That's the whole point. pd works the same way and so does vcvrack among more localised tools like Reaktor.
> The new versions are made using the JUCE framework, and yet it has no Linux support. WTF?
I don't have any love for JUCE but you are naive to think that its as easy as setting a new compile target and pressing go. Max is for profit and they need to target the most salient customers. Forget how little the percentage of people is that use Linux - you are aiming this product at a niche of niche people already. Be realistic here if you're own money was at stake.
> Good luck doing anything low-latency, on any platform, using any kind of hardware. Seriously, last time I tried to agonize with Max/MSP, that shit would start crackling at 48k and a block size of 192, that's absurdly poor performance for any sort of "modern" audio software.
I can't say I've had as much problems as you. I have a friend whose work has to be as low latency as possible (so that onset detectors are working really fast) and his system is running somewhere at 16/32 for vector size. The processing after this is non-trivial also.
I'd be curious to know what your professional use of Max is as you seem to have an incredibly aggressive attitude to the software, how its made and the people that use it.