I’m interested in the idea of a Lightweight LINUX OS which - when coupled with JUCE hosting code - would allow commercial plugins to be installed and hosted - LEGALLY - similar to - for example the Muse Receptor or MuseBox.
Clearly Wine allows a VST to draw its GUI in a LINUX environment. But is it possible to host a VST3 plugin and totally disable or ignore the GUI editor component ? and just not use WINE at all ?
IE a bit like how AudioUnits separate the GUI from the audio IO processing neatly and cleanly. ?
No, running any sort of Windows code under Linux using WINE is an all or nothing deal. In fact, that’s how Muse products work, they run WINE under the hood.
In all plugin formats, Windows VST or macOS AU alike, the GUI/audio subsystems are inextricably linked - plugins are just like .exe files or macOS apps, just with different entry points which make them dependent on a DAW rather than functioning as standalone applications.
However, if you’re talking about running your own plugin you wrote on Linux (since this is a plugin development forum after all), JUCE can compile for Linux natively and you don’t have to mess around with compatibility layers like WINE.