Good luck @uarte !
I keep my fingers crossed that everything works out just fine for you 
I totally respect your reasoning and who knows - maybe your transition to Linux is yet another tiny pebble stone that gets things in motion at Steinberg HQ.
All the best, man 
I hope to see you around from time to time. Also, I would highly appreciate if you shared your insights and how things are going with Linux!
See you and thank you for all your valuable contributions and sharing your knowledge 
Thank you! And I am hoping the same thing re: Steinberg’s support for Linux, just one more tiny pebble to get things in motion. I would like nothing better for this process to include Steinberg at some point. And I’m also trying to be respectful and conscious of what I’m saying here in this forum because after all, it is a Steinberg forum. I don’t want to give the wrong impression here, either, or try to persuade people to do what I’m doing. That’s not the point. This is not some big “95 theses” I’m nailing to the chapel door at Steinberg’s HQ in Hamburg, if you get the analogy.
While I realize it’s a long stretch to think that Steinberg is going to support Linux any time soon, I’m also posting to encourage Steinberg even just to dip their toe in the Linux pro audio waters one toe at a time! It doesn’t have to be a 100% full commitment right away.
If Steinberg just started with getting the licensing system to work on Linux, then I could start testing some of the apps/plugins on Wine, etc. I would be thrilled. Sign me up.
Then, if Steinberg decided to choose just one plugin or app to invest the resources to make Linux native, that would be amazing. Just pick one – HALion, SpectraLayers, WaveLab… anything… this does NOT need to be an all-in approach for them. I’ll take ANY of them. Cubase/Nuendo is probably too big and complex to be the first one they do. So start with a different one! I’m in. I’ll even gladly beta test for them and sign all their NDAs about it and wear Steinberg t-shirts on social media if I have to.
I plan on it!
Cheers!
From a practical standpoint, is it possible that a tool like Yabridge isn’t at a software dead end simply because its sole creator no longer has the time to maintain it and, more importantly, to update it with the latest kernel and Wayland developments?
Looking at the project on GitHub, it seems that no group has taken on the development of this product, which so many people rely on to run their Windows plugins on Linux ??
No worries about Yabridge, the community will deal with it (and anything like it) as needed one way or another, should things perhaps become a big problem, and there are plenty of very smart people who will help. Right now, for example, in March 2026, it works well and the best practices IMO for Yabridge are to use Wine 9.21 staging (not more recent versions IMO!), install Yabridge and Yabridgectl, and you’ll have a very high level of compatibility with many Windows plugins. There are plenty of guides that discuss this and the nuances about it, but yes, there is misinformation out there too, so I suggest people ignore any doom and gloom. Again, this is as of March 2026, things can always change.
The standard caveat is of course that Wine currently won’t work with things like iLok and similar draconian copy protection/licensing systems, etc., and I think I wrote some thoughts about that somewhere above in this thread, and again, there are many folks who can help you if you have problems. The biggest challenge for people IMO is that they just assume that “latest is greatest” and install the latest stuff (kernels, packages, distros, etc., etc.) by default, and expect it all to work better, then throw up their hands and cry foul if it doesn’t. My advice is to talk with people who are actually successful using this stuff, as opposed to people who are just trying it out or goofing around. It’s simpler than some people make it seem. But some people in this lovely world of ours love drama, and some people love to create drama.
The best solution, and also my own personal goal, is to use 100% native Linux plugins, of which there are a large number of really great ones that cover a lot of ground today. I wish Steinberg would take note of that, and it’s one reason why I will continue to encourage Steinberg to support Linux…. there IS a market happening there, slowly but surely. It just needs a big player to jump in to create a big boost. Some of the small developers who have jumped into Linux recently have some outstanding plugins that I would consider first class on any platform. I’d love it if Steinberg just dipped a single toe in the Linux water.
