Is there a reason Roon can't have a linux version (for accessing and controlling)?

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I have been using Roon for a couple of years now. My Roon server is a NUC12 running ROCK. I have been using a Windows PC as a controller and endpoint, however most of the time I use the PC to control the music and have it playing on a Raspberry Pi streamer feeding a DAC and Stereo HiFi system.

I recently put Ubuntu on my PC and have a dual boot setup with Windows. At first I was using Windows most of the time, but I have been gradually setting up and using Linux programs to perform my various daily tasks. It’s finally gotten to the point where I am finding that the only thing I can’t do on Linux is use Roon.

I have Roon set up as an endpoint, so I can play Roon when I booted into Linux, but still can’t search for music.

I set up the web interface extension, so that I can start and stop playing, and use the rather clumsy browsing ability it has, but it’s not the Roon experience that I am used to.

I spent a bit of time trying to get the Windows version of the program to run using Wine, but was not having any success. I guess I have to keep working on that.

My question here is WHY? What is the reason Roon doesn’t have a Linux version?

They obviously have Linux programmers since ROCK is Linux and they have both Linux server and endpoint versions. Why is there resistance to providing the full Roon experience on Linux?

I’m sorry if this has been discussed previously, but I couldn’t find it. I found discussions with people having this problem and the approaches to working around it, but I didn’t see anything anywhere stating why Roon would do this.

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It’s been discussed many times over the years and was written off by Roon, I think mainly down to Linux having so many different windows managers and not one simple front end to develop for. But in this day and age it does seem a little old fashioned as many apps I use day in day out on Linux work on many distros and windows managers. There is a community remote project that @Jan_Koudijs is working on that’s filling the gap albeit within the limitations of Roons API. Maybe under Harman they might now be pushed to come up with an official Linux client. But I would not hold your breath.

Very long thread on it here

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Please for the love of God have a Linux control app. It’s not that hard. Just ask the community and they will help you. That’s the beauty of open source. C’mon guys. Please. I hate using windows!!! Please, please, please. I’ll buy the lifetime Roon if you make this happen. It’s the only reason I haven’t

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