[Consortium] Re: free linux driver development

[ico at vt.edu]

Many thanks for the prompt reply!

> That sounds great, but what can our group do to help you out?

Well, I am of the opinion that you have managed to generate quite a significant
momentum. For this reason, I see our assistance simply as an extension of your
program. Consequently, I also see your initiative as a vehicle by which we will
be able to expose our mission. I hope that this will help us establish
Linuxaudio.org as the focal entity for all audio matters in Linux.

> Is ALSA work slowing down because of this?  Are new drivers not getting
> written that have specs available?  If the latter, then we can help out,
> just let me know.

I would not say that it is slowing down any more than it already has a couple
years ago. This may be also due to the API freeze which took place when the
1.x series hit the streets. That being said, I should probably refrain from
speaking on behalf of Takashi and/or Jaroslav. For this reason I've taken the
liberty of including them in this mailing, so that they can also share with us
their perspective. Therefore, please regard my ALSA comments as mostly personal
observation, rather than a fact and/or consensus of the Linux audio community.
For what it's worth, I personally feel that ALSA needs to continue to grow and
provide things that are pretty much already standard in the proprietary OSS
drivers, namely out-of-box hw sharing via dmix and snoop which "just works" and
beyond.

> Sure, that would be fine.  But what really does a "bilateral
> relationship" entail?  We are a loosly knit 70+ developer team, with not
> even a web site or email list (although I am still working on that...)

Please pardon my "academinc" language. This simply means that I hope to
establish a synergistic relationship where we can use your momentum and PR to
expose our entity and mission, while in return we would also serve as
contributors to your project by providing audio driver development & support to
the best of our members' ability.

We actually have a Linux Audio Conference coming up in a few days in Berlin. I
will be unfortunately unable to attend so my presentation will have to take
place via Internet. Once that is all over with, if you don't mind we should
probably do a conference call (Skype/Ekiga/phone?) to figure out details and/or
best course of action.

Until then, should you happen to have any questions and/or concerns, please do
not hesitate to contact me.

I sincerely look forward to discussing this matter further.

Best wishes,

Ico