When I don’t have a Linux native plugin available, I can easily use Wine+Yabridge (best practices though!), and if that doesn’t cover it, there is still AudioGridder w/ a Windows machine OR other workarounds that can then become a big pain in the neck. YMMV.
But the whole ecosystem is totally viable and it’s about time Steinberg took another look at it.
In practice, so far, I’m pretty happy with sticking with mainly native plugins and occasional Wine/Yabridge plugins, with solid results, and that covers a LOT of ground… about 95% so far, for me. Situations with that last 5% are indeed a pain in the neck, but crossing fingers they will be rare. We’ll see what happens in the coming weeks when I have to lock myself in one way or another. If that 5% becomes an insurmountable problem, then I’ll be right back here in Nuendo on Windows if I have to, for another couple of years before I try to migrate to Linux again…
Cheers!
Thank you for yours answers in this thread. I hope something will move, I have seen so many Github projects abandonned (and I have been in the ones abandonning….)
Problem is that ‘old kernels’ do not manage correctly recent Intel procs (Core Ultra and even previous 14e gen) , and it seems that only the last 7.x will do it and no ‘stable’ distribs will include it in next months ?
So a lot of console work to assemble pieces never tested together. Which is an expert work…
There is never going to be an ideal situation for cutting edge hardware on ANY platform, Win, macOS, or Linux. There will ALWAYS be some friction or tension between the bleeding edge hardware/software/OS and perfect stability/optimization.
We’ve all been around long enough to give examples from every platform of something not being optimized, or something being broken, or something being unstable, at various times.
The specific SOLUTION is different for each person, depending on their tolerance for different kinds of risks and issues they might have to deal with.
For example, if you MUST have the most stable, reliable environment for some application, then AVOID the use of the latest cutting edge hardware and AVOID the use the latest cutting edge software/OS release. That applies to ALL platforms.
The wise veterans of the DAW world know this intrinsically because we’ve all been burned before and had to learn the hard way. And those who keep on getting burned just have NOT learned the lesson yet. They have not adjusted to reality.
Mac DAW veterans know not to upgrade immediately when the new macOS comes out each year unless they want to roll the dice and play with fate. Sometimes it’s okay, sometimes it’s a disaster. Most DAW developers say to delay upgrading macOS each year for a reason. I’ve got my badge of honor from macOS screwing me over many times in the past. Windows DAW veterans also know not to buy the latest CPU architecture that just came out unless they want to roll the dice too, in different ways. And really wise Windows users know they are playing with fire if want to use their DAWs as gaming rigs at the same time… game-optimized nVidia graphics drivers, for example, can cause issues with DAWs, and so forth. I’ve got my badge of honor from Windows too. And same kinds of stories with Linux DAW veterans… we all know the equation! It’s the SAME equation, different specific headline. The question is whether or not we have a strategy to keep us up and running?
You just have to choose your risk level and an appropriate strategy that strikes the right balance for you. But if you keep taking the same kinds of risks, and you are continuously unsatisfied with the results, then don’t be surprised!
So with regard to Linux kernels, that’s part of the same game like anything else. If you make DAW hardware purchase decisions based on the premise that “I bought so-and-so cutting edge hardware and now I want it to work flawlessly with an entire stack/ecosystem that it hasn’t been thoroughly tested on yet,” then you must also realistically prepare yourself to experience a lot of frustration.
But if you want maximum stability, instead of starting with the latest hardware and working backward to expect (or force) things to run perfectly on it, may I suggest that you START with asking what are already the most stable platforms and build up from there… from hardware to distro to kernel to best practices for things like Wine and Yabridge, instead of trying to run the latest hardware with the latest distro with the latest kernel with the latest Wine, and so forth.
