Yeah I wish for Steinberg to make Cubase for Linux as well. I’ve been using a Ubuntu based version of Linux since 2005 and have ran three businesses on it. Finding alternative software that I used to use on Windows and finding a suitable alternative for Linux. Windows scares me to run something as important as my DAW on it. Mac is a Unix like OS similar to Linux but the cost is stupid. The value of a Mac just isn’t there for me. I’ve been in the computer sales/service/development industry since 1993. In the early days I used Windows 95/98 and XP to run DAWs like Cakewalk, Nuendo 5, Logic and others. Then in 2007 I decided to look for a DAW that would run nativly in Ubuntu. I found Ardour and loved it. The support is good and the ongoing development is even better. But as I got deeper and deeper into music I was concerned about the collaboration and compatibilities could be a problem. Although I don’t think this is a “no go” because most projects would be export in a common audio format like .wav but the more glaring problem was the small user base. It made it very difficult to get video tutorials and other support, although the forum and manual is good. I dragged my feet for almost a year but I ended up switching to Cubase Pro 12 because of it’s features, the HUGE user base and it’s long history. IF there was an option for a Linux version of Cubase I would switch like yesterday.
Steinberg isn’t going to see the large linux user base because the product doesn’t exists…so of course there seems to be no logical reason to port Cubase to Linux. There have been plenty of DAWs that were only made for Mac OR WIndows but most are available for both. In fact the once Linux only DAW Ardour is now available for Mac Linux and Window. If three developers working on Ardour can make this happen a huge company like Steinberg can too. It’s one of those “if you build it, they will come” kind of thing. On Windows I feel very uncomfortable with the massive amount of bloat, constant update and changes to the OS as I’m using Cubase and the scary thought of fully servicing my Windows machine every two years or so to keep it running decent enough. The amount of software and configuration tweaks are endless. I’ve been a IT pro for a long time and it scares the crap out of me to know how Windows is and have all of my music projects on it…but I have little choice right now. I would have gone with a Mac but the cost and value vs cost is not aligned at all.
I live in Poland and I bought a new Intel 8650 PC, it is from 2017, And recently, problems with Microsoft began, namely, it turned out that the Windows 10 operating system will only be supported for one more year, even though my computer has had 32 GB of memory The newest since new, this is according to Microsoft policy my computer is not that slow at all, but it is no longer supported by the latest Windows 11 operating system, I bought a Steinberg UR-RT2 audio interface for this computer, This all seems like a sick situation to me,because I would also like to give up Windows and install Linux on this computer which I bought in 2017 with an M2 SSD hard drive with a capacity of 512 GB, all this is more than enough for today, but Microsoft sets conditions for the use of the new Windows 11 , because according to his policy, I should change my computer right now to be able to use his new Windows 11 system .This is some sick pathology. Because I would also like to switch to Linux, but even my Steinberg UR-RT2 sound card does not have drivers for Linux , so it may be very difficult or even impossible. So far I have been using cubase AI and the old cubase 5 from 2009 Years .Because I have a lot of old plugins for 5. It seems to me that what Microsoft is doing now with Windows 11 is the same as what Yamaha did earlier with my Motif Es7 synthesizer and 01x , both of them only work in Windows XP and there is no support for drivers for newer operating systems, I mainly mean drivers for the MLAN Firewire connector , because I have this Yamaha Motif es7 synthesizer with a built-in firewire mlan16e card, Yamaha 01x mixer mlan od tej same - all two which is no longer supported by newer windows from xp. Isn’t it strange that users of this equipment on the Internet organized a fundraiser for programmers for programmers to write them a commercial driver for these devices, but unfortunately they did not manage to collect the required amount of cash. Coming back to the topic, I would be very happy if I had support for Linux drivers for devices such as the Steinberg UR-RT2, or for the mlan16e firewire card built into my synthesizer Yamaha motif es7 , and an even older version of cubase 5 for Linux would also make me very happy. But Steinberg and Yamaha are not really interested in this operating system Linux. It makes me very sad that Microsoft has disabled my machine - a PC from 2017 for support windows 11.As I mentioned, I bought this computer in 2017year with 32 GB of DDR4 RAM and it has 4 cores and 8 threads, which is sufficient for music production , I would like to say goodbye to Windows and Microsoft in favor of Linux , but it will be very difficult because companies such as Steinberg or Yamaha do not provide support , I heard about the energy XT DAW version for Linux but I haven’t tested it yet ,Dear gentlemen, is there a chance that drivers for the Steinberg UR-RT2 sound card will be released for Linux? Does anyone know anything about this? I have another problem, I have an old Steinberg hypersonic2 plug-in Which worked fine for me under Windows XP, but doesn’t work on Windows 10 anymore and so under cubase 5, after running this plugin, an error is shown
Seems like they could pivot the Cubasis team over to Linux fairly easily. That app already has roots in Linux being both iOS & Android compatible. I understand it’s just similarities but it would be a start if they released cubasis for Linux and built off that and started add features from there. I think it’s a bit unrealistic to think they could release a fully working Cubase for Linux right out of the box but, something to get their feet wet and add to is a bit more realistic. And it would allow them to gauge actual interest in a full blown version.
