Why use Reason 5 on
Linux? For me there are several reasons.
First off Linux is a rock-solid base to use Reason DAW on, as it does not lock up, runs blazingly fast and needs no virusscanner or latest-and-greatest hardware to run. Most software is written for Windows or MacOS, but this also causes vendor lock-in. I.e. when the OS is upgraded, users of older programs are often forgotten and it may become difficult to continue running your software. Of course, Propellerhead did not design Reason to run on Linux, but thanks to the WINE project it is possible and at low latency too when you use WINEasio. As you run Reason on Linux using WINE, it is effectively frozen in time. You get all the speed and security advantages as you pull in any Linux upgrades, but no functionality gets lost or taken away from you since Reason only "sees" WINE as if it is Windows XP, so nothing changes there. Reason keeps running as it always does.
Secondly using Reason on Linux makes it possible to expand Reason's functionality by hooking it into all kinds of Linux audio and MIDI software. This may not be for everyone, but it can come in handy for me at times. Most often Reason alone is enough for me, but sometimes I need a tool that Reason 5 doesn't have built-in, like for instance a frequency spectrum analyzer. Instead of buying Reason 10, and then buying some rack extension to measure frequencies, I simply fire op the free and open-source Friture spectrum analyzer, and then hook two of Reason's many audio outputs straight into Friture. Now I can professionally measure the frequencies, and don't have another expensive and distracting Reason toy in my rack.
Third reason for me to stick to Reason 5.0.1: This was the last version to be developed that did not get combined with the Record 1.5 codebase. All later versions of Reason enable users to directly record and work with audio tracks. That may be handy, but it comes at a cost: the software is more bloated and the UX/UI experience suffers as a result. Essentially I liked Reason for its simplicity and profound workflow, and I would always do my recording in a separate program (Audacity, or Ardour). After recording I would simply slice my vocals into words using ReCycle and import this into Dr. Rex, allowing me to arrange the vocal over the music with fine-tuned accuracy. I like it when a tool is good at what it does, and this means it doesn't need to do everything. That is exactly what Reason 5 and earlier versions are for me, and why I prefer that over 6+.