Or, for those who don’t want to deal with any hassle, and want a more “turn-key appliance” kind of experience, then just stick with the most common distros for DAW work, and accept the kernel they give you, and it will probably be just fine for the vast majority of hardware, but DO expect some hassle or lack of optimizations for bleeding edge CPUs. Ubuntu 26.04 is about to come out, for example, that will serve as the basis for many other distros that will be commonly used by DAW users, and it comes with kernel 7.0 if I recall. That might be the magic ticket for certain new CPUs. But I won’t be upgrading right away to kernel 7-based distros… just like when I was a Mac user, I’ll let other folks take the heat first on the newest release, then I’ll join in later when things settle down. Because I don’t want to be a beta tester.
And BTW best practices for Wine and Yabridge as of March 2026 are what I suggested previously, lock it in at Wine 9.21 staging. It’s easy to do. But some people just don’t pay attention or they are impatient, and then they get frustrated because they think that the latest Wine is better. If you MUST have the latest bleeding edge version of Wine, for example, it looks like Wine 11.5 was just released, and it looks great, but YMMV in terms of DAW use. It appears Wine 11.5 has some nice performance improvements and will likely be very useful for gaming in particular.
But do you want to game or do you want to use a DAW? Yes, there are reports of some people getting Wine 11.5 to work with LinVST… so go for it and good luck. You might be just fine. But because I want to get stuff done in my DAW, I’m happy with Wine 9.21 with Yabridge for now. Again, YMMV. And it’s always evolving.
And if all that sounds overwhelming and a good reason to avoid Linux, it’s not. There’s nothing different in practice to what one might experience on other platforms. How many times has Apple broken something? Too many for me to count. How often has some weird graphics driver issue or DPC latency issue on Windows cause dropouts and strangeness, and it caused people to pull their hair out? What about some weirdness with the latest MIDI patches in Windows? Sure, they’ll fix it soon, but until then, that caused a headache for some people. I’ve got plenty of gray hairs from Windows, we all do, but we’ve been acclimated to it, so it doesn’t seem like a big deal. Even “little things” like Steinberg had to caution people against using Alder Lake (12th-gen) CPUs when they first came out because of issues. Which they eventually fixed of course. My point is, there’s no real difference in this sense except familiarity with a specific class of annoyance that we all face, on all platforms. It’s just how we deal with them.
My two bits only. Another long post. Sigh. 
Cheers!
Yes, long long and … resigned 
And yes I know all this, but facing the fact that Intel or AMD are designing their processors for MS and Apple for Apple, why should I resign to run on an old configuration with linux ? Even the concept of Bios is tailored for MS.
People at Steinberg would never bring a linux version if they have to maintain such a gap : code for recent processors for Apple and MS and code for a 3 years old processors for Linux ,
Tell me ?
So if kernel 7.x manages my proc, I need it in a stable implementation of Linux. Same for last Wayland.
Are you sure about that? I was at the hotel room in Frankfurt where the BeOS people inofficially showed BeOS and what partners in the industry they had. I don’t remember Steinberg were among them. I was working as a technical editor for a music magazine back then and we had good contact with Steinberg (and Emagic as well of course). I never heard anything about actual serious software being developed for BeOS. I could be wrong though, since that was 30 years ago and I might not remember everything.
What I do remember though is a version of Cubase for SGI-Workstations. I don’t remember which version it was, but a screenshot in some ads existed. I believe it was Cubase Audio (the one with 8 audio tracks before the advent of VST). That never saw the light, probably because SGI Workstations fell out of favour at some point and the user base just wasn’t there.
I mean I love these conversations. We could chat all day/night, but I better wrap up my essay with this one for now. But I love the topic. This response will probably be another long one, lol!
My goal is not to argue or debate or even persuade anyone, except in the sense that I want to encourage the Steinberg team to consider supporting Linux, that there is a real market out there, and it’s viable, growing (slowly), it’s fun, it works well, there are passionate users, and there are plenty of valid reasons to jump in and support Linux today.
New developers have been jumping in since the last time I tried to transition to Linux, and it’s making a huge difference for me this time. I believe it’s a matter of time that one of the larger developers will jump in. I sincerely hope it’s Steinberg. That would be amazing. Hence, why I keep posting here. 
