Bye, bye Roon Core - Roon Server as Background Process under Apple macOS and Microsoft Windows

Until now, a central term around the Roon software has been the so-called Roon Core, which Roon Labs LLC. no longer wants to use in the future. In future, only the Roon Server will be mentioned, regardless of whether it is used on Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS or Linux.

If you wanted to correctly describe the structure and design of the media management and multi-room audio streaming software Roon by the software company Roon Labs LLC, you would need a lot of words, because the structure was not really easy to explain, at least not because of the terms used. In essence, it is the same as with all other such solutions: a server provides data for clients, if you want to express it in classic IT jargon.

And it is precisely this that Roon Labs LLC is now relying on, as the software company has now announced. The so-called Roon Core is to be history, at least when it comes to the description of the individual components of a streaming system based on Roon. In the future, one wants to speak only of the Roon Server, no matter how it is built and no matter on which platform it is used.

Roon Core as a term obsolete

In principle, it is about simplifying the structure that has grown over the last few years; according to Roon Labs LLC, some things got a bit out of hand, became too complex, at least in the description, so that it is high time to provide more clarity here again.

And this applies first and foremost to the term Roon Core, which was previously used to describe the central component of the Roon ecosystem, but which ultimately described nothing other than the Roon Server.

The special terminology was originally introduced to clarify that the Roon App knows two different modes, namely it could run exclusively as a remote or both as a remote and as a core.

And that is exactly what they want to unify now. In the future, there will only be Roon Server, no matter how it is structured in practice.

Roon Server as a pure background process under Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS

The fact that this change is being made now is of course no coincidence, but is due to a fundamental change in the software structure.

Roon Labs LLC. states that they want to simplify the installation of Roon under Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS in order to achieve more flexibility and better performance.

Under Apple macOS as well as Microsoft Windows, the Roon Server will in future run as a separate process in the background, accessible via the so-called system tray in Microsoft Windows and the menu bar in Apple macOS. So this is exactly what was previously called Roon Core, but is now called Roon Server alone.

At the same time, you can also use the Roon App as a client on these systems, but these are then really only clients. In the future, there will only be Roon Server and Roon RemoteThis, according to the promise of Roon Labs LLC, should ensure a much leaner structure on the Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS platforms and thus a significantly higher performance.

Prices and availability

The new features already apply to the current versions of Roon, i.e. Roon 2.0 Build 1310, which is currently available. One more thing should be mentioned, there will now be only one download each for Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS, a package that includes both Roon Server and Roon Remote, whereby the user can decide during the installation which of them he wants to use.

Getting to the point

Until now it has been a bit complicated to explain how Roon Server, Roon Core and Roon Remote work, what exactly has which task and how they all interact. Now everything should be very simple, because in the future there will only be Roon Server and Roon Remote, the term Roon Core will no longer be used, as Roon Labs LLC. explains. This step goes hand in hand with a serious change under Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS, where Roon Server will run as a background process in the future.