I wanted a DAW to record my own fledging attempts at electronic music. I took a vow in the 80s to never use Windows, Apple systems seemed overpriced, and I had years of *nix experience, including a bit of Linux. In the late 90s there was a Linux app called "Multitrack" which seemed capable on the surface, but it turned out not to be. I called Digidesign to ask them if I could port ProTools to Linux for them (for free), and they laughed. So I thought "how hard could it be to just write my own?" ... 22+ years later, here I am.

A longer version is here: https://discourse.ardour.org/t/ardour-20th-birthday/102333