Is there going to be real native support for linux

[sorath72]

I'm wondering if its going to be just a build of wine or its going to be the real reaper with vst support through wine. Meaning the program binary would run through linux and have a wine installation for both vsts and asio support

Thanks,
Steph

[mschnell]

Welcome !!!

There already is and "official" native Linux PC version of Reaper and a testable "prerelease" native Linux ARM version, and there even is a "Linux" subforum for discussing this.

AFAIK, there in fact are Linux VSTs, but supposedly rare beasts. To run Windows VSTs, using Wine obviously is necessary. Hopefully one day, Reaper will hide this from the users by internally managing a "Wine Bridge" for Windows VSTs, but I have no idea when this will be available.

AFAIK, ASIO is not available or necessary in linux.

-Michael

[Lokasenna]

You only need Wine if you want to bring your Windows VSTs with you. Everything else is Linux.

[JamesPeters]

Asio is not a Linux driver. Alsa is. If you were expecting a native Linux version of Reaper that automatically works with all windows audio drivers and all Windows VST plugins, that doesn't really make sense. That would be like expecting a Mac version of Reaper to automatically work with asio and windows plugins.

If anything a native version of Reaper for Linux might be expected to support lv2 plugins (which it now does) since they are native to Linux and are the most common format. Reaper for Linux supports alsa, pulseaudio, Jack, Linux VST, Linux LV2 and of course JS plugins.

If you want to make Windows plugins work in the native Linux version of Reaper, there is a thread about that in the forum "REAPER for Linux". This will most likely continue to be a third-party solution and not something Reaper is responsible for itself. However it apparently works well once you set it up.

[mschnell]

Originally Posted by JamesPeters

This will most likely continue to be a third-party solution and not something Reaper is responsible for itself.

If this would be true, it for most cursomers would prevent running Reaper native in Linux for a long time, as most of the (commercial) VST providers seem to be very lazy about providing Linux versions (be they native VST or LV2 format) of their products

Reaper providing an "automatic" "Windows VST Bridge" using Wine Technology, (working like the "32 Bit VST Bridge" in 64 bit Reaper using JBRIDGE technology), would decently solve this problem. (Muse Receptor did prove that this is possible.)

-Michael

[JamesPeters]

Originally Posted by mschnell

If this would be true, it for most cursomers would prevent running Reaper native in Linux for a long time,

I understand wanting Reaper to "just handle it", but let's be fair to the devs. Bridging 32-bit plugins to 64-bit Reaper (and vice versa) can be problematic enough with some plugins. Plus there are issues with VST3 that keep appearing, and needing to be fixed. I doubt the devs are excited about the idea of creating perfect bridging of Windows VST and VST3 (32-bit and 64-bit) for Reaper for Linux...all for the sake of people using Reaper in Linux (a minority compared to PC and Mac users). I have to guess it won't happen for a very long time, if it happens at all. Especially when there's Yabridge already.

Besides, Linux users should be more prepared to do this kind of thing with Yabridge. If you choose a Linux distro as your OS, you are probably ready to deal with this. If not...why are you choosing Linux.

[mschnell]

Originally Posted by JamesPeters

let's be fair to the devs.

Being a software engineer myself, and having done Linux embedded programming, I am absolutely with the devs, and not hurrying them in any way, and full of respect for the great work they are doing, and aware that the Linux port they are maintaining is just a wonderful addition to the whole unbelievably demanding project.

I just stated the obvious regarding the "politics" of the Reaper on Linux distribution.

IMHO to be successful it (1) should include such a Wine based "Windows VST Bridge" - and as said, the late Muse Receptor hardware product did show that it's possible - at least to a rather decent degree - AFAIK, they even offer licensing their appropriate software; and (2) a decently prepared and managed Linux distro should be offered to the customers so that a Musician can "boot into Reaper", instead of becoming a trained "Linux user". Such a "Reaper-Linux" would perform better on the same hardware than when using Reaper on Windows.

-Michael