What do you consider “old?” I’m running the latest AMD 9950x and it runs great, oodles of power on both Windows or Linux. I have an “older” Intel 12900K machine too, and it also runs great, although the P/E core model had issues with some apps at the beginning, now it’s pretty solid. And I’ve got lots of machines here in the studio, and they all still work great, including some ancient ones that Microsoft doesn’t even support anymore, but they run Linux just fine, including Reaper and Bitwig. Why am I forced to toss those “older” machines when they still work fine?
I do not have the latest Intel CPU though, so I can’t vouch for how well (or not well) it works on Linux.
And BTW how much CPU does someone actually NEED? Most people have “older” CPUs, and they still work great and do what they want. That’s the nature of the market. It’s not all filled with cutting edge CPUs. DAW developers aren’t targeting the highest end CPUs as their biggest priority anyway. They are targeting the CPUs that are actually in the market, that people currently own, that their users actually use.
And as for Intel or AMD designing their processors for MS, you’re talking about the desktop market only, of course, and if I’m reading your implication correctly, you seem to think that’s their main market objective. I don’t mean to read too much into your comment though. But obviously there are other markets, from mobile to cloud infrastructure that don’t focus on Windows, where Linux has a much higher marketshare running on these architectures.
Anyway, the goal of this thread (or rather, the goal of my current posts) is to encourage Steinberg to consider Linux, and I respect that we’re all entitled to our different opinions. Steinberg will likely side with your point of view of course, which is a bummer for me, BUT as long as they keep this thread open, I’ll respectfully jump in once in a while and write my big long posts with enthusiasm.
The whole DAW market is challenging right now to say the least. And what is going to happen over the next few years with the impact of AI is not entirely clear either, so it’s a tough job to make those decisions. I don’t envy Steinberg managers and accountants.
So in light of all this, I also look at Linux as a market opportunity for Steinberg, another market that is eager to leave behind Windows and macOS and what those OSes are becoming. It’s happening one way or another, with or without Steinberg. Maybe it will never be a “big” market though. Maybe Linux desktop marketshare will only “peak” at the current 5% marketshare. I don’t think so though. I think it will be heading higher. How high will it go? I have no idea. But if Microsoft and Apple continue in the direction they are going, there will be an increasing group of disaffected users like myself who will seriously consider migrating to Linux, and developers that are willing to support them.
What’s the magic number for Steinberg to jump in? I have no idea. But I imagine that if some big DAW developer DID jump in, then the number of creatives coming over to Linux would increase significantly. To have the full pipeline of DaVinci Resolve + Nuendo on Linux would be amazing. We’ve already got Resolve. Let’s go Steinberg!
As for me, I’m just one little customer, and I’m in the process of fully migrating over to Linux, as I’ve mentioned above in this thread. I’ve tried and failed many times, but if I’m successful this time (and BTW, my migration is going very well so far, as of today, March 31, 2026, crossing fingers), then Steinberg would therefore be losing their regular upgrade revenue from me, unless they decide to support Linux. Crossing fingers that Steinberg will eventually do it.
The point of saying that is not to be negative about Steinberg and try to convince people to jump ship or anything emotionally-charged and drastic like that, but more to encourage and highlight to Steinberg that Linux is viable today, quite solid right now, works great, and there are some folks out here that are quite optimistic about living in a post-Windows and post-macOS world for all their myriad of personal reasons. Reasons that are open to different opinions of course.
In any case, some people will laugh at that and think I’m insane, or think this is a terrible idea, or a colossal waste of resources, etc., and that’s fine. I’ve got no problem with people thinking whatever they want.
So I’ll just jump in periodically here as long as this thread is open, to express my sincere hope that Steinberg will consider it (or REconsider it if they already dismissed the idea), and I’ll keep marching to the beat of my own drum. After all, I have been a long-term Steinberg customer, been around for decades if we’re really counting. I would like nothing more than to continue paying for and using Steinberg products on my preferred OS.
