Ok, I have never tried using Linux to record music. I will admit to feeling very scared to try, due to worries over performance, compatibility, available plug-ins/instruments, and all the audio routing (things like Jack).
Has anyone had some experience to speak on this topic? My experience has always been DAWs on iMacs (ProTools, Cubase, Logic Pro X).
For the instruments concern, I depend a ton on sampled drum libraries such as Superior, Get Good Drums, Reason. Def cant work these on Linux from my knowledge, so I am not sure the available alternatives.
If you’re looking for an actual audio interface you need to make sure its class compliant. Focusrite past gen2 is not so avoid them. Generally Behringer, Macky, and Motu are going to work well.
As for worrying about plugins,etc. it’ll really depend. AFAIK unless VSTs rely on specific software or operating system featues they’ll work just about anywhere that supports VSTs. Any other plugins and such I really can’t say.
DAWs you have Ardour, LMMS, Renoise, and Reaper as native. FLStudio works in wine to my knowledge if that’s more your style.
Another thing to look into if performance is a concern is eliminating Pulseaudio from the equation entirely. Youll need to make use of Jack and Pipewire for your audio needs. Pipewire can provide low latency, I can only personally confirm down to 10ms before i run into buffer issues but I know others doing 5ms in the pipewire discussions. Pipewire uses substantially less CPU resources which gives you better performance.
You could also run pipewire on top of Jack if you want to use Jack as the main man for the task instead of Jack through pipewire.