[folkrav]

I feel sorry every time I'm stuck going back to Windows. And admittedly, the situation is not even comparable to how it was ~25 years ago when I first started playing around with Linux, most things I want to do with a computer just work on Linux nowadays. There are still such things that just are not there yet - but for most of them, it's not necessarily Linux's fault.

If we limit the conversation to gaming specifically, one area where I don't see Linux taking over any time soon is competitive/esports oriented titles and their invasive ~rootkits~ anti-cheats. Another place I kind of have to live with Windows is simulation (in my case Elite: Dangerous and iRacing/Le Mans Ultimate) - the overlays and other third-party utilities either don't exist on Linux, or I couldn't get them to work and kind of abandoned the idea.

Audio production is also kind of a no-go. The DAWs and hardware support are absolutely getting there - Bitwig studio is apparently very good for something Ableton-like, and my DAW of choice, Reaper, has native Linux support. But the plugins and virtual instruments for the most part just don't exist. Some work through a Wine bridge, if you're lucky.

However, if you're not too deep in a niche with very specific pieces of software, or don't care about esports offerings, there isn't much tying one to Windows nowadays.

[JasonSage]

I think the situation with anti-cheat on Linux is changing. Studios are putting resources into anti-cheat that will work on Linux. If I'm being a bit cynical, I could say this is "just" because of Steam Deck and Steam Machine, but I think the number of potential players switching to Linux right now outside of the Steam ecosystem is starting to be worth considering.

[therein]

The only way they could even consider making it work would involve blessing certain kernel builds, and their integrity would need to be verified. If I am able to swap out the kernel, anti-cheat cannot be effective.

[Bender]

Ubisoft added Easy Anti-Cheat support for Linux and Valve's Proton compatibility layer. I play Division 2 and it runs just fine. More of them are being added by the AAA studios. Missing is Vanguard / Riot Anti-Cheat, no idea when that will get added. Thus far games have not tried to dork with my kernel.

[therein]

EAC has supported Linux for a while now as far as I remember. The problem is, it is up to the game developers to enable support in their config for that or not, and most of them are choosing not to especially for games where any weakness would be abused like Rust. Someone had posted a proof of concept where they ported the Linux EAC to Windows, which allowed them to bypass checks that would be performed on a Windows machine.

[officeplant]

>Audio production is also kind of a no-go

I always see this as a yes and no. Yes if you didn't start giving up on mainstream DRM encumbered audio production 10-15 years ago you aren't going to be ready to switch. Those people have sunk too much into their work flows and collections of licensed plugins.

No if like me you gave up on those tools and found new ones, because I didn't like the direction things were going with usb license keys, always online drm, and offline license management installs that feel almost as rootkit/malware coded as modern anticheat systems.

It helps that I gave up on ableton back in 2008 and swapped to Reason & Logic, before ultimately giving up on those as well. Now I just use Renoise & VCV Rack while trying to work up the will to dabble with Puredata and Supercollider.

Bitwig sounds nice but its too expensive and locks me back into the same cycles of update purchases Ableton & Reason once did.

Do I miss my Korg VSTs & Reason Racks? Yeah, I just can't be bothered enough to go back.

In the end for me its just a hobby so I've been willing to throw away my setup and workflow entirely more than once since starting with digital music in 2004.

[folkrav]

I just haven't found anything on the amp sim side that remotely approaches what NeuralDSP gives me. Similar to drums, haven't found any libraries that sound remotely as good as something like GGD. I've replaced most of my "simple" effects plugins with free stuff, sure, but VSTi/libraries have been more of a miss than a hit for me. I started around the same time you did. Back then it barely was thinkable to even consider Linux as a main OS for music production. Whatever works for what you do with it, and I can definitely see some workflows work with what it offers today, just not mine.

[officeplant]

Yeah for drums I still rely heavily on my sample library I've built up from other hobby music friends, sound library cd/dvd purchases, and freesound.org digging. But it works for IDM/Industrial stuff I do.

[gausswho]

A balanced take. You name several exceptions that don't work seamlessly on Linux. Recognizing that, I'll note:

- Bitwig 5.x (haven't tried the latest 6.x) is working really nicely for me now across several NixOS machines (I'm using BitwigBox so that yabridge smoothes out VST integration). - Le Mans Ultimate is working for me now. It would hang on loading a track until a month or two ago (GE Proton recommended).

[folkrav]

For sim, its mostly the modding and third-party utilities that I can't be bothered to make work hehe. Maybe I just didn't spend enough time searching for alternatives, or maybe they just didn't exist, but I couldn't be bothered to spend the time to make them work last time I tried.

[snapplebobapple]

Printing is still a disaster on linux, but in linuxs defense, its also a disaster (n windows just a but less of one

[folkrav]

Interesting, I've always had the opposite impression - CUPS has always made it quite easier for me to use whatever printer I had at hand instead of having to hunt down drivers off the manufacturer's website, only to find out they stopped supporting it back in the Vista days.