There's one thing keeping me from switching to Linux on my PC, it is the lack of support from FL Studio and a lot of VST plugins for music creation. (My experience using Wine has not been very good.)

I don't know about VST specifically, but you should look into Bitwig, if you're looking for professional audio programs like FL Studio

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I switched from Windows to Linux Mint like a year ago and Bitwig worked out of the box using THIS script with Yabridge.

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Thanks! I understand they’re alternative but FL Studio is incredibly, outstandingly simple and fast for its giant capabilities…. and it’s been updated, improved for longer than I live know!

(I’m 16yo)

And FL Studio 20 works fine… some freezes. But my toolkit of instruments, of plugins to mix, put effects, etc… it’s so niche to use Linux for music that they either crash FL, and corrupt my work… but yeah…

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What’s also frustrating is the fact that MacBook could be the ideal options for me but they’re not repairable easily, they are also super pricy if you want the bare minimum in 2023 (16go of RAM and a decent sized SSD)…

There’s everything, customisation with Yabai, FL Studio + VST support, Logic Pro X, fast compile time for when I program, linux convenience, nerd fonts, dark theme, etc…

And don’t get me started on the battery and the screen quality.

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yeah, the 8GB RAM is laughable. like ... why is Apple pretending 8GB is ... ok? Here is this great laptop, but you just f'd yourself with the minimal specs AND YOU CANT UPGRADe.

The latest MacBook is great but the hw lock on ram + storage sucks.

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- Go easy on Apple, they can't afford the extra TWO BUCKS of the cheapest most commodity silicon on Earth.
  
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- Everyone always raves about how affordable the Mac mini is whenever someone complains.
  
  The base model is quite affordable, yes. But you only get 8GB of memory. Which needs to be shared between cpu and gpu, too.
  
  Like, come on
  
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I feel the same way about Live - I'll probably always dual boot windows for this reason.

I can't justify paying Apple for their hardware, it's pretty laughable in my opinion compared to other options.

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- What? In the laptop space? The ARM chip is legit and so is the battery life w/uber high core counts; the bus speed is smokin' quick compared to just about every other laptop on the market. GPU is really good too, between better but not the best.
  
  You get a lot of book with that mac. The avg wintel doesn't come close, spec wise.
  
  BUT
  
  no way to upgrade storage, for DAWs...oof.
  
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the VST part is no kidding for real. bitwig and REAPER aren't FL studio but yeah linux is just too niche for the avg VST developer already stretched thin by MacOS + Windows....

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Just do a dual boot. There are a couple of programs I still use on Windows also.

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I haven't tried for years but vst's are pure pain on Linux.

Have you tried bitwig studio? It has a native Linux version and is incredible. Vst will still be shit (if they are even supported) but if you master bitwig you probably won't even need them.

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FL Studio is kinda fine, it’s really some very important VST that crash. Event the stock plugins…

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I use FL Studio on Arch with mostly VST2 plugins and it runs pretty well. Only thing that is a little gripe is VST3 plugins (the GUI doesn't update when you're tweaking parameters). Generally VST plugins in FL Studio work pretty well for me.

I use free plugins which either come in a zip file or an .msi installer. There were some plugins which required a "Software Center" program to install, and yes, those are very tedious (I'd say even on windows). Truly hate those things.

I've had a couple plugins which have had certain GUI elements missing, but that's the only extent. (one example is a spring reverb plugin which doesn't render the knobs, but thankfully they have a shadow so i can still figure out where they are).

What sort of plugins are you using? Certain copy protection might be a bit harder to run on WINE than others. (Especially iLok, that thing seems like a pain).

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I recently tried to sidechain my kick to my 808 while mixing. And when I opened fruity limiter, most of the UI didn’t render.

There are a lot of freeze when you drag and drop things. Serum doesn’t work when I load it, Pigments & Arturia Lab V blink without stopping when I use them. Purity crashes FL Studio 20.

FL Studio 21 crashes when I use dropdown menus, and when it doesn’t crash, I can’t load any sample because it’s impossible to drag and drop without crashing the thing.

