Well, maybe…. April fools has just past and after I read the usual barrage of ‘fake news’ relating to Microsoft going open source and strange new 4 Wheel driving laws. I noticed that there was some real news that perked my attention. It seem that Steinberg has quitely released their SDK for Linux and open sourced a bunch of stuff. The geek in me is excited. I use Linux, I am a Unix professional in my day job and I use a Linux desktop wherever I can, except for one place…. In the studio when I create music, the studio is reserved for Windows, running Cubase and Universal Audio (UAD). To say this pains me is an understatement, but have I looked for replacements ? yes. Have I tried the replacements ? yes. Are the replacements any good?… errr, well…. No. Combine that with the fact that I’m like a kid in a candy store when it comes to buying UAD plugins, it means I am so far down the rabbit hole it’s almost impossible to climb out! So, sadly I will not be changing platforms in the studio anytime soon…. That is of course unless UAD or Steinberg release Linux native versions….

Whaaaa, hang on, “that’s never going to happen”, I hear you say. Well Steinberg seem to have already taken the first step, and since it seems to be the flavour of the month to open source things a the moment we can reasonably expect to see more of this from other vendors soon. Now I’m not suggesting that a company like Steinberg give away a huge commercial product like Cubase, but porting it Linux is certainly not out of the question. Which brings me to the point of this article, after I read this news about Cubase I went Googling for other open source and music related items, and a quick search for the term “linux uad” turns up a job posting on the UAD website for a Senior Software Architect that has, you guessed it…. “Experience with Linux“. Interesting….. Why would they need a SENIOR Software Architect that knows Linux, especially since their platform currently runs on Mac and Windows only ? If this was an internal sysadmin role I might understand why they want a Linux guy, but it’s not. It seems they want a person that can design code on Linux, so that brings me to the natural conclusion that Linux music makers could find themselves with a UAD power boost in the future. Oh boy what a ride !!!