So... Live on Linux?

[electroandy]

Would love to see Live/Max on Linux. Would pay a sensible sum for the privilege. Lack of Linux support is one of the main reasons I keep a Windows OS install.

Sadly Mac laptop support ended with Live 12, she's getting very elderly the poor thing, (although earlier versions of Live work just fine).

Tempting to buy a more recent Mac - though as pointed out earlier in the thread, any company that solders RAM and SSD to the motherboard, (on a desktop machine), probably doesn't deserve any more of my money!

Windows hmm okay, the value of Ableton is far greater than disappointments of Microsaft

[antic604]

Why do non-programmers think they know how software development works? I wouldn’t tell an electrician how to wire a house or a farmer when to rotate the crops in his fields.

Any software project is always an enormous amount of work full stop end of story. Any software project is always, without exception, significantly underestimated.

A good portion of my day job is reminding people of this. People who don’t know what they’re talking about. The difference is they know they don’t know what they’re talking about which is why they pay me to talk about what I know about so that they don’t sound ignorant.

The software running on Push 3, whatever it is, lacks most of Live’s presentation layer for starters.

1) I'm not a programmer, but I've been programming on a hobbyist level since around 12 and now I do lots of prototyping for work (20+ years), so I've a pretty decent understanding of it

2) It is known, that Live version running on Push 3 Standalone (P3S) is close to normal desktop/laptop Live, e.g. it for example has a fully functioning arrangement mode which can run and play, but you can't control it. Obviously normal Live's GUI would be disabled to save on resources, but Live on laptop/desktop also includes the rendering of the Push GUI, so it's not like they've created it especially for P3S. It makes sense for P3S version of Live to be the same, or very, very close to laptop/desktop one. Also, because any fixes or new features have to be implemented in both. It's a normal development practice that you have one code & assets base and use tools to "compile" it for different OS and hardware platforms.

[dcjams]

It will certainly be the same codebase but not all of it will necessarily be compiled in the build for Live on Push. So it won’t always be a case of features hidden or disabled on Push, they’ll literally be absent.

The main reasons for exclusion would likely be because they don’t work in Push or they want to rethink how they should work on Push.

That’s cool you’ve continued programming throughout your life. I’m sure you do know lots. Many of the best programmers are hobbyists!

[antic604]

It will certainly be the same codebase but not all of it will necessarily be compiled in the build for Live on Push. So it won’t always be a case of features hidden or disabled on Push, they’ll literally be absent.

The main reasons for exclusion would likely be because they don’t work in Push or they want to rethink how they should work on Push.

Well, neither of use know what they actually are doing and you'd probably agree that both approaches (removing / not porting the unused code vs. disabling it) are equally likely and it basically comes down to coding policy/standards prevailing at Ableton. And to their plans with regards to theoretical Linux version.

My hope is they've made it easy for themselves to develop and maintain Win, macOS and Linux versions with minimal friction.

[hit3k_voyivoda]

It’s a massive amount of support and development for an extremely tiny user base, so my vote is slim to none.

i mean not that hard given that they've literally already done it. The push 3 is a linux box with knobs and pad bolted to it. it even euns on x86 so there's really nothing to do but wrap the gui around what's already there.

[yur2die4]

If a Linux version is not identical in UI and functionality to the Win or Mac versions, it is not appropriate for release. People will not be satisfied. It’s not releasable as the ‘Push version on Linux’, that would be a joke.

[Jiffy1031]

Honestly the only thing keeping me on Windows is for Ableton support. If Ableton were to have Linux support, I'd finally be able to get rid of Windows but sample size of me isn't enough. Why doesn't Ableton just send out a survey to gauge interest in using Linux with the userbase?

[Lumix]

It’s a massive amount of support and development for an extremely tiny user base, so my vote is slim to none.

honestly the only thing holding me on windows is Live and VSTs, if the VSTs would work on Linux in Live Linux build i would instantly switch. Microsoft is so annoying.

[Nekz]

I noticed more and more support for Linux from the audio software community. U-he, Bitwig, Togu, DiscoDSP, Audio Damage, The Usual Suspects, Cardinal Rack, Reaper, Studio One and more keep coming.

[audioboy137]

Honestly the only thing keeping me on Windows is for Ableton support. If Ableton were to have Linux support, I'd finally be able to get rid of Windows but sample size of me isn't enough. Why doesn't Ableton just send out a survey to gauge interest in using Linux with the userbase?

A survey would be so easy to do. They're always saying that no one would use live on a linux machine. I bet they're so wrong about that. It would just run better.

[gibsonpil]

i mean not that hard given that they've literally already done it. The push 3 is a linux box with knobs and pad bolted to it. it even euns on x86 so there's really nothing to do but wrap the gui around what's already there.

That may be true if Live used a common cross-platform framework for its GUI, but the fact is that it (as far as I know) doesn't. Ableton seemingly uses a custom framework. I don't know how well Ableton has maintained that framework over the years, so adding Linux support to it could be relatively easy, but it could also be a nightmare. Additionally, the Ableton developers would probably also need to add support for more Linux audio servers (i.e. Pipewire, PulseAudio, JACK) other than whichever one they use on the Push. I'm sure there are a lot of other little things I haven't mentioned that would need to be ported over as well.

That's not to say that we shouldn't continue asking for a Linux port, because we absolutely should, but we also shouldn't patronize the developers. We can't say exactly how much work porting Ableton to Linux would require, only those who have actually seen Ableton's source code can assess such a thing.

[OneOfThePetes]

I ditched Windows finally this year, after almost 30 years of usage, both professionally and personally.
Microsoft are just not a company I wish to deal with anymore, for obvious reasons, and I am not going to go down the Apple route, ever.

Totally happy with Linux, and have found replacements for most things.

The ONLY thing I miss is native Linux support for Ableton Live.

I WANT TO BUY THE NEW VERSION OF ABLETON LIVE.
But, I won't. Because I can't use it.

Please support Linux!
If not, well, then thanks for all the years of fine DAW development, folks!

I'm not here to promote any other competing DAW, but I am off to explore!

[MPNoise]

Another hidden problem is getting all the hardware that users use with Live to work under Linux.
Anything that is not USB Audio Class 2.0 compliant will need a driver developed, either by the manufacturer or the Linux community.
This is potentially going to cause users with older gear a lot of grief.

[gibsonpil]

Another hidden problem is getting all the hardware that users use with Live to work under Linux.
Anything that is not USB Audio Class 2.0 compliant will need a driver developed, either by the manufacturer or the Linux community.
This is potentially going to cause users with older gear a lot of grief.

The vast majority of audio hardware works perfectly under Linux without installing any drivers at all, and it often works better than it does under Windows. ALSA and JACK/Pipewire are far superior to things like ASIO and WASAPI on Windows. I get lower latency and a more stable experience on all of my audio interfaces using Pipewire under Linux than using official drivers with ASIO on Windows. Those who don't have audio equipment that works well under Linux can simply stay on whatever operating system suits them best. It's about having options. Once more audio software starts supporting Linux, audio hardware vendors and members of the community will make more of an effort to port their drivers over.
This is a non-issue.

[102455]

Once more audio software starts supporting Linux

I must say, after 33 years of Linux being around, you're a very patient individual.