Official Linux Support

Targeting RPM or Deb as an install file format will make a program available to most systems. However available and easy to install are not the same thing. Sorting dependencies and such is not a very simple thing to do when trying to support a wide range of distributions.

I'd be happy as a clam if Sonos did a Linux client but I'm not holding my breath.

Great comments; thanks all. About Tipping Point, @melvimbe, Gladwell's idea isn't that the key players (maven, etc.) all go out and by the Nike shoes. It's that the complex relationship between these players creates a perfect storm of public opinion. It's everyone else who buys the shoes/novel/Sonos. It's the maven+networker+early-adopter combination that generates new behaviours in the general public. I genuinely do think the Linux user community plays such a role, though it would be hard to quantify it.

And it doesn't matter anyway now. Sonos has opened their API to the world

Please show me this API. I have seen articles claiming this, but no actual link to any API. The last time this was claimed (for Crestron I think) it was some crappy secret API that had close to no features.

Please show me this API. I have seen articles claiming this, but no actual link to any API. The last time this was claimed (for Crestron I think) it was some crappy secret API that had close to no features.
Tomorrow is the day...

https://developer.sonos.com/

At last! Docs look nice, but there's nothing there that i can't do already via the UPnP APIs I use today. in fact the huge omission is the ability to list and play anything other than Favorites, which is as I understand it the big problem with the Crestron integration.

I very much doubt this will ever happen. I imagine most people control their sonos system using either phone or tablet - who wants to have a pc next to every speaker when there is a controller available in your pocket.
There is https://github.com/pascalopitz/unoffical-sonos-controller-for-linux which I have tried and seemed ok. However I just use my phone rather than my linux pc

I'm a Linux desktop user as well, with a Connect under my monitor hooked to my computer's 2.1 amp.
If anything, being high salaried techies, linux users would be a disproportionately large slice of the sonos userbase.
And in the wider world (discounting linux in the form of android... which makes linux the most popular OS in the world) desktop Linux is generally as popular as MacOS.
Most of the people I work with use Linux on their work and home systems and many are also Sonos owners.

Noson ( http://janbar.github.io/noson-app/ ) is the desktop controller some are using... though most are using android phones.

I tried both the Unofficial Controller and the NoSon from above, both seem to work.

I started with the NoSon but I found the frustrating to install (requires FlatPak) and get working and then I had music service registration issues so I gave the other a try. If you are interested in how Sonos communicates this is a great option, turn on debugging and it shows a wealth of information. Tee the output to a log file, a 1000 line terminal window scrollback isn't going to be enough.

I haven't gotten as far with the Unofficial one but it is a lot easier to install as it uses AppImage and just works on a lot of distributions.

I read funny things. 100 packages to maintain? usually 2 types of packages: RPM & DEB, but the software remains the same. Else flatpack/snap packages are also a solution.
Secondly: there are a lot moe linux devices in the world than Windows devices. A lot more. Even on Azure, there are more Linux machines than Windows machines.
Also, on chromebooks for example , which run a linux kernel, it is now also possible to run Linux apps.
On the other hand, sonos offers a client for Mac..indeed..for mac...there are a LOT less Mac devices than Linux devices.

Check out the latest WINE implementation for Sonos Desktop Controller v9.2 that I just added (10-30-18):
https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=37325

Yes, WINE is not a native Linux solution but IMHO until Sonos devs port their controller implementing the Sonos developed app in WINE is preferable to the various homegrown apps.