Anyway, that’s my naive 0.02
Casey
I would think guys that if Linux was an option for any major DAW I think many many people would switch. Windows is a nightmare. I’m talking from many decades of professional computer servicing, sales and development. It’s much worse than you likely realize. Microsoft’s “Support” simply means that there will be no more updates. To be honest, updates are half the problem with using Windows in the first place! If you could shut off updates that would be the first thing I do. That was only possible up to Win XP. You can only delay the download and installation of updates in Windows 7 and up. Nightmare. In regards to drivers. Have you actually tried the hardware you mention in a Linux environment? I had a really old M-Audio 2496 audio card and a MidiMan Sport 8X8 midi interface from the 90s and all of it worked inside Ardour running Ubuntu MATE. Also Device Compliant hardware will work out of the box in a linux world too. I have no doubt that if Steinberg did offer Cubase for Linux that a tons of people would leave Windows behind. I think it would really turn the music production world upside down.
Curious what you consider a major DAW? Does Reaper count? In any case, I would be thrilled with Cubase for Linux and I’ve put my vote or comment in every chance I get. But if Steinberg doesn’t jump in to Linux… you do have options to use Linux right now.
As for many people switching over, I think it might be true once we reach critical mass with several factors coming into play over the next few years. The difficulty bar to switch to Linux has been trending down for years, the pro audio ecosystem has been maturing and growing, and Apple and Microsoft have taken a direction that might just push enough people to build that critical mass that will attract the biggest developers. Will we reach that critical mass to bring Steinberg over? I have no idea, but I sure hope so.
But there are already some excellent DAWs on Linux, as you know. I’ve been using and testing most of them for a while now and they work great. I wish Cubase/Nuendo were among them, but I will have to move on if Steinberg stays exclusively on Win/Mac. I have been holding out and wishing for Steinberg to join the Linux community, but my time is running out and I no longer want to juggle Linux plus Mac or (formerly) Windows any more. So I’m heading out the door. Microsoft and Apple have gone a direction I don’t plan to follow, so it’s going to be the end of the journey for me with Steinberg fairly soon, unfortunately… unless they decide to start developing for Linux, which I would welcome with plenty of upgrade fees for every product that gets ported to Linux. I don’t need everything all at once, but if I got some official signal from Steinberg that they’re developing for Linux, I’d be thrilled.
BTW, the two best commercial DAWs on Linux IMO at the moment are Reaper and Bitwig. Presonus has a Linux beta for Studio One as you already know, and that will be an excellent option when it comes out of beta. I imagine by Studio One 7’s release, that they’ll be ready. Right now the beta has some rough spots, but it’s pretty impressive if you think about how much work they’ve done. You also have Tracktion Waveform 13 Pro (which is surprisingly fun to use), Harrison Mixbus 10 Pro (which now supports immersive audio), Renoise (which follows a classic/retro tracker paradigm which might get you out of any creative funk you’ve been in), not to mention all the open source ones… etc…
So there are some excellent options now. And as far as plugin developers for native Linux plugins go, you’ve got some outstanding developers that cover a lot of areas from U-he to TAL to AudioThing and other gems, including great open source plugins. And for the areas you can’t cover easily with native plugins, then you of course have Wine and Yabridge, which work better than you might think, which allow you to run many Windows plugins in Linux. It’s not as hard as some people imagine. It’s not a mystery. A good percentage of my Windows plugins will run just fine on Linux. I use a lot of typical Windows plugins, including Fabfilter and I even now have Native Instruments Kontakt working well on Linux (although that was trickier to get working, but still not difficult).