Cheers to all!
Steinberg announced development of Nuendo for the BeOS platform in November 1998, aiming to leverage the operating system’s native Media Kit and high-performance audio.
M
BTW, had to chime in and say congrats to Steinberg for Cubase 15.0.20… the latest patch released today is EPIC! Wow! Happy for all you guys!
If I weren’t already well on the way to transitioning to Linux, I’d be thrilled with C15. Amazing update today, wow! Respect where respect is due!
The good news for me, at least, is that if I fail in my transition to Linux (I’ll know in a few weeks), I have a good place to come back to.
I will admit, I am a tiny bit jealous, and if my opinions about Windows and macOS were different, I’d be a very happy Steinberg user today!
Huge respect to Steinberg for the latest Cubase patch!
Now, if only Steinberg would eventually support Linux one day, then it would be the best of both worlds for me.
Cheers to all, and happy Cubase patch day today! Enjoy the cool new features! If I fail with Linux, I’ll be back here enjoying these features with you!
May be Steinberg should start by ‘linuxing’ VST Live ?
An area where live players will appreciate linux.
For those worrying about telemetry and personal data:
Just get a Linux computer for all sensitive applications. Running your DAW on Win or OSX is not an issue because nobody in the tech industry gives a single crap about your music. None of them. At this point deals have been struck and the damage done as far as training AI on data sets, so you don’t have to worry about them taking your music to train AI.
They’re not going to take your music and directly sell it, because a) it’s probably not going to be good enough to stand out above the noise, b) they’re not going to make much money doing it. They’re also not going to raid your bank accounts or track your whereabouts based on you using Cubase, unless you’re on a laptop.
And if you are worried about being location-tracked the question is why, and if you have something to hide then using Cubase on a laptop is the least of your problems. You would have to deal with your smartphone situation and your money situation for starters, and most likely your enemy wouldn’t be Microsoft or Apple but your government and its representatives. Ask yourself how well you have prepared against them going after you. I bet that for the vast majority that are worried about “telemetry” the answer is “not at all”.
I would support Cubendo on Linux, all day, but I doubt it’s going to happen, and the things we have to worry about these days are orders of magnitude more significant than what OS a random person is using for their DAW.
Who, incidentally, are hard at work to turn Linux into a surveillance system.
Hey @MattiasNYC - you know I respect you, so my comments aren’t meant in an argumentative way, just some thoughts from one reasonable human to another.
It’s definitely a viable solution for some people, one that I’ve used for years and years. I ditched Windows and macOS for all my personal stuff a long time ago, and I’ve been just fine. My larger goal has been to ditch Windows and macOS 100% in ALL areas, including music production, and that’s been difficult for a lot of reasons I’ve mentioned in this thread. Lots of long posts, lol. And as I also mentioned, I’m giving it another shot, and so far so good. My “window of transition” is closing soon, so if I fail in transitioning over to 100% Linux, then I’ll fall back to how I was doing it before with mainly Windows….. then try again in a couple of years. Eventually I will succeed! Hopefully sooner rather than later.
That set of arguments has never been a major motivating factor for me, personally, but I can see how it might be an issue for some people who are not fully- or even reasonably well-informed. My own set of motivations are more on the philosophical side. I had a big long post somewhere up above in this thread outlining some of my own philosophical thoughts. But to your specific point here, there are MANY reasons why someone might want to transition to Linux for music production, but this one you listed here is not a strong one. So if someone’s whole motivation were based on this quote above, I’d agree, it’s pretty flimsy.
