Developers, take note: Why people keep flocking to Linux in 2025 (and it's not just to escape Windows)

[Largos]

Step 1 of the learning curve: which distro shall we try?

That's easy. If you look at the picture, you see that Debian has the most derivatives, so clearly they are doing something right. Anecdotal evidence also suggests that Debian tends to be the stable base that "just works" so that derivative distributions have plenty of stuff they can break.

ps. I want to point out though that Debian "stable" tends to be (somewhat by design) sort of obsolete by the time it's designated stable and unless you're running servers you're probably better off using "testing" (the "next stable") most of the time. Obviously it's not "audio optimized" so some manual tuning might be required, but ... at this point Debian has at least some 30 years of track record with being the distribution you fall back to when you're tired of the latest "hype" distribution breaking stuff again.

pps. Also Debian "unstable" doesn't mean your computer becomes unstable and constantly crashes. It just means it's what other distributions call a "rolling release" so packages can come and go and sometimes thing might break if what you need gets dropped... not great for business, but generally it's fine to use at home as well.

Debian has the worst implementation of pipewire though. Most people I've seen having problems with pipewire are on Debian or some derivative that hasn't fixed it. In particular the requirement to alter launcher commands with a pw-jack prefix to load jack using applications. It's better to go for specialist distros for better performance, unless you're confident in sorting out such problems for yourself (general comment).

[mystran]

I think the idea that you can turn a decade+ old machine into something similar to a modern machine just by using Linux is something of a myth itself. It's not if you are using it as a server, or as a desktop with a really light window manager.

Haswell should be able to run any window manager and more or less modern application as long as the system has enough RAM, as long as you don't run anything that requires actual modern hardware support, which I think is the case here with Vulkan. You could probably get it running fine though if it's a desktop where you can add some more modern separate GPU.

WINE probably wants Vulkan in order to properly support DX11 and especially DX12 (which you just can't reasonably wrap on OpenGL and expect any sort of performance). Apparently Haswell iGPU apparently does have older drivers on Windows that support DX12, but at some point Intel disabled it due to some hardware vulnerability, so it might be a case where it was bit of a hack to begin with... and those things aren't exactly the fastest GPUs out there to begin with.

[uOpt]

Haswell is ancient in computer terms. I still have a couple of gen 3/4 machines hanging around, but I'm not trying to push them into places where they're not suited. One is being used as a virtual host for four or five linux servers, it works great for that. If I had to replace it today, I wouldn't buy it, one of the newer N series chips is fine for that purpose and will sip power.

I think the idea that you can turn a decade+ old machine into something similar to a modern machine just by using Linux is something of a myth itself. It's not if you are using it as a server, or as a desktop with a really light window manager.

Well, let's keep in mind that although the iGPU in Haswell might not have a Vulkan driver you can always add a dGPU as a PCIe card (if it's a desktop).

[camsr]

I think the base distro matters a lot to any software developed. You could move your favorite linux only software from one distro to another if they stopped supporting something.

Agreed. Pick a popular one, and you'll probably be fine.

GTK2 it is then?

Hehehe!!! I don't think you'll find any "popular" distros still using a depreciated framework.

wut? gtk2 is still everywhere afaik, just remember that GIMP v3 was released this year

Yeah, probably an over exaggeration on my part. But it's still a good idea to avoid it if possible.

Because of no rust integration?

[ghettosynth]

Haswell is ancient in computer terms. I still have a couple of gen 3/4 machines hanging around, but I'm not trying to push them into places where they're not suited. One is being used as a virtual host for four or five linux servers, it works great for that. If I had to replace it today, I wouldn't buy it, one of the newer N series chips is fine for that purpose and will sip power.

I think the idea that you can turn a decade+ old machine into something similar to a modern machine just by using Linux is something of a myth itself. It's not if you are using it as a server, or as a desktop with a really light window manager.

Well, let's keep in mind that although the iGPU in Haswell might not have a Vulkan driver you can always add a dGPU as a PCIe card (if it's a desktop).

Yes but, I'm still pushing back on this idea. It gets circulated a lot, but, it won't make an old machine feel new. I think the Linux community loves this because they want to push adoption. I've personally never cared about Linux adoption from non-techies. I think that the best current push is the Steam Machine angle. That people will use it as a gaming platform alternative to Windows is great. It works fine in that context and the degree to which non-techies need support is constrained by the application itself.

So, the idea that you should try Linux by bringing an old machine back to life is a bit tired IMNSHO. You will still have a tired old machine, now with sluggish window management and potential driver problems of outdated hardware.

I think that the only contemporary problem that makes this slightly more viable than it used to be is Microsoft's attitude about Windows. 6th and 7th gen Intel chips are perfectly capable of running Windows 11 reasonably. I have a 6th gen that's running Windows 10. A 6500T is perfectly capable of running Win 11, it's more performant than, or roughly equivalent to, an N100 which is on the official list.

