Agh that's one of my biggest Linux regrets! Logic Pro is probably my favorite DAW, it feels so smooth to use, and that's likely connected to me using GarageBand extensively when I was a child. (I still remember "composing" multiple memorial songs in honor of Steve Jobs, as weird as that sounds!)

The strategy Apple has figured out with GarageBand pre-installed (or at least very low friction to install) seems really really smart in hindsight, give complete beginners a highly simplified but functional version of your professional utility, and provide an on-ramp to your professional programs. I imagine if Microsoft had some professional version of Windows Movie Maker it would've taken over a big chunk of the video editing market via the same method.

Anyway, regarding Linux DAWs, I am trying to get used to Ableton in Wine, but it's just not the same, and making it work in Wine is troublesome enough that I end up giving up before finishing anything of interest. Is there any DAW that feels like it actually belongs on Linux and doesn't either feel like you're maintaining a package by yourself, or has an awfully bad UI/UX like all FOSS DAWs I tried so far? I think in 2026 there's really a good opportunity here, with user interest genuinely rising for Linux on desktop.

Bitwig natively supports Linux. I bought a license a while ago and while the cost is steep, I don't regret it at all.

The downsides are going to be the bland cross-platform UI and the general lack of plugin support on Linux. But the upside is native PipeWire support for application-specific channel audio and complex output routing options. The pack-in plugins are pretty good too, The Grid can replace a lot of your subtractive synths: https://www.bitwig.com/the-grid/

+1 for Bitwig - written by a bunch of former Ableton devs and its external plugin/module sandbox means that a badly behaving VST won't take down the entire DAW.

WINE doesn’t work well with DAWs.

Most DAWs barely work on the platforms they support.

I can’t see Linux as being a viable market since most Linux users except software to generally be free.

Vs OSX which lets you enter a credit card number and buy stuff right from the built in store.

If I recall Ubuntu might of once attempted paid applications on its built in store and it didn’t really work.

Logic is probably made at below cost, but it keeps you in the OSX ecosystem.

Need a 32GB OSX box with a 2TB drive, only one place to get it.

Wine works fine with many DAWs. Not sure where you're getting this information from.

Ableton Live has worked on Wine for close to 2 decades now. WineHQ has positive run reports dating back to 2006: https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iI...

They work with tons of stability issues.

You can’t both praise native Linux daws like Bitwig and then claim WINE is fine.

Don’t get me wrong, I actually prefer Linux when I can use native applications and build frameworks.

You an ask ai to port it to linux no?

Reaper is available on Linux.

> "composing" multiple memorial songs in honor of Steve Jobs, as weird as that sounds!

Very strangely fitting: using Jobs "bicycle for the mind" to compose this in his honor :)

Give Reaper a try, it works very well on linux and you can even use VSTs.

Sadly a lot of VSTs are Windows and Mac only too due to shitty DRM. :-(

True. On the other hand, there are top quality developers like u-he Urs Heckmann that provide native linux support.

AudioThing, TAL and Modartt have Linux versions as well. Korneff Audio is moving in that direction, but not everything is ported over yet.

> All I want for Christmas is Logic on Linux.

Linux has a terrible audio subsystem. First you'd have to write CoreAudio for Linux, which would not be easy.

Linux audio is great when it works. In my experience a good chunk of the time either Linux audio or Bluetooth is completely bonked out of the box

If you're referring to pulseaudio or alsa, more recently pipewire should have improved the situation a lot.

Bitwig works on linux. I just installed and ran it. Zero issues. Bitwig team has just 30 people.

I hope coreaudio isn't the bar to clear, as in my experience it is a disaster, I've never seen audio work that bad on any Linux laptop I own.

What's terrible? It just work out of the box.

I use Ardour on Linux when I have to and what is terrible is that to get acceptable latency and jitter I have to use the sound system at the ALSA level. This kills sound for any other app I happen to be running. Pipewire introduces too much latency for recording good live performances and getting jackd to run properly with Ardour is something I haven't had success with yet, though to be fair I want to record music and not futz around with some baroque sound system. Half the time after quitting Ardour I have to restart pipewire/wireplumber et al to get sound working properly again.

In contrast, on MacOS I plug in my USB sound interface, it appears in my DAW and I'm on my way. And yes, I am getting a Mac now.

I don't think anyone has an implementation of macOS' audio and midi frameworks (and whatever else Logic links to; probably a lot). I would like to have Hauptwerk under Linux, but it uses ilok, and that's not going to happen any time soon. But we can dream.

You wouldn’t want to run it without instruments and effects I’d imagine.

There’s always Reaper.