REAPER
Close matchPaidOfficial Linux build, cheap personal licence, and a layout that a Cakewalk user recognises quickly. The usual destination.
Your files: Cannot open .cwp projects. Imports WAV stems and standard MIDI files.
Does Cakewalk by BandLab run on Linux?
Verdict: No
No. Cakewalk has always been Windows software and its successor Cakewalk Sonar requires Windows 11. Nothing installs on Linux, so a switcher needs a different recording program.
Cakewalk's own site lists Cakewalk Sonar as Windows 11 and newer, and Cakewalk Next as Windows 10 and newer plus macOS. Cakewalk by BandLab, the free version many home musicians used, was Windows only for its whole life and has been replaced by those two products. There is no Linux version of any of them.
Ardour is the closest free replacement in spirit. It is open source, it costs nothing to download and build yourself or a small amount to get ready-made, and it is built around recording, editing and mixing audio and MIDI. REAPER is the other option, with an official Linux build and a cheap personal licence, and it is the one most people who leave Cakewalk end up using.
Your plug-ins are the real problem, not the program. Cakewalk projects lean on Windows VST instruments and effects, and those do not simply run on Linux. Some can be coaxed into working through a compatibility layer, but that is fiddly and not something to rely on. Budget for free Linux equivalents instead.
Move your work as audio. Cakewalk .cwp project files do not open on Linux. Export each track as a WAV file from the same start point, and your MIDI parts as .mid files, and any Linux program will rebuild the arrangement from those.
What to use instead of Cakewalk by BandLab
Ardour
Close matchFreeFree and open source, strong on recording live instruments and mixing. MIDI is capable but less comfortable than Cakewalk.
Your files: Imports WAV, FLAC and standard MIDI files. No .cwp support.
LMMS
Different way of workingFreeFree, and aimed at making beats and patterns rather than recording a band. Worth a look if Cakewalk was mostly for programming music.
Your files: Imports MIDI files and audio samples. No .cwp support.
This doesn't have to stop you
One stubborn program doesn't have to decide the whole question. You can keep Windows on the same PC and restart into it only when you need Cakewalk by BandLab. Everything else you do can move.
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