Hello.
Upcoming 5.12 allow building with dynamic preemption support which allows changing mode at
boot/run-time so finally no need to rebuild or make alternative kernel build anymore[1].
Responsive system is a must have for gaming and good desktop experience overall, not only
for professional audio. For example difference in input mouse lag is like day and night
with PREEMPT mode. Maybe on cheap mouse this is hard to notice but on 500-1000Hz mouse
really easy. You can test this yourself with experimental kernel build on COPR[2]. Some
Linux distros[3] already using PREEMPT mode by default for a decent period of time. Fedora
kernel build with CONFIG_PREEMPT_VOLUNTARY but this is not enough for desktop use case.
Please provide full PREEMPT mode by default in 5.12 kernel for desktop variants. With 5.12
it is possible for user to change it without efforts if they need this.
RT kernel FAQ:
https://rt.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions
[1]:
http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/2102.2/01311.html
[2]:
https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/atim/kernel-futex/
[3]:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Professional_audio#Realtime_kernel