Anyway, the time has come when it’s not that hard to make the leap. Everyone is different though. You have different needs than I do. But for me, I’m basically done with Windows and macOS, and I’ve been moving more and more into Linux, and it’s been a fun (albeit bumpy!) ride. The tough stuff is behind us IMO, the early adopters years ago helped pave the way. The road right now is not perfect, but at least no one needs to feel trapped in Windows or macOS any more.
Hello everybody !
I haven’t read everything, please excuse me, but based on my knowledge of Linux and hardware.
We are not talking about Cubase in this first point but only about the essentials for Cubase to work. For all the technologies which are basically intended for Windows, they need drivers to work unlike Apple (well if Apple maintains its reliability on this point). For what ? For hardware designed for Windows this reduces the production costs of the hardware in question and for manufacturers it is simpler to make updates. Apple, Normally, the drivers are integrated into the device. Linux, it works with mostly free drivers. It is true that you can use third-party repo drivers. But there can always be compatibility issues and there you have to get your hands dirty. Also to see if the production company has planned or wants to put money into support for this OS?! This is only the hardware part… Now let’s move on to the kernel, for the studio to work you have to run on a low latency kernel see RT. Which means that your OS will not be designed for gaming or everyday tasks! You have to configure Jack jackaudio.org, by the way, while writing this I just saw that they have made a MAC and Windows version. I’ll have to test that…
Now let’s move on to Cubase. It is true that with blinds,
we have applications in .app or use Snapcraft io, flathub, etc. We say to ourselves, we can integrate Windows applications into Linux. This is true and false at the same time. We must not forget that these applications are isolated from the system during their execution and this isolation is isolated from the kernel. For this there are layers of virtualization. App → isolate → Virtual → Jack → K.RT (So the explanation is extremely simplified, it is to give the complex image of the task.) Which unlike Rosegarden, Ardour (Now version Win/Mac) or Muse which are native applications → Jack → K.RT.
I think there will be a fairly significant latency which JACk will have to use up on machine resources to correct and make the connection. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I think that before Cubase is truly stable for Linux, there is a high probability of dissatisfaction due to the regression encountered (Bug). Because if you think you can work overnight on a project that is Win/Mac → Linux compatible without crashing. That would be the very definition of optimist… The guy plants two acorns and goes to buy himself a hammock!
Then I might be wrong, since it’s been quite a while since I was interested in computer music under Tux. One thing is certain, it is that users like me who use a Steinberg UR sound card, Steinberg will have to develop the drivers first. 
@uarte : From memory we can use the vst plugins extension .dll
Cordialy,
PS: A DAW is the last program dependent on all others to merge instruments and produce music. There must be a compatibility movement upstream of Cubase.
Message in up, sorry !
first you have to consider the user group.
Steinberg products are used in many professional studios. These people don’t have time to mess around.
Reaper and Bitwig are used more by hobbyists and people who like to tinker with the daw and computers (not meant in a derogatory way).
Developing and maintaining costs a lot of money and time.
So in my opinion it won’t happen.
Personally, I also think a third OS like Linux is unnecessary. Because there are far more problems than it has benefits.
Sorry but on the last point… There would be no Linux, you can remove at least 70% of the technologies you use. We will simply say that each professional application technology has its OS.
Medical, Phone, Tablet, Network (internet), Server, GPS, etc.
My audio interfaces from RME runs linux. My DAW controller (avid) runs linux. (They don’t work with linux DAWs but they are built with linux as there internal embedded OS).