The experience is not so bad on FL20 but gosh, how frustrating it is to be so limited in the plugins you can use…

I had no problem installing them tho.

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- Wow, those are some pretty glaring issues. Have you checked your winecfg? I have mine on Windows 10 (and probably make sure yours is too. If it's on XP, change it to 10). What WINE version are you running? (i'm on 8.13)
  
  If that doesn't fix it then i'm kinda stumped.
  
  Heard certain Nvidia cards can cause issues (i'm on an AMD rx570). Don't know if it could be related but ye those are quite the rendering issues.
  
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There is an installer in Bottles(for Ableton too)

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I know how to use Wine, I wouldn’t be here talking if it was a perfect experience!

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- I didn't know about the bottles install scripts for quite a time. I personally don't use FL Studio, but Abletons built in plugins, which are quite many with SUIT, work fine.
  
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FL studio runs alright for me in Bottles, though it crashes every now and again

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i wanted to print in duplex mode: the printer linux driver didnt support it (i thought it was a pdf reader thing, apparently its a driver thing). also wanted to have a logical partition as expansion, ended up corrupting the boot file. using linux is backbreaking (in the sense of not that straight forward), but kinda useful to run in a machine on the side. linux really have some cool apps, but proprietery software doen't seem to get along with it well. best way to approach this is to run both OS's, according to ur needs.

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also wanted to have a logical partition as expansion, ended up corrupting the boot file

I've been using Linux for decades and my response to that is 'wut?'

using linux is backbreaking

It really isn't. What do you struggle with? I might be able to point you in the right direction.

best way to approach this is to run both OS's, according to ur needs.

Disagree, Linux in 2023 is perfectly usable outside of DRM for games and proprietary crapware (e.g. Adobe, certain CAD software)

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- Well… 1. FL Studio is proprietary but they’re super respectful of the community.
  
  They have been improving FL for longer than I lived know. (I’m 16yo)
  
  But! It still doesn’t work on linux lol — it’s cool with Wine, some freeze here and there, but when you use VSTs which are kinda essential to make music, it just sometimes crashes.
  
  It had the good aspect of pushing me to sample more, so I discovered a new way to make music ;) !
  
  Linux is perfectly usable for going on Internet, browsing shit, incredible for programming, and very good for playing games. Okay… but, I need to create, not just consume!
  
  I’m on Arch Linux, I got no problems, it’s very fun since I switched two years ago when I got my laptop but for something, Linux is so bad. I wish I could fix that? But I can’t do it alone :)
  
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- Disagree
  
  tbh i wish it weren't my opinion too. but since the occasion presented itself, op is struggling with setting up a software for his needs on linux: i wish there were viable options for his case.
  
  It really isn't.
  
  maybe i am simple minded, but why do i have to install gparted just so i could partition my disk (in windows disk partition is a given), or have to install fuse so i could run .appimage files; why don't these functions come preinstalled ? maybe i am now starting to understand why is linux invunerable to viruses: u kinda have to sudo ur way through everything so u could u achieve ur need. maybe i am venting, but as a newcomer from windows, its kinda overwhelming haha: wanna copy to a readonly directroy: sudo cp; edit a readonly file: sudo gedit..even the terminal isnt in favourites, i have to ctrl alt T so i could find it 😭😭 again, i am no dev, and i kinda have a day to spend and work to get to xd
  
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Printers. Always a problem. I wanted to use my HP PSC1315 under Windows, but apparently the driver used Flash Player...? so it doesn't work anymore. On Linux HP has pretty good support with HPLIP, so for normal printing it works (this printer has "partial support"). Unfortunately for high DPI I have to use Windows 7 virtual machine.

Oh, yeah. You can just use Windows as printer driver with VirtualBox.

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- yea man, there is way more printer features on windows than on linux, since manufacturers decided so. i am not tech savy and i fear i might have to troubleshoot my way through a vm just to print a pdf. guess i ll have to run a separate machine just for my windows needs, but great idea nonetheless.
  
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