This is one of the great fallacies of the argument and misses the entire core argument IMO. It has nothing to do IF you have something to hide. Let’s turn the vector back to the correct orientation IMO, and shift the burden back to where it belongs. Whether or not someone has something to hide is utterly not the point. What this argument fails to encapsulate are the profound ethical, moral, sociological, legal, privacy-related and economic issues related to the collection of telemetry, for example. It strikes at core freedom of speech issues, the nature of consent, surveillance, economic models based on profiles, legal frameworks that create persistent markets of aggregated telemetry allowing bypass of hundreds of years of court precedents and things like search warrants, and on and on and on. These are moral and ethical questions that go FAR beyond any simple thought experiment about “IF you have something to hide.”
Those kinds of concepts are why I am personally making the move to 100% Linux. And again, this is coming from someone who is also eminently pragmatic when needed. I’m not an absolutist. I’ve been doing the balancing act of Windows/macOS + Linux for years, and like you, we both know the tough realities of running a business and delivering for clients. And frankly I may be right back here on Windows in a little while if my latest Linux attempt fails (which so far, fortunately, is still going well!).
So you are bringing up a very valid point, BUT it is IMO conflating two somewhat overlapping, but ultimately distinct issues, and so I will attempt offer a brief response to hopefully show the differences between issues for people who don’t see it or understand it yet.
Those two general domains are often lumped into one set of arguments, but notwithstanding the overlap – since to get into domain 2 you need to have already passed through domain 1 to some degree – they are still different sets of evaluations and reasons.
For example, with domain 1, my question is primarily focused on the big ethical picture about what I think is right or wrong, for example. These are broad ideas, and for some people they strike at their core values of what matters to them in life. I tend to want to live a values-oriented life so I want to live consistent to values I hold dear. That’s enough to want to migrate to Linux for me. It’s more than enough.
Whereas with domain 2, a different, sometimes complex set of questions have to be asked, depending on personal circumstances and preferences. This can include a real threat assessment, which is something that is way beyond the scope of this forum.
I’ll just say that for most people I know who are conflating these issues, they tend to look at domain 2 without fully parsing the issues and distinguishing it from domain 1. And as you said, most people don’t care, so this discussion is just waste of ink (or bits and bytes!) to some of them.
BTW, if you want to really look into domain 2, it’s quite fascinating and might be very sobering or even terrifying to some of you. But again, that’s outside the realm of this forum IMO. It’s too loaded, and it also gets into politics, and it’s not appropriate here IMO. My own arguments here revolve around domain 1. If we want to get into domain 2, buckle up, and this thread will go downhill quickly and probably get locked.
So when anyone jumps in with the argument “I don’t have anything to hide,” I think they are completely missing the main points. That argument is based on flawed assumptions, conflating the major fundamental issues, and missing what concepts like “privacy” really mean. Not to get TOO much more into this, but I’ll just add that privacy is NOT about secrecy, but rather it is really about autonomy, aka power. The argument also reveals a lack of understanding of how data persists across contexts, aggregation reveals WAY more than you think, with ramifications that go beyond “I don’t have anything to hide.” On top of that, data outlives the entities that collect it, and you can’t retroactively un-collect it. One of many consequences is that this has a chilling effect on intellectual freedom. I’ll skip my usual sermon and stop there.
Basically, the whole argument that is pushed out there these days actually inverts the burden. It suggests you must justify privacy rather than requiring collectors to justify intrusion. I fundamentally believe that you should NOT have to prove that you deserve to keep your privacy.
Anyway, I’ll leave it with some fun last food for thought, as a former NSA counsel said, “Metadata absolutely tells you everything about somebody’s life.” And a former NSA director said, “We kill people on metadata.” Welcome to our modern world.
Amen, brother!
When I say “if you have something to hide” I don’t mean that you’re necessarily doing something illegal or even immoral, I just mean something to hide from those that would cause you direct harm. That’s all that it means when I say it.
