I wouldn’t mind Linux support either. Of course, the plug-in manufacturers would all have to join in and audio interfaces would all have to work.
The support across distributions would be problematic. A potential solution would be for Steinberg to build their own dedicated distribution. Optimize it for all their programs and lock it down in a sense that Cubase, Nuendo etc only run on this distribution.
Similar to how older hardware like the mackie d8b ran on a barebones windows system, but you never saw the under lying OS.
As awesome as that would be there would still be the problem of third-party adoption for plugins & drivers. But if a serious manufacturer were to start down the path others would eventually follow.
I never used Reaper on Linux tbh, just on Windows. But I can somehow get what you say. While I would call myself a little computer/programming nerd, Linux on Desktop (Ubuntu) never clicked for me. It always had some “raw, unfinished” feel. Sure, you can do whatever you want, but thats also a lot of work and time consuming and a PITA when updating. In combination with Reaper, that could easily be too much.
I disagree on the demographics, but we can leave it there.
Compared to $500, it absolutely is! Most people in industry would rather put $1500 on, like, paying the mortgage, rather than Linux software.
And this is before we even consider all the third party plugins and hardware drivers that would have to be ported, too, for anyone actually working in the industry to be effective.
The way to make audio on Linux work, is very likely to build dedicated systems – you sell a rack box, which contains the CPU / disk / interface / software all in one. And you beat the snot out of it in testing, so you know it stays up 24/7 and can support whatever the installation is – mostly LBE style venues, I’d guess.
Maybe some box could be powered by Cubase, and maybe Yamaha is interested in going in that direction, so probing around that might be a reasonable path forward. But “install my Cubase license on a random machine, and have a great experience comparable to current Windows / Mac” is something that current economics forbid. No other “shrink wrap” pro software (Pro Tools, Studio 1, Ableton, etc) support Linux, very likely for the same reason.
Or maybe you can get the UAD people to support Linux with Luna, as a way to sell some of their hardware and break into a niche of the market?
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This is what containers are for. Hardware and plugin support is a much thornier problem.
Considering all the stability and performance issues of Cubase 12, it’s obvious that Steinberg doesn’t have the software engineering resources to even properly develop, maintain, and test their existing product line. If they have any spare money lying around they need to spend it on their existing product line.
And, then of course there would also be the matter of getting all the plugin/VST companies to port their products.
Also when I scrolled down I saw someone estimating this could be done for a million dollars. That’s nonsense. I spend the last 35 years of my career as a software design engineer and retired recently. In the US a good software design engineer (not just some entry level they hire to script tests!) makes well north of $100K / year just in salary. Throw in benefits, and all the overhead costs of keeping an employee on the books and you’re talking close to $200K/year. (at at today’s high inflation rates it will be there by next year). The numbers in western Europe can’t be that different.
So a million dollars buys you, what, 5 person years? That would not be nearly enough to port Cubase 12 to a different OS. Just porting the zillions of UI features alone so they would work on at least the major distros would probably take all that.
Porting a huge product like Cubase to Linux is pure pie in the sky.
Having done large ports in the past, it is absolutely possible. Cubase renders using OpenGL, and assuming that the GUI also renders using OpenGL, that’s probably not the biggest deal. Similarly, Cubase already runs on the Unix-like macOS, although how much of the kernel interfaces and how much of the kit interfaces it uses, I have no idea. At least it has to be aware of case sensitive file names.
For a similar project: Native Instruments ported Maschine to Linux, to run on the Maschine+ hardware. They didn’t port all their plugins, and they got to target that particular specific hardware, and no other hardware, which probably helped them a lot, but that’s the way to do it: Find a real piece of hardware that people would pay for, and let that drive the port.
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I am a dev. Tell them to give me the source code and I’ll do it for free.
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Probably worth posting some details of your previous work of this manner if you’re serious about this offer.
I May have made this up, but the last time Steinberg gave all the source code to a forum user, they went off and made Studio One with it which is a bit embarrassing.
At the very least you’d also have to promise not to make Studio Two or Cubase X or something.
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Sounds like a real d*ck move by that guy.
I’ve been working as a software dev for 7 years using many different languages on many different systems and architectures. I have extensive experience in windows and Linux development.
I’ve also been playing music for 20+ years and am very tired of using windows for music production so much so that I don’t do it anymore. I don’t want to buy a Mac and lock into that ecosystem because it seems like a money pit to me.
I’d be more than happy to sign something to say I wouldn’t run away and sell it as a separate product like that other unethical guy did. I’d be keen to have a look to see what is possible, what would be required and how long it might take.
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I’ll tell them. They’ll HAVE to listen to me as I am a very unimportant sound engineer of a small studio in the Netherlands.
