Can I ask a question? Is there a "logical" reason to use Linux in this day and age? Windows and Mac OS are fantastic for music production. Windows has never been better if you want to build your own machine. Since this is getting kicked around recently I just want to know. It's been like 15 years since I tried it. Not going to now but I love information and discovering things so I'd just like to know.
This is not an easy to answer question, in my opinion, it's a very personal choice, driven by necessities and perspective.
All I can do is give you my personal motivations, but as said they are mine.
I need a stable platform I can trust because I can deeply manage it. I'm very scared about flimsy technology, because it's my daily job and I know how many things can go wrong, and I cannot afford a concert with the fear that my gear will crash or will be not ready when I need it.
Now, it comes that I'm quite a seasoned programmer, since 1983, and a very, very long time Linux user. Obviously I've spent more time on Windows because it came first, but the flexibility of "those" time has gone, honestly for both: Linux too has become quite cumbersome at times, because it needs to be more "user-friendly" and "user" is a strange concept... to be very close to a novice makes, often, things more complicated for proficient because the unneeded added layers. Anyway, with a bit of time, on Linux, you can always understand how to find "your correct way" to do things reliably.
When I have concerts with my most active group, we start sound-check let's say around 17:30 and concert starts at 21:00, all the gear is powered and connected, all software fired, everything ready.
I cannot think about it going peanuts by itself or anything when I'll be back on stage: Linux gives me that confidence.
Moreover, I have severe sight troubles and need a customized GUI, in terms of colors and fonts, etc. And also, use the mouse on screen is often quite difficult, go figure going tons of times on menus and stuff... So I have set up a very flexible and light environment that's right for me, and I use Bitwig Studio for live playing, that perfectly fits my needs. Also, CPU usage is lighter, on my comparison on my own box under windows, and I need this because I play everything live, no backing tracks, so all my synths run in real-time, and I layer a lot.
So, as you can see, I use Linux because it fully fits my needs, far better than others to my current experience. Don't ask me about Mac. I'm totally noob using Mac, I don't understand the philosophy of the interface, it doesn't fit me. I've tried and cannot use it. Imagine, I use XFCE on my Linux, minimal and lightning fast.
So, customizability, reliability and proficiency are my motivations. I'm sure you can have yours, just need to try.
Cheers,
Fabrizio
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