If we did not see that a big portion of the threads in this forums was about how to get their windows or mac computers to work with cubase that would have made some sense. But people have a lot of the problems it seems. And if you talk about professionals I think most of them still use ProTools HD/HDX where the your DAW is just a graphical front-end to the hardware DAW. (Running embedded linux? A guess that is)
When professionals uses digital audio for live shows they don’t use windows or macs. They can still use their VST plugins in their digital mixers. They do that with for example waves soundgrid. And guess what? Soundgrind is a PC-style computer running linux. I don’t think this guys have chosen linux for it’s low cost.
This is now largely not an issue, as of a few years ago. Most current audio devices are class compliant, for example, and Linux supports class compliant devices much like Apple. In other words, if you can plug it in and go with it on Apple devices, then you can plug it in, and you’re good to go on Linux too. It’s not 100% perfect, and there may be features that will be missing from some niche hardware of course. But if you need i/o, you can have it. If you need decent latency, you can have it. In my experience, I’ve tested many class compliant audio devices from many companies, and found almost all of them to work well out of the box, with no additional drivers, for Linux.
When it comes to graphics cards, the story is similar in terms of plug and play on Linux, assuming you are using a recent kernel, which all the mainstream distros are using. In the case of nVidia, you will still likely need to use their proprietary drivers to get your money’s worth, which most distros support too. For AMD, their open source support inside current kernels is surprisingly good, and no additional drivers are usually necessary. Again, plug and play for the most part.
The idea that you need extra drivers on Linux and lots of tweaking is based on old paradigms. It was true several years ago. But even the very conservative Debian distro with their current release (Debian 12 Bookworm) will support the vast majority of hardware out of the box, with very little to no tweaking. Where you run into problems is with cutting edge CPUs or hardware or fringe devices like uncommon wireless chipsets. Then of course you’ll run into issues (which are almost all solvable). However, in a practical sense, if your hardware is from about 2022 and earlier, pretty much any current major distro will handle it with NO additional drivers. And this includes 12th gen CPUs with performance/efficiency cores as of about kernel 5.18 if memory serves. An old Ubuntu 22.04 iso will require a newer kernel to work with 12th gen CPUs out of the box, which is understandable since Ubuntu 22.04 came out in 2022 and that was too close to the release of 12th gen CPUs, so you have to get an updated kernel for Ubuntu 22.04. BUT the current Ubuntu 24.04 ships with kernel 6.8 and works fine with no tweaking, for example. So you have to take that kind of thing into account if you run bleeding edge hardware. But keep in mind that when 12th gen CPUs came out, you couldn’t properly run Cubase on it on Windows either. So bleeding edge hardware will give you headaches no matter the platform.
This is another outdated idea that still gets circulated today, unfortunately. From my own extensive testing and experience with it, your average, easy-to-install Ubuntu with its default kernel and default settings will run pro audio apps surprisingly well at very good latencies when you use a decent class-compliant external audio interface. The days of tweaking kernels or installing RT kernels is over.
You can get good performance out of the box today, with zero effort. The level of difficulty of getting a performant Linux machine running DAW applications has been lowered to consumer-levels, and it has become even easier than getting Windows working well in some cases.
Now if you WANT to tweak the kernel more and want to finesse the last drop of performance out of your Linux DAW, you can certainly do that. But even THAT is now remarkably easy to do with things like Ubuntu Studio’s separate installer that helps you configure additional low-latency options on any other Ubuntu flavor, for example. This is entirely unnecessary for most people, and your basic installation of Ubuntu 24.04 or Linux Mint 21 or even Debian 12 vanilla KDE or GNOME installation will run DAW apps surprisingly well out of the box. This is something I’ve personally tested on many machines, and I’ve gotten surprisingly good latencies of around 3ms with almost no effort. Sometimes even better depending on kernel and hardware.
There is a learning curve though, and conflicting info out there, and due to the decentralized and often chaotic chorus of different voices, it is easy to get turned off or confused for many people. There is a big PR problem too IMO. But once you start exploring this yourself and gathering your own data with current distros and a decent class-compliant audio interface, you may be as surprised as I was. It works far better than I expected.
