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layout: default
title: Why Write a DAW for Linux?
---                        

<p>
It is fairly understandable that existing proprietary DAWs do not run on 
Linux, given the rather small (but growing) share of the desktop market
that Linux has. However, when surveying the landscape of "popular 
operating systems", we find:
</p>
<ul>
  <li>older versions of Windows: plagued by abysmal stability and
  appalling security</li>
  <li>newer versions of Windows seem stable but still suffer from
  security problems</li>
  <li>OS X: an amazing piece of engineering that is excellent for
  audio work but only runs on proprietary hardware and still lacks the
  flexibility and adaptability of Linux.</li>
</ul>
<p>
Security matters today, and will matter more in the future as more and
more live or semi-live network based collaborations take place.
</p>
<p>
Let's contrast this with Linux, an operating system which:
</p>
<ul>
  <li>can stay up for months (or even years) without issues</li>
  <li>is endlessly configurable down to the tiniest detail</li>
  <li>is not owned by any single corporate entity, ensuring its life 
  and direction are not intertwined with that of a company (for a 
  contrary example, consider BeOS)</li>
  <li>is fast and efficient</li>
  <li>runs on almost any computing platform ever created, including
  old "slow" systems and new "tiny" systems (e.g. Raspberry Pi)</li>
  <li>is one of the most secure operating systems "out of the box"</li>
</ul>
<p>
More than anything, however, Ardour's primary author uses Linux and
wanted a DAW that ran there.
</p>
<p>
Having written a DAW for Linux, it turned out to be relatively easy
to port Ardour to OS X, mostly because of the excellent work done by 
the JACK OS X group that ported JACK to OS X.<br />
Although OS X has a number of disadvantages compared to Linux, its
ease of use and its presence in many studios already makes it a
worthwhile platform.
</p>