The objections you bring up above are to a large degree already moot or doesn’t really affect people. We “freely” give consent to moderate data collection (telemetry) as well as other things, economic models based on profiles aren’t necessarily or even predominantly personal unless you enable things like shopping and ad search results aligning with personal preferences (which a lot of people judge as being just “a better search engine”) and instead it has to do with the broader context of where our currently socio-economic and geo-political systems are headed, and if that’s where the conversation is we again have much more important things to worry about than “telemetry”.
“Search warrants” and “freedom of speech” again relates to what I was addressing, which was if you have “something to hide”. I know we’re getting extremely close to forbidden topics but I reiterate: if this is something you’re worrying about then you really have much, much bigger issues than “just” running Windows. It’s literally your entire footprint in society including mobile devices and everything else, and once “they” decide to come after you you’re in for a really tough ride no matter what. I wonder what else people do to move society in the right direction other than choosing Linux over Windows / OSX. Most of the time, in my experience, close to nothing. And that is the much bigger problem.
The rest of the world will encroach upon you unless you make changes beyond the immediate personal concerns, is my point.
Generally and otherwise I agree with you of course.
I think this is getting to the heart of my point. Shifting from one software to another is a game of “them” playing Whack-A-Mole, a never ending battle for control. Rather than playing defense and always trying to outrun the Electric Eye the fight should be a the political and legislative level, otherwise it never ends.
PS: For reference, seeing that not everyone is as young and hip as I am;
Whac a Mole game in action.
Judas Priest - The Hellion / Electric Eye - YouTube
And here you strike close to the heart of the matter IMO. This whole discussion of Cubase for Linux is like a little flash in the pan. Since we are limited to discussing the relevance to Steinberg, etc., etc., I try to restrain myself and be more or less relevant so I don’t break decorum in the forum. But if you care at all about those larger issues, however we might frame them, then Linux is a small part of that conversation. Cubase smaller yet. Yep.
Sad but very true.
Bingo.
Double bingo.
Amen!
Can’t disagree, BUT again we’re talking about domain 2 of my earlier post.
At least with Linux, the OS is open source and it turns out we can fork anything and do what we want, as long as there are people who care and can do it.
The day that ends, well, we’ll be cannon fodder for name-your-apocalypse and we’ll all be worrying about other things.
I’d like to be an optimist though, even if the evidence suggests I should be a pessimist! 
Until then I’ll at least keep trying to build my little world around some ideas I care about! 
Update from the trenches of my transition to Linux:
As I indicated a couple of weeks ago, I have been trying – once again after many prior failed attempts – to transition to Linux for pro audio work. I had already transitioned for all other personal and business work years ago.
My window of time to switch back to Windows is rapidly coming to a close, and I have to commit either way. Either I stick with my Linux path, or I switch back to Windows, and try again in another couple of years.
And I’ve made my decision.
As some of you know I am a big Steinberg fan, so this is a painful decision in many ways, because I cannot currently run Steinberg products on Linux.
But I’ve decided the time has come to move to Linux.
This will obviously have a big impact on my studio, and it has been a decision in the making for many years. I know the landscape. I know ALL the pros and cons. It’s not easy for me. But I am transitioning to Linux for primarily philosophical reasons – things that matter to me, personally. I’ve explained some of my reasoning in prior posts in this thread. No need to go over that again.
And as always, we’re all different and have different needs. My decision works for me, and may not work at all for you. And I’m not trying to convince anyone to do what I’m doing.
Now why don’t I just quietly go away and disappear then? Why don’t I just shut up about this?
Well, the reason why I am still posting here (and simultaneously BTW not trying to create any drama!), is that I still consider myself a Steinberg customer, and I have been for many years. I want to frame everything I’m saying in this thread with respect to the fact this is the Steinberg forum, and I’m speaking as a Steinberg customer who still wants to persuade Steinberg to begin supporting Linux, even if Steinberg starts really small with a single VST instrument. I’ll continue to upgrade EVERY Steinberg app and plugin when they start supporting Linux.