I must be an optimist then! I do it all the time. Things are much better than they used to be.
Again, things have improved significantly. I appreciate that you recognize that you might be wrong. Your information would have been correct up to about 3-4 years ago IMO. I’m guessing you haven’t given it a shot since before then. But in the last few years, things have significantly improved as a baseline in kernels and with apps.
I’d say most major distros around 2022 largely settled the main problems you mention for typical usage for most people. Obviously, there are a lot of factors, and there’s nothing stopping people from tweaking as much they want, including tweaking to the point that they mess up their systems. But in general, your typical average Ubuntu 24.04 LTS of today will run DAW apps and plugins very well, out of the box, with no additional effort, including running Windows plugins via Wine/Yabridge. It’s pretty surprising how well it works.
I know colleagues that would say everything was “fine” with very little effort to get a studio running on Linux by about 2020. And I know some who have been doing it 6-7 years. But I think for most people using distros with updated kernels circa 2022 would have already been comfortably in plug-and-play territory. Of course, YMMV, and there’s still a learning curve, and people will always think that the latest hardware equals the best performance. But the sweet spot, as I implied before, is about 2 years behind with your hardware compared to the current kernel, and you’ll be 95-100% chance in good shape if you follow that advice.
In other words, with the example of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, which was recently released, then I’d suggest people use hardware from 2022 or earlier to play it safe. I’ve tested it on more recent hardware, and it’s been fine too, BUT I think edge cases will increase as a function of how recent your hardware is, in which case you’re back to hunting for tweaks and installing bleeding edge kernels, etc., which is not fun.
But who in their right minds would want to do bleeding edge hardware today and not expect to have some headaches on Windows and Mac too? Cubase didn’t support efficiency cores when the 12th gen CPUs came out, in fact you were cautioned against using Cubase on 12th gen when it came out. So it’s really no different in a practical sense. If you want bleeding edge hardware, be prepared to have headaches, no matter what OS you use.
Correct, you can use VST plugins on Linux that are Windows DLLs (dynamic link libraries) but they need to run with Wine, which is a compatibility layer that translates Windows API calls on the fly to run on Linux. It’s not perfect, but it is very mature now and works with a lot of plugins and Windows apps. You must use Wine and something like Yabridge to install, setup, and configure your Windows VST plugins, and it works quite well for the most part, EXCEPT when the plugins have invasive copy protection or licensing schemes, or complex networking or graphical requirements. In my experience, those kinds of plugins are hard to impossible to get working. So for example, if you are using a ton of plugins with iLok protection, then you will not be able to use those plugins. I have not had success getting iLok to work.
Wine and Yabridge are easy to use and work well with many top plugins though, as long as they don’t have invasive copy protection or unique hardware requirements… as I mentioned, I use plugins from Fabfilter via Wine on Linux, and they work great. I also recently got NI Kontakt to work including all my Kontakt library licenses.
In other words, you can get running on Linux with many (or maybe most) of your existing plugins inside one of the native Linux DAWs, like Reaper, Bitwig, Studio One (in beta), Tracktion Waveform, Mixbus, Ardour, and others. The choices are pretty good. It is largely plug and play at this point. No kernel tweaks are needed. No proprietary drivers are needed for the most part unless you use nVidia or cutting edge hardware. It works better than it did, out of the box, than it did just two years ago, and way better than it did 4-5 years ago. And it’s night and day from 7 years ago.
But of course, we’re missing Cubase and Nuendo…
Ok, thanks for all informations.
It’s true that I haven’t used UStudio since 2015. Afterwards it is still perilous to do it when we know that the configuration of a PC under Windows and all our programs can take 2 days to a week ^^. There must still be a small laptop in the corner, I will do some tests.
Stay optimistic 
And many amateurs and hobbyists. Who do you think pays the bills at Steinberg? There are not enough professional studios in the world using Cubase that would generate enough revenue to pay for the office space in Hamburg alone.
You might be surprised by who uses Reaper and Bitwig.
