First thoughts on reading the topic title concerning compatibility with community GNU/Linux OS distributions may be “Well screw you too buddy” Or “market share doesn’t exist for that OS type so why bother with the expense of providing support?”
There is a pressing issue for companies that manufacture hardware used by creatives. It makes me think my post here will become relevant later on so consider it a warning. More musicians and recording artists are building their digital audio workstations(DAWs) with linux distributions like Ubuntu Studio, Audiophile Linux, Decibel Linux and custom installations based on the Arch system using kernels modified for real time processing. For many younger artists Macintosh systems have become increasingly expensive or out of reach and the instability of Windows systems has noticeably worsened making it unsuited for serious audio production by professionals. With the introduction of the PipeWire audio system to replace PulseAudio and JACK audio on linux is better than ever before. There is a growing subset of Linux users that want high performing audio hardware. They are even willing to build it themselves from scratch with custom capacitors, components, chips, boards and software. It is now possible for these dedicated artists to create a custom computer audio interface with KiCad, manufacture it with PCBWay and install an embedded linux product like Elk Audio OS to make it work. They don’t necessarily need an interface that stubbornly refuses to work.
There is proof that this demand exists and is growing. Popular audio interfaces like those produced by FocusRite, Behringer, Arturia and RME have had their own linux compatible drivers written by dedicated individuals. Scarlett interfaces from FocusRite have interface software written by Geoffrey Bennett and there is a kernel level Scarlett USB driver being written by Takashi Iwai, Nathan Chancellor and Alexander Tsoy that has been in development for five years. These projects and these individuals receive donations on Patreon to continue their work from interested people. FocusRite has listed the software by Geoffrey Bennett on their official drivers page on their website.
I don’t think it is necessary for Yamaha or any audio hardware company to put significant effort and resources into making their products compatible with cutting-edge custom DAWs that use open source operating systems. I do think it is worth making it easier for the passionate engineers and programmers that created this new breed of audio software to make Yamaha products Plug-N-Play.
Please reach out to me if interested in making the UR-C series of audio interfaces 100% Linux Compatible. I will do it for you. For free.