In other words, I would like nothing better for my music/audio production to be using Cubase, Nuendo, Dorico, WaveLab, SpectraLayers, HALion, etc., etc., etc…. and I have licenses for most (if not all) of the Steinberg apps, and I’m up to date, except with Nuendo, which I’m on v14.
So that’s the context. This is NOT some dramatic “goodbye post” kind of garbage. This is just one single, sincere, long-term customer that has decided it’s time to leave Windows and macOS. But I do NOT want to leave Steinberg. Therefore, this post is just one more respectful post encouraging Steinberg to consider Linux once again.
But this time, admittedly, my post is a bit different (although equally long, apologies for my long posts! ), because I’m really doing it. I’m really leaving Windows and macOS. My transition has been going better than expected. And that means I’m not planning on updating/upgrading any of my Steinberg apps going forward until Steinberg comes over to Linux.
So yes, this post only represents a single customer, but also thousands of dollars of lost update/upgrade revenue from me over the coming years, at least until Steinberg supports Linux. I’m posting this because this post is different than just another “wishful thinking” feature request and yet I still used to upgrade Steinberg licenses anyway because I was still stuck on Windows or macOS. This time it is different. I’m really going to Linux. Now my actual money is involved, now I’m actually voting with my wallet. This is not AGAINST Steinberg. But FOR Linux support.
I hope the distinction makes sense. And this is why I still consider myself a Steinberg customer… but I’m just in a Steinberg purgatory waiting for (hopefully) their decision to support Linux.
My plan is to hang on to all my Steinberg licenses in the hope they will support Linux, and on that day, I will GLADLY upgrade my licenses.
Moreover, if Steinberg wants to look for beta testers for Linux stuff, they can count on me, and I’ll sign all their NDA stuff and test ANYTHING they want to do on Linux.
Not to take up too much more space on this, but in one sentence, my transition to Linux has essentially been a success.
I won’t get into specific details about it, since this is not the appropriate kind of content for a Steinberg forum IMO, and I don’t want to get this thread banned or create any drama. This thread needs to live on. There are plenty of forums where Linux pro audio is discussed, and all the gritty details (and yes, sometimes it’s a pain in the neck!), can be researched and debated.
So my transition these last few weeks has been good enough that I can confidently say that I am officially done with Windows. BUT, in full disclosure, and as I’ve mentioned before, the important caveat is that I have older active projects that need to be slowly transitioned away from Windows, plus some clients who need access to Win or Mac, plus a handful of important plugins/apps that I still currently need to use occasionally that don’t yet exist on Linux or run on current versions of Wine. So as I had planned and mentioned before, I am keeping one Windows and one Mac machine handy for those scenarios as I phase them all out.
Does this make me a hypocrite? Nope. I’m pragmatic, and I run a business.
My threshold for “success” this time was 95% usage on Linux. Since I run a business, the pragmatic approach is necessary, as any business owner knows. But the last time I tried to transition to Linux, there were simply too many gaps, way too much friction for me, and I couldn’t do it. But now I can. This time I’m definitely 95%+ on Linux now, moving closer to 96%, 97%, etc., and last week I didn’t even need to touch a Windows or Mac machine. Not once. At some point I’ll be 100% native Linux. Right now I’m 95%+ Linux plus Wine/Yabridge. This kind of thing takes time, but I passed the threshold I needed to make it happen now.
Again, I am not saying goodbye. I’ll still chime in once in a while… and I’m still a Steinberg customer. I’m just “on hold” until the Hamburg execs decide to jump in to Linux. And quick reminder to any Steinberg leader reading this: again, I’ll beta test any Linux product under NDA without hesitation.
Of course, the most important thing is making music and audio productions, which is what we all love, which is what we’re all here for. So I wish you guys all the best, even if you think I’m crazy! I know my choice won’t make sense to many folks, but alas, life is short, we do what we must, and we can still all get along and hope for a brighter world. Doesn’t mean we need to agree on everything.
Cheers!