[linux-audio-dev] Best-performing Linux-friendly MIDI interfaces?

[Kai Vehmanen]

On Mon, 13 Jun 2005, Jay Vaughan wrote:

> i mean .. i've been using linux since the minix-list post, and i'll be damned 
> if i can keep up with all this ALSA/esd/OSS/jackd/artsserver voodoo that is 
> expected of anyone wanting to get audio working in linux, at the same/similar 
> degree of operational status as we see under OSX .. even though, i'm very, 
> very eager to see linux function as a working audio platform.  there's gotta 
> be -some- way to get it all working, and i dont just mean "buy a Dell laptop"

I must admit, I had to double-check that I really am reading the year-2005 
folder of linux-audio-dev, and not some old mails from the archives. ;) 
Now that SuSE, Mandrake, Fedora and others have started to use dmix as the 
default output plugin, basic desktop sound stuff should finally start to 
work, as people expect, out of the box. If anything, rants like the recent 
one from jwz, are a wake-up call for desktop/workstation-oriented distros 
that sound is important. Details like configuring dmix and other plugins, 
making sure the aoss-wrapper is used with OSS apps, etc are important...

As for the API-jungle, yup, that's a problem, but it's something really, 
really hard to avoid in the FOSS world. Just look at the amount of 
options for video output when you type "mplayer -vo help" -- no unified 
API there either. That's not to say that we should give up, but 
getting majority of developers behind a single API will not be easy...

But, but, this is just part of the whole package developers and users see. 
Fortunately there are other areas where FOSS systems have strengths over 
the closed competitors. And at least for me, FOSS systems still provide 
better overall value... (also for desktop use).

-- 
  http://www.eca.cx
  Audio software for Linux!