A musician and, more importantly, a computer geek tells his story of switching from Mac to Ubuntu
His story, while informative, is nowhere near close to that of a typical musician or even audio geek. It's not the platform but the software running on it that counts. The first thing Apple did when they bought Emagic and, as a result, Logic Pro was to kill the product on Windows knowing well users would switch to OS X just to use their favourite tool (why wouldn't they given the $1200->$499 price drop and a major feature boost in Logic Studio).
Most musicians nowadays want more than the ability to record and play back audio tracks. What about the digital audio workstation (DAW) choice on Linux; the virtual instruments and FX plugins; MIDI editing and automation; a UI intuitive and simple enough to use at a live show etc. Good software in the creative market seems to take years to build but the user base is so loyal it takes massive effort to get users to switch. There is a reason most software used in the studio is decades old (see Cubase or Logic, for instance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_Pro#History). There is also a reason why GarageBand had significant time dedicated to it at the iPad keynote. Musicians with computers tend to be geeks to a degree, but at the end of the day they have music to compose and perform, and the less time they have to spend on software and setting it up the better.
Basically, Linux not being embraced among the musicians is the same story of why you don't see very many people jump ship from Adobe Photoshop in favour of GIMP.
"Most musicians nowadays want more than the ability to record and play back audio tracks."
This sounds like you can only record and play back audio on Linux. A very false statement. Renoise is available for Linux and can be used in live sets. Pure Data is widely used on Linux and also used in live sets. There are FX-stacks, MIDI trackers/composers, with Jack you can connect whatever you want. Qtractor is becoming more mature. Ardour is very good.
There are a lot of musicians using Linux these day's.
Exactly. On top of that, popular DAWs have significant eco-systems built up around them - it isn't unusual for professional users to have hundreds or even thousands of dollars invested in plugins, making it more difficult to jump ship.
Forget about the money for a second; what about the time?
To a producer/artist, the DAW + plugins is another instrument that takes time to master. Unless there is a really great reason to make a change, why bother? I can move pretty quickly through Logic and Pro Tools, but I spent years working towards that. There is no way I'd even consider making a change unless another piece of software offered some incredible feature or drastically improved workflow.
His story, while informative, is nowhere near close to that of a typical musician or even audio geek. It's not the platform but the software running on it that counts. The first thing Apple did when they bought Emagic and, as a result, Logic Pro was to kill the product on Windows knowing well users would switch to OS X just to use their favourite tool (why wouldn't they given the $1200->$499 price drop and a major feature boost in Logic Studio).
Most musicians nowadays want more than the ability to record and play back audio tracks. What about the digital audio workstation (DAW) choice on Linux; the virtual instruments and FX plugins; MIDI editing and automation; a UI intuitive and simple enough to use at a live show etc. Good software in the creative market seems to take years to build but the user base is so loyal it takes massive effort to get users to switch. There is a reason most software used in the studio is decades old (see Cubase or Logic, for instance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_Pro#History). There is also a reason why GarageBand had significant time dedicated to it at the iPad keynote. Musicians with computers tend to be geeks to a degree, but at the end of the day they have music to compose and perform, and the less time they have to spend on software and setting it up the better.
Basically, Linux not being embraced among the musicians is the same story of why you don't see very many people jump ship from Adobe Photoshop in favour of GIMP.