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Problem is, rivals would get in contact with you in an attempt to trick you into selling it, they’ll send you gifts and offer lavish nights out to posh restaurants, unlimited tokens at lap dancing clubs, sports cars, houses by the sea etc.
Can you honestly resist that?
Just takes one drunken night where your lips go loose and you utter the entire source code to them, they’ll voice record it, and then re-assemble it all from that recording onto their machines. This is the world you’d be stepping in to, you could basically trust no-one.
What you need is an agent, someone trust-worthy and reliable like me, you get them to send source code in MS Word or whatever they use - we then take the best bits and we sell it on the streets to the linux community.
(If they’re willing to pay, of course.) 
@skijumptoes :
Problem is, rivals would get in contact with you in an attempt to trick you into selling it, they’ll send you gifts and offer lavish nights out to posh restaurants, unlimited tokens at lap dancing clubs, sports cars, houses by the sea etc.
Idk if they would do that. If I took up any of those offers then Steinberg would be dragging me through the legal system in multiple countries for damages that would definitely be in excess of what anyone could offer me though. In any case, most of that stuff you gave as an example doesn’t interest me in the slightest.
@skijumptoes
Just takes one drunken night where your lips go loose and you utter the entire source code to them, they’ll voice record it, and then re-assemble it all from that recording onto their machines. This is the world you’d be stepping in to, you could basically trust no-one.
That is actually hilarious. It would probably take more than a lifetime to utter the entire source code to someone and I have better things I’d rather do with my time. Also, that’s fine - I already trust no one.
@skijumptoes
What you need is an agent, someone trust-worthy and reliable like me, you get them to send source code in MS Word or whatever they use - we then take the best bits and we sell it on the streets to the linux community.
(If they’re willing to pay, of course.)
“Trust-worthy”. Let me repeat myself: I already trust no one. But the MS Word thing made me chuckle.
Yeah, my used Delta 1010 frequently crashes the latest version of Win 10 now and Microsoft doesn’t give a rip. Delta 1010 works fine in GNU\Linux but wile Jack seems to kick rear, Ardour is a far cry from Cubase 10.5. I can’t dump the kind of money the well known professionals can, but I would be willing pay the $200 to upgrade from Cubase 10.5 to Cubase 13.
If I had money, I would just buy a Mac Studio and new Audio Interface, but that isn’t the reality I live in. Sure, real musicians probably only need a few plugins and don’t need all of those virtual instruments, but as a one man shop hobbyist, I find the extra virtual instruments in Cubase 10.5 to be handy. I’m also sad I’m probably going to have to kiss Emulator X3 goodbye soon because as of this post, my Win 10 partition is starting to get seriously unstable and there’s no good way to reactivate Emulator X3 anymore even though I’m licensed. I did have Proteus VX running in GNU\Linux via Wine by the way but there was a notable amount of latency I didn’t resolve.
There is no reason Cubase can’t run in GNU\Linux at high levels of efficiency and low latency if the users have decent audio interfaces like the Delta 1010.
“Trust-worthy”. Let me repeat myself: I already trust no one. But the MS Word thing made me chuckle.
“Serious” musicians should never trust anyone other than other fellow “serious” musicians. We live in a day and age where the FBI, CIA and NSA will all soon be raiding the homes of people that own professional microphones.
Tow the MSDNC line or else…
spend the last 35 years of my career as a software design engineer and retired recently. In the US a good software design engineer (not just some entry level they hire to script tests!) makes well north of $100K / year just in salary.
Yeah, but just two skilled software engineers with complete access to the source code could maybe port Cubase 13 in half a year. One engineer would have to focus on the copy protection and the other would just have to worry about the lingering unexpected bugs that happen when you recompile to a UNIX like environment other than Mac OSX.
I think I’m starting to aggravate the “forum bot” though with my several posts.
Seriously, a hacker might be able to get Cubase 10.5 or Cubase 13 to work in Wine if they could get the copy protection to work correctly. My understanding is Cubase 13 no longer relies on the USB dongle so I don’t know if it would be easier or harder to get Cubase 13 to work in Wine as compared to Cubase 10.5. The other problem with Wine is there are potential legal issues. While I think Google vs Oracle at the Supreme Court settled the legality of Wine (once and for all), I still get nervous when running Wine on my computer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_LLC_v._Oracle_America,_Inc.
I’m OS agnostic. I work with what I have and use everything pretty happily. I haven’t found Windows 10 to be that bad. I don’t even have a personal account with Microsoft. Maybe move to Harrison Mixbus. Reaper has Linux builds that are apparently getting better too.
Old thread, but Art1 nailed it. As a former software development manager myself, 1M is a ludicrously low number. Easily more than double that.
I pity the fool who doesn’t agree! 