Bottom line, I don't think that average people should switch, at all. If you think you want to actually learn about it and see what makes it different, you could start by putting WSL2 on your Windows machine. If you want to put it on a dedicated machine, put it on something that you will use for the purpose, e.g., a Steam Machine. If you can't come up with an application that makes sense in your environment, then just getting WINE running on a Haswell machine to try it out will just give you a slow outdated machine that you will be annoyed by no matter the OS.

[uOpt]

I don't particularly disagree. I just want to point out that Linux is in fact excellent in keeping old drivers (well, let's see when they drop Firewire).

The specific case here is not a driver for old hardware that has been dropped. It is a driver that has never been written.

[Andreya_Autumn]

I wonder how many downloads the Surge Software Team get for Linux for Surge-XT?

Last I checked we had maybe a bit more Linux download percentage than FigBugs figures, but not worlds apart.

It is on track to pass MacOS within the next 5 years, if things continue as they are.

Who says so? Again, I hate to be negative but this just seems... beyond far-fetched to me.

Mac has obviously lost a lot of ground on studio computers in general (when I got started anything non-mac in a studio was considered a really bad sign...). But almost all that loss is to Windows. And Apple Silicon machines being outstanding can't have been bad for them I imagine. Are there actual stats you're referring to here? For audio pros in particular I mean, not desktops/laptops at large?

[quikquak]

I wonder how many downloads the Surge Software Team get for Linux for Surge-XT?

Last I checked we had maybe a bit more Linux download percentage than FigBugs figures, but not worlds apart.

It is on track to pass MacOS within the next 5 years, if things continue as they are.

Who says so? Again, I hate to be negative but this just seems... beyond far-fetched to me.

Mac has obviously lost a lot of ground on studio computers in general (when I got started anything non-mac in a studio was considered a really bad sign...). But almost all that loss is to Windows. And Apple Silicon machines being outstanding can't have been bad for them I imagine. Are there actual stats you're referring to here? For audio pros in particular I mean, not desktops/laptops at large?

I feel this kind of discussion could just loop between evangelism and caution forever.

Even though market share doesn't actually mean music usages, here's a Google AI overview of the OS share for PCs. Other sources reflect these numbers:

As of late 2025, Windows remains the dominant PC operating system, holding roughly 70-72% of the desktop market, with macOS consistently second (around 10-16%), Linux growing slowly (3-4%), and ChromeOS around 1-2%. Users are migrating from older Windows versions to Windows 11, while macOS sees gradual shifts in its share, and Linux gains traction, especially in servers and supercomputing, though desktop numbers remain smaller.

Key Figures (Desktop Market Share, circa mid-to-late 2025):
Windows: ~70-72% (with Win 10 declining, Win 11 rising)
macOS (incl. OSX): ~10-16% (varies by source/month)
Linux: ~3-4%
ChromeOS: ~1-2%
Trends & Notes:
Windows Dominance: Windows maintains a strong lead, with a notable shift from Windows 10 to Windows 11.

Linux Growth: Linux dominates servers and supercomputers but has a smaller, steady share on desktops, with some regions showing stronger growth.

Data Variation: Figures differ slightly depending on the source (StatCounter, etc.) and the exact month of data collection, but the hierarchy remains consistent.
Mobile vs. Desktop: While Android dominates overall device usage (including mobile), Windows leads the pure desktop/laptop segment.

[audiojunkie]

I wonder how many downloads the Surge Software Team get for Linux for Surge-XT?

Last I checked we had maybe a bit more Linux download percentage than FigBugs figures, but not worlds apart.

It is on track to pass MacOS within the next 5 years, if things continue as they are.

Who says so? Again, I hate to be negative but this just seems... beyond far-fetched to me.

Mac has obviously lost a lot of ground on studio computers in general (when I got started anything non-mac in a studio was considered a really bad sign...). But almost all that loss is to Windows. And Apple Silicon machines being outstanding can't have been bad for them I imagine. Are there actual stats you're referring to here? For audio pros in particular I mean, not desktops/laptops at large?

The numbers are based upon the Linux rate of growth from 2% to 6% over the last 2.5 years.

[audiojunkie]

If the current growth trajectory of Linux continues, it is estimated that linux desktop share could hit 13% to 15% of total desktop adoption within 5 years.

[audiojunkie]

Now, granted, there are lots of things that could go wrong, and maybe it’s just been an unusual growth rate the last 5 years, but I can see it being possible, if not probable. Only time will tell how accurate the projections were. We’ll know better in 5 years if there is any accuracy to them. But one can always hope.

[audiojunkie]

Wow! KVR spam blocked my post, so I had to break up my message to get it to post. I could have posted all three of those paragraphs at one time if the spam blocker hadn’t of been triggered. Sorry about that!

[ghettosynth]

Also, I should have added to my posts that if you are a vendor and you would like me to give you money, then you do need to support Linux for the most part. 2026 is my switch year for my primary audio workstations. Linux has been mainstream for me for decades, on work machines. I am quite pro-AI, but not integrated into the OS in irresponsible ways, thank you very much.