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  #1  
Old 01-10-2021, 02:08 PM
yeahblahx3 yeahblahx3 is offline
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Default Pro Tools on Linux/Unix

has anyone had any success installing Pro Tools on a Linux/Unix machine?

I currently have Ubuntu installed and wanted to install Pro Tools

I have heard in the past that Microsoft has a contract with AVID about their SDK access and in the contract it states that AVID is NOT to create a linux port...

If anyone has information or how that would be great...

Thanks
Mike
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  #2  
Old 01-10-2021, 03:24 PM
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Default Pro Tools on Linux/Unix

Quote:
Originally Posted by yeahblahx3 View Post
I have heard in the past that Microsoft has a contract with AVID about their SDK access and in the contract it states that AVID is NOT to create a linux port...
Seriously? Microsoft should quake in the presence of Ubuntu?

How about this conspiracy instead? Company X doesn’t see the need to develop its product for a platform with less than 2% market share when it already has enough work on its hands maintaining compatibility and adding new features on the two most dominant platforms.
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  #3  
Old 01-10-2021, 03:30 PM
Sardi Sardi is offline
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Default Re: Pro Tools on Linux/Unix

Even if you could run PT on Linux, you still have all the third party plugins that need to be ported to. Without them, you don’t really have a full system unless you can rely on the included Digi plugins.


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  #4  
Old 01-10-2021, 04:41 PM
yeahblahx3 yeahblahx3 is offline
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Default Re: Pro Tools on Linux/Unix

Quote:
Originally Posted by Top Jimmy View Post
Seriously? Microsoft should quake in the presence of Ubuntu?

How about this conspiracy instead? Company X doesn’t see the need to develop its product for a platform with less than 2% market share when it already has enough work on its hands maintaining compatibility and adding new features on the two most dominant platforms.


YES Microsoft should quake of the presence of ubuntu as it already does with Mac.

and seeing that Mac is based of unix, a SOLID OS like ubuntu with Pro Tools could in FACT.. eliminate the need for a highly unstable, easily influenced, unreliable Windows machine, That is why most studio's switch to a MAC as soon as they can...

many 3rd party plugins are already available for linux machines, so really don't see a problem there...

the statement about the "non linux port" agreement was a statement made FROM A DIGIDESIGN employee years ago as reference from an google search anyone could do. I am not sure how truthful it is or validated it might be, hence the question here.

Thanks all for your response, anymore useless remarks need not respond.

The reason I was asking for a linux version is, simply.. with the random updates on windows and mac, that usually cause some sort of issue, this could help build a more SOLID stable Pro Tools environment..
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Old 10-04-2021, 07:56 AM
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mslinn mslinn is offline
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Default Re: Pro Tools on Linux/Unix

I am a software engineer. I have worked with Windows and Linux for years. To summarize this post: Pro Tools would probably run at least twice as fast on Linux as it does on Windows, if it were carefully ported.

Linux is a lot more efficient than Windows - that means more computation is possible for any given hardware configuration. How much more depends on many factors. Here is a video that discusses benchmarks.

Microsoft provides Linux integration with Windows, called WSL2. The default distribution is Ubuntu, with a kernel optimized by Microsoft. Microsoft is about to release a new graphical subsystem called GWSL, which will allow Linux programs to display natively on Windows. Unfortunately, WSL2 runs as a virtual machine, which requires significant computational resources. This means that it would be undesirable to run Linux programs on WSL2 if native Windows versions are available.

Ubuntu recently switched to the Wayland display manager, instead of the rusty old X11 display manager. This should help software vendors such as Avid provide video support for native Linux distros that support Wayland.
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Old 10-04-2021, 04:21 PM
s.d. finley s.d. finley is offline
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Default Re: Pro Tools on Linux/Unix

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sardi View Post
Even if you could run PT on Linux, you still have all the third party plugins that need to be ported to. Without them, you don’t really have a full system unless you can rely on the included Digi plugins.


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not only plug ins but also drivers for 3rd party hardware, unless you only use included Avid plug ins and Avid only hardware. Also just because Apple or MS has a software update doesn't mean you have to update.
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Old 10-04-2021, 04:46 PM
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Default Re: Pro Tools on Linux/Unix

Quote:
Originally Posted by yeahblahx3 View Post
has anyone had any success installing Pro Tools on a Linux/Unix machine?
No, as a Linux port of PT does not exists and as far as I know it doesn’t run using a compatibility layer either.

I’m sure PT could be compiled to run on Linux, but honestly, what do you think the demand for that is? Probably not enough in sales to pull the team off of their current workload to satisfy a few Linux sales. I also doubt that having a Linux version would move enough customers away from Microsoft and Apple to make it worth it.

I’m a fan of Linux, but from a business perspective, it really doesn’t make much sense for Avid to invest the time and resources.
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  #8  
Old 10-05-2021, 01:37 AM
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mslinn mslinn is offline
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Default Re: Pro Tools on Linux/Unix

If one defines a market by measuring current sales, then there is no market because there is no SDK support. No SDK support means that products requiring the SDK cannot be created. Thus, according to that definition of "market", there is no market, nor could there ever be.

The same logic could have been applied to Pro Tools before it was created. Before the first version of Pro Tools was created, there was no market because there were no sales. Thus, by that definition of "market", Pro Tools itself should not exist today.

Please keep in mind that AAX plugins are written in C++, and would merely need to be recompiled with a Linux version of the AAX library to support Linux. Linux has a lower barrier of entry for software developers because, unlike Windows and Mac, the compilers and libraries necessary to build programs are free and open source.

This same argument has been made against Linux by various vendors for years, with a wide variety of outcomes. Some vendors (Adobe Flash, for example) have vacillated on Linux support. Some vendors (BlackMagic, for example) provide Linux support. In the last two years, Microsoft switched from "Linux is the devil's work" to "We are the 2nd biggest provider of Linux, behind Google Android", Linux has considerably more opportunity than ever before. (Android is a Linux distro).

Pro Tools sells to professionals, and professionals require reliable and high-performance tools. No-one claims that Windows is more reliable than Linux, or that Windows outperforms Linux. That is why Linux is the most common OS for servers in datacenters. Windows is very rare in data centers.

The past does not dictate the future. Technology and markets continuously evolve. Opportunities come and go. The Linux market opportunity has changed a lot in the last 2 years.

Last edited by mslinn; 10-05-2021 at 02:49 AM.
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Old 10-05-2021, 04:34 AM
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Default Re: Pro Tools on Linux/Unix

I like Linux. Ran Fedora from Fedora Core 3 till 20 something. I haven't used it a lot over the last 2-3 years though.

As mentioned it really comes down to a cost-benefit analysis - Will creating a build of Pro Tools that runs on linux make more money than it costs to create and maintain.

None of us here can know the numbers for that, but I'd wager a guess that it would be no...

If Avid thought they'd make money from it, I'm sure they'd be on board for it.

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  #10  
Old 10-05-2021, 05:00 AM
Sardi Sardi is offline
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Default Pro Tools on Linux/Unix

Quote:
Originally Posted by s.d. finley View Post
not only plug ins but also drivers for 3rd party hardware, unless you only use included Avid plug ins and Avid only hardware. Also just because Apple or MS has a software update doesn't mean you have to update.

Not to mention, does anyone only use PT on their computer? No other 3rd party software?

Not me. I use LOADS of other apps on my studio machine.


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Last edited by Sardi; 10-05-2021 at 05:17 AM.
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