my next laptop will be a Macbook Air because I want a silent setup so I can record anywhere with my Neve 88m. Apple laptops are the best value, unless you are going used ThinkPad (typing this on my 2016 x260...). (BTW, you don't have to debate my laptop opinion. You can just hold your own. It's fine. It's off-topic.)

Last, I got into Linux because at first, when my MacBook Pro died, I actually tried to build a Hackintosh with a Intel I7-7700k setup. It was not reliable enough for my noob self. Then I tried Windows. It was horrific. Candy Crush saga in my start bar, constant long updates with weird forced changes to my system afterwards, etc. Asked on Twitter what the best Linux distro was, and tried it. Oh wow, a Mac-like easy experience! I was hooked. And have been doing my work on there ever since, even with the compromises.

EDIT: also, that Youtuber has a series now about switching to Linux ON HER PHONE! Ditching Android, which admittedly is problematic like Windows. Another step I am not ready to take, yet, but amazing that people are doing it.

[TechHaus]

So you'd rather have no software at all than software with a license you don't like. Fair enough.

And that's pretty much the situation we're in right now.

And that's why many professional users are effectively locked out of Linux.

There is a myth that you need to use Fabfilter and UAD and Native Instruments to a be a professional or something.

You do not.

Deliverables matter. That's it.

Use whatever.

There are many options you can choose instead of the plugins I just listed above, that do the same things, just as well.

With that said - we welcome TDR, Ohlhorst Digital, and APU Software to Linux this month - expanding the toolset for PROFESSIONAL MASTERING on Linux.

[Largos]

The topic was software availability and incentives, not the lifestyle of commenters.

I’m not going to continue this in this direction.

Have a good one.

If you're going to repeatedly claim knowledge of "professional" this and that, then pony up your credentials to talk about such matters or be quiet about it. I am sure you don't want to talk about this because you've no reason to be continually harassing these threads trying to win a non argument.

[audiojunkie]

So.... to try to get this train back on track. The article points out the following:

Linux desktop market share reached 4.7% globally in 2025, up 70% from 2.76% in 2022. The United States crossed 5% for the first time in June 2025. India reached 16.21%. On Steam, Linux gaming hit an all-time high of 3.2%. The growth is accelerating: it took a full decade to go from 1% to 2%, another 2.2 years to reach 3%, and only 0.7 years to go from 3% to 4%. Windows 10 support ended in October 2025, leaving an estimated 240 million PCs unable to run Windows 11. Those machines are not broken. They fail a single hardware check. Linux runs on all of them. Meanwhile, Linux already powers 100% of the world's top 500 supercomputers, roughly 59% of all websites, and nearly half of all cloud workloads. The desktop is the last tier where it has not taken over.

This is all fact, backed by multiple sources. What's interesting is what comes next in the article:

The primary tracking source for desktop operating system share is StatCounter, which measures web traffic across over 5 billion monthly page views. Their data shows Linux at approximately 4.7% of global desktop usage as of 2025. That puts it behind Windows (roughly 71%) and macOS (roughly 13%), but the gap with macOS has been narrowing.

The more interesting story is the acceleration. Linux spent nearly two decades getting from zero to 1% in 2011. The second percentage point took another full decade, reaching 2% in 2021. After that, the pace changed.

The shrinking time between milestones is the headline. Each percentage point is coming faster than the last. At the current pace, analysts project Linux could reach 6% globally by late 2026.

Regional numbers vary significantly. India leads major economies with 16.21% Linux desktop share as of July 2024, driven by cost sensitivity, a large developer community, and government digital literacy programs. The United States hit 5.03% in June 2025, crossing the 5% threshold for the first time. The U.S. Digital Analytics Program reported 6% of federal website visitors running Linux as of August 2025. Several European nations sit above the global average, pushed by government open source mandates.

Among developers specifically, the numbers are much higher. The Stack Overflow 2025 survey found that 27.8% use Ubuntu alone for personal use, with significant additional usage across Debian, Arch Linux, Fedora, and others. Developer adoption has historically been a leading indicator of broader adoption.

Furthermore:

Desktop Linux is at 4.7%. Windows is at 71%. That gap is real and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise.

Application compatibility has improved substantially, but gaps remain. Adobe Creative Suite has no native Linux version. Microsoft Office requires either the web version, LibreOffice as an alternative, or a compatibility layer like Wine. Most professional software in video editing, music production, and CAD has Linux options, but they are not always the industry-standard tools that employers require.

Gaming works well through Valve's Proton compatibility layer, but some online games with anti-cheat software still block Linux users. This is a policy choice by the game developers, not a technical limitation, but the result is the same: certain popular titles do not work.

Enterprise adoption on the desktop lags behind server and cloud deployment. IT departments standardize on what they know and what their existing software stack requires. Migrating an organization's desktops involves retraining, software auditing, and support infrastructure changes that many IT teams are not ready to undertake.

Driver support has improved significantly, especially for AMD hardware. NVIDIA support has historically been more difficult, though NVIDIA's open source kernel module release in 2024 improved the situation. Newer laptops with hybrid graphics or specialized hardware can still present configuration challenges.