This is very true. So it has to make economic sense to Steinberg to do it. It’s a risk based analysis that every business has to do. Their accountants will figure it out, and maybe they think it’s not worth it. Who knows? Maybe they see a market shifting in the future and maybe they determine that the risk is worth the reward. The market is currently very small, of course, but the question is what will it be in the future. Obviously the accountants at Presonus thought it was worth the investment, so Studio One now has a Linux beta. Presonus Software HQ is in Hamburg too, down the road from Steinberg offices. I’m certain they talk with each other. I’m sure it’s come up. The question will be if Steinberg’s accountants and executive team agree and if they can get Yamaha HQ to sign off on the investment. Will it happen? Who knows…
You’re probably right on this, at least for the near future.
That’s highly subjective. I think it’s a simple risk-reward analysis at Steinberg and they will either take a risk or not. Only time will tell if they are making the right decision. And no one can predict how the market will go anyway, at least not into the future for more than a few years. With all the changes coming to Windows and Macs and AI and cloud computing and mobile devices and CPU architecture changes and subscription models and revenue streams and how the music industry itself has been shifting for years, who can possibly predict what the current market will evolve into? So Steinberg has to make a calculation and then reap the rewards or consequences of their decisions.
IMO Steinberg is a very conservative company and moves methodically. Right now I’m guessing they are working on ARM for Windows and integrating their frameworks between the Dorico and Cubendo teams… so Linux is probably far from their thoughts. But on the other hand, when they are dealing with significant framework issues, and the fact we know they already use JUCE inside Steinberg in different areas, they are ALREADY familiar with the Linux build process. And if they are really, really, really smart, their internal build processes are already being adapted to multi-platform build processes… like I said, even for Windows ARM… which means some smart guy at Steinberg might ALREADY be laying down the pipeline for potential Linux development.
If my guesses are correct, then that means we MIGHT see some small foray into Linux in the next year or two, like perhaps a plugin or small app, etc… only time will tell. Knowing Steinberg, they will take it slow.
Yep, in 9 years a lot can happen!
Yes, setting up a main DAW in a studio with all the plugins, etc., can take forever. Don’t touch your main DAW! Yes, use other computers in your studio. I have a bunch of extra machines and lots of gear to test with, but I never touch my production machines until I know exactly what I’m doing.
As for laptops, keep in mind if it’s old, you’ll likely not get much performance out of it, and an important note about plugin GUI interfaces is that many of them will be laggy with integrated GPU. So if you can get your hands on even an old 8th or 9th gen CPU with an old but dedicated AMD graphics card (RX550 level is fine, circa 2017), you will find most modern distros will work beautifully on that and you’ll be able experiment with Linux DAWs very effectively. Also make sure you have a class-compliant audio device… and then have some fun.
I will try! 
+1… Windows is becoming just as bad as A$$le…
It took a lot for me to switch from Ardour to Cubase. There was a lot of weighing the options. I think if you guys haven’t already checked out Ardour you may want to look in to it. Although I haven’t tried the other Linux DAWs I can tell you that Ardour is a great design. I miss it but I’m here to make music and I"m not getting buried up to my neck in tech crap so I’m just going to stick with Cubase. I really wish Steinberg would consider porting Cubase to Linux.
Here’s a link in case you guys want to check it out.
https://ardour.org/
I wish there was another OS out there where all my games and Cubase work. But hey, it’s called a monopole. The saddest thing are the cloud services that are coming now. And the preferences, every Youtube video has something to do with a preference, even if you have a day where you don’t like your preferences. They will try to convince you with a monthly subscription and you don’t have to buy a harddisk anymore, but that’s not the whole story. Preferences, cloud services, every user behaviour data should be banned by a law. And you should be able to delete all these data at any time.
A BIG plus one from me as well.
Cubase (and Affinity) are the only reasons why I still own a Windows machine. I started on Atari, had lots of years with Windows and would love to settle down on Linux.
Everything else I do on my Linux machine.
Windows is a security hell-scape, I am moving over to Ubuntu, so Cubase working with Linux is highly desirable. In the words of Captain Picard, “Make it so”