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MusicTech Explains Why Music-Making Should be Done on GNU/Linux
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MusicTech ☛ Which operating system is best for music-making in 2026?
Linux isn’t an operating system, but a ‘kernel’ around which operating systems can be built. This kernel is open source, resulting in many different companies, projects and individuals using it as the basis of their own OSs. Linux-based OSs are known as ‘distros’, but it’s common to refer collectively to all these distros simply as Linux (which is what I’ll do here too for the sake of simplicity).
Linux for desktop use has, in recent years, shaken off its reputation for being complicated and fiddly. That said, it still isn’t as easy-to-use as macOS, and there are certain tasks that aren’t as streamlined as in the other two OSs, such as installing software that isn’t managed by the software manager app. But there’s loads of help for this sort of thing online — if you can follow instructions, you’ll be fine
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MusicTech ☛ It’s time music software developers got on board with Linux desktop
Again, Linux on the desktop and in the studio appears to be inevitable. This being so, the only route to continued success for music software and hardware developers is to embrace Linux compatibility. Failing to do so will mean increasingly losing out to those mainstream developers that do support the platform – Bitwig, Reaper, U-He, Renoise, Tracktion – not to mention the wide world of open source tools that are also available.
In most cases, supporting Linux wouldn’t even be particularly onerous, as much modern software is written in OS-agnostic languages before being compiled for specific platforms. Many of these compilers can already target Linux.
Failing that, technologies such as Wine and Valve’s Proton, which underpins the Steam Deck and upcoming Steam Console, show that Windows software can be run on Linux, and often runs better than it does on Windows. There’s nothing to stop music software developers from adapting these open source technologies as an alternative route to supporting Linux.
It’s also entirely feasible for the major music software developers to club together to create a definitive Linux distro for music making. The industry managed to work as a collective to invent MIDI, which, I think it’s fair to say, has stood the test of time, so why not an OS?