> It’s still too confusing for the average user (many distros, many desktop environments, Wayland vs X, systemd vs init, snap vs flatpak).

Users don't need to know about any of that, except for picking a distro and just using whatever is there.

Regarding DAW - I get sticking with Windows if you have thousands invested in it. Even so, there's quite a bit of professional software out there with native support (like Bitwig) or flawless Wine support.

Reaper is just as good as FL Studio or Logic Pro. VSTs are really your biggest hurdle. Depending on how they are compiled, they may rely on platform specific code. Most big plugin makers have VSTs for all platforms though and your license works on all.

The pathway is there should you choose, one day. Linux is quite good now. That being said, I know a lot of niche plugins that some guy wrote that only works on windows because that’s all he/she has access to. Some 8-bit synth bitcrushers come to mind.

Also Steinburg made VST 3 sdk open source so you have a path to a free music production studio.

https://github.com/steinbergmedia/vst3sdk

> So in my case, I shouldn't dump Windows (and thousand of $$ I've spent on audio software).

If you mean that there's no Linux replacement for Digital Audio Workstation, then I agree: switching is not for you. But if what worries you are the $$ you have spent, you are just another victim of the sunk cost fallacy. The earlier you realize your mistake, the earlier you are ready to evaluate the options without biases.

I am a linux user for 26 years. And used windows since 3.11 up to 2005. After that point I just helped people with windows, never worked with it.

I had this friend while my kid went to school with his kid, he was a musician. He absolutely was frightened of even handling me the mouse of his windows 7 setup in case I break his DAW, cherry audio tools and midi mixers just by me showing him a website. Also helped to switch some dlls (hi didn't know how to kill background task to release dll to be replaced) and edit windows registry cause he needed an upgrade for some pirated software.

I have seen many more nightmarish stuff hapenning in windows, even on holy sacred windows xp.

On the other hand my mother has been using debian xfce in her acer touch screen laptop for 15 years. No issues. Many elder people got in shock when windows 8 made all those changes.

So whenever windows users talk about linux confusion I smirk.

I see this mentioned again and again, but I don't buy it.

For power users or users with niche use cases, sure there might be specialized software that lock you into Windows or Mac.

But for most casual home users, I think Linux would be perfectly adequate, and familiarity being the only real detractor.

Assuming someone can help install a friendly Linux distribution (and that the hardware is compatible), then what are the big blockers? Gaming maybe, for those where it is relevant.

But looking at all my not so tech savvy family members and friends, a browser, online versions of MS Office (or Libreoffice for sure), maybe Spotify or the like, would really be enough. Being able to install apps via an (actually useful) app store is a big win in itself.

Looking at those friends/family members, it is not like they are able to support their Windows machines either when something goes wrong or needs to be changed - I (or someone else technical) always need to help out anyway, fixing driver issues, installing software, changing any non-trivial settings, and so on. And I could just as well do that on Linux - and whether I need to pull up a terminal is irrelevant.

The confusion is a problem for nearly every use case. They don't even seem to be converging on things, it's getting worse.

Ableton + Serum + many custom VSTs user here. You're spot on. This is actually the biggest reason I can't switch. In fact Steve Duda (creator of Serum) has said many times that he doesn't ever plan to support Linux. That's not a deal-breaker necessarily, but the fact we paid lots of money for this stuff makes it a bit unreasonable to switch to Linux.

I have Windows only audio and 3d software. I ended up with a windows VM with GPU passthrough on Linux. It sits on its own m2 drive for the rare occasion I need to dual boot. So Windows has been become legacy software for me. (IClone and CC).

And Steam Deck is there.

But I think the desktop interface is legacy for anyone under the age of 25, I get a kick out of watching them navigate a desktop.

There is no "there" for Linux to be, because

> every case is different

Every article like this is another person for whom Linux is there.

> t’s still too confusing for the average user (many distros, many desktop environments, Wayland vs X, systemd vs init, snap vs flatpak).

Average users need to buy hardware with a suitable distro installed. Usually that means Ubuntu. Its a decision that should be taken for them

With regard to DEs - Gnome for touch devices, KDE for mouse and keyboard driven ones. Both set up to be Windows like by default.

The average user is never even going to know whether they are running Wayland or systemd or snap. They will never change the default.

FLStudio in Wine, Bitwig and Reaper work amazing on Linux, Mixxx for DJing works with Traktor keyboards.

I guess it depends on your needs. 90% of my working life is a terminal to run terraform, emacs to write code, and slack to chat with colleagues. In each of the companies I've worked over the past 10 years I've had a google workspace account, and I think I've never even touched microsoft office in all that time.

Yes there are options. In practice you pick one distro, the one your friend recommends, or that the IT department gives you.

There are probably fields in which you cannot use Linux software, but for your average joe? It's not impossible, and it's not that confusing with a little patience.