The 4.7% figure also likely undercounts real usage. StatCounter measures web traffic from browsers, which misses Linux servers, embedded systems, IoT devices, and users behind corporate VPNs or air-gapped networks. The actual number of machines running Linux is far higher than the desktop share suggests.

The point of the article is summed up in one sentence:

Linux already runs most of the internet, the world's fastest computers, and most of the cloud. Desktop adoption is the last tier, and it is growing rapidly.

This is why I put the headline of this thread as: "Why Linux is Becoming Impossible for Audio Developers to Ignore"

Let's discuss this.

[EyeCloud]

What is the actual growth rate of Linux over time, and are there reliable forecasts of growth?

I’m sure the data points things in the right direction, but I’m wondering what the Linux population actually represents.

I was at college in the mid 90s, and as with many academic institutions, a lot of our computers were nix machines. I also know people in academia who run a lot of nix machines for desktop use.

Anecdotally, I don’t think I know anyone in a pretty broad circle of friends who use nix for their main desktop/laptop machine.

For the average user in a residential situation I think nix use is likely to be niche rather than growing. There are just too many instances of it requiring a lot of configuration or a learning curse that most people don’t want to climb.

Maybe it would be insightful to see what percentage of audio developers currently develop for Linux? If desktop use is growing so that it can’t be ignored, I would expect to see a pretty high percentage already developing for Linux.

Just my 2c.

[TechHaus]

What is the actual growth rate of Linux over time, and are there reliable forecasts of growth?

I’m sure the data points things in the right direction, but I’m wondering what the Linux population actually represents.

I was at college in the mid 90s, and as with many academic institutions, a lot of our computers were nix machines. I also know people in academia who run a lot of nix machines for desktop use.

Anecdotally, I don’t think I know anyone in a pretty broad circle of friends who use nix for their main desktop/laptop machine.

For the average user in a residential situation I think nix use is likely to be niche rather than growing. There are just too many instances of it requiring a lot of configuration or a learning curse that most people don’t want to climb.

Maybe it would be insightful to see what percentage of audio developers currently develop for Linux? If desktop use is growing so that it can’t be ignored, I would expect to see a pretty high percentage already developing for Linux.

Just my 2c.

The penny is discontinued so worthless post, imo.

Do you think the growth is represented by guys who went to college in the 90's and their wide circle of friends?

Or CURRENT college kids who hate copilot? Watch pewdiepie?

When is the last time you tried "nix" sir?

[TechHaus]

We made sure that our software works well with WINE. As a tiny company this is all we can do with reasonable costs and effort.

Come on, do a Linux "beta" "limited support" release.

Try us!

I am ready to support, I love your stuff.

I just only use native plugins. Not wine or wrappers, unfortunately.

Most companies who launch with "experimental linux version" attached to their plugin, end up removing that! (for example, the first three apulsoft plugs ported said experimental linux version. Now just "Linux version added" for their latest. https://www.kvraudio.com/news/apulsoft- ... more-67403)

[EyeCloud]

What is the actual growth rate of Linux over time, and are there reliable forecasts of growth?

I’m sure the data points things in the right direction, but I’m wondering what the Linux population actually represents.

I was at college in the mid 90s, and as with many academic institutions, a lot of our computers were nix machines. I also know people in academia who run a lot of nix machines for desktop use.

Anecdotally, I don’t think I know anyone in a pretty broad circle of friends who use nix for their main desktop/laptop machine.

For the average user in a residential situation I think nix use is likely to be niche rather than growing. There are just too many instances of it requiring a lot of configuration or a learning curse that most people don’t want to climb.

Maybe it would be insightful to see what percentage of audio developers currently develop for Linux? If desktop use is growing so that it can’t be ignored, I would expect to see a pretty high percentage already developing for Linux.

Just my 2c.

The penny is discontinued so worthless post, imo.

Do you think the growth is represented by guys who went to college in the 90's and their wide circle of friends?

Or CURRENT college kids who hate copilot? Watch pewdiepie?

When is the last time you tried "nix" sir?

I did say “anecdotally”, and have a background in statistical analysis, so am always careful not to represent my thoughts based on incomplete data as fact.

If I watch pewdiepie I will only gain one data point and wouldn’t extrapolate from there. My input here is just to ask if there is more data or analysis available as I have some concerns that the thread title might not be supported by either.

I can’t remember the last time I used nix, but it was certainly with a modern desktop environment.

Some brief research doesn’t uncover any kind of rapid growth in usage, but I do see some poor statistical analysis supporting numbers stated in articles. For example, I see more than one article basing the growth on downloads, or on the percentage of machines with a particular operating system used to download a distro, or counting operating systems that are identified as “unknown” as Linux. Correlations like this do not translate to solid statistical data.

But ultimately my question is simply to determine what supports the stated growth of Linux to the current status of it being no longer capable of being ignored. I’m asking because I don’t see the broad uptake as a platform for audio use.