Windows Plugins on Linux

[UuBroot]

Hi,
While I know adding a feature for a specific platform is a bit of a hassle, I recently had the idea that it would be really nice to be able to download and run windows VST plugins directly using owlplug.
There are some projects out there that solve that problem by using wine and just running these plugins, but using owlplug to also download them would make it way easier. Especially if owlplug had their own yabridge (or whatever solution fits best) binary, because their builds are a pain to install.

[DropSnorz]

Hello @UuBroot

Thanks for the suggestion. This is an interesting idea, and I appreciate you bringing it up!

You're right that Wine/yabridge-style bridging would add a lot of value for Windows VST plugins on other platforms, and building that directly into OwlPlug (download + wrap + run) is a compelling idea. I can see why it would remove a lot of hassle compared to setting up yabridge or similar tools by hand today.

That said, I want to be upfront that this would be a genuinely complex feature to build and keep working well, for a few reasons:

• Hard to debug: Wrapping and bridging adds a whole new layer between OwlPlug, the plugin, and the host DAW. When something breaks, it becomes much harder to tell whether the problem is OwlPlug itself, the bridge, Wine, or the plugin, versus today, where at least the failures are more contained.
• Existing scanning issues: We already have a hard time figuring out why certain plugins crash during scanning across all the different hardware/OS/setup combinations people use. Adding a translation layer would likely make that even harder to diagnose, since bugs could now come from an extra piece outside our control.
• Maintenance load: Bundling something like a yabridge binary means we'd be responsible for keeping it updated, compatible, and working across platforms, plus handling bug reports that might actually come from Wine/yabridge itself, not OwlPlug.

I'm not an expert in bridging/Wine internals myself, so there's a real learning curve on my end too. On top of that, there are some other things already in the backlog that are taking priority right now.

Also, Linux users account for 10% of all OwlPlug users, but on the other hand, they are also the most involved in app development, support, discussion, ...). From what I feel, this user base seems more interested in open standards like CLAP and LV2 rather than bridging Windows-coupled stuff. But yeah... plugin ecosystem on Linux is not as developed as the one for Windows and macOS. Thinking loud here, but i don't know how many users would be really interested in this 😄