A few years ago I was helping run sound at a conference which involved recording and rebroadcasting multiple audio streams simultaneously. The provided equipment included a Linux computer running a real-time kernel and routing was handled by JACK.

It was a disaster. If the USB audio interface ever disconnected, JACK crashed and wiped my routing configuration. After the first day I ditched the Linux computer and ran the whole setup through my MBA, using Reaper for both recording and routing.