What Parts of Linux Audio Simply Work Great? (was Re: [linux-audio-dev] Best-performing Linux-friendly MIDI interfaces?)

[Jay Vaughan]

>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.

it would be great to counter the jwz diatribe with a mass of 'well, 
sound works just fine for me' posts from those who do have, and use 
daily, a working audio sub-system under linux..

perhaps folks on LAD know of sites which have a positive linux audio 
experience slant to them?  what LAD needs, maybe, is a tiger campaign 
(as in PR, not OSX) to fully push the -successes- and very 
interesting audio stuff?

i mean, we should take this jwz thing as a call for jihad against 
non-working audio, including the perception of non-working audio, and 
such a jihad may be best served by those examples of no-problem 
systems coming forward and being demo'ed.

i've mentioned this before, but i think that the front-line promotion 
of such wonderment as Ardour and Audacity and Rosegarden needs BOOT 
CD-style .iso downloads for the pimps to use in overcoming peoples 
'fear of linux audio'.  if i can just boot a system on a very well 
configured distro and immediately start using Ardour from it, it 
won't matter what the config hassles are, later, once i decide to 
build my own Linux Audio Workstation: i'll have a standard to compare 
to "Which Just Works" (tm).  (i know about the Apodio and Demudi 
efforts.. so what else are there?)

i'm sure there are LAD'ers whose systems are superlative examples of 
well-oiled, finely maintained, working audio workstations.  what are 
your configs?  what distro are you using?  what do you do to get it 
going?

maybe the fact is: linux audio is in far better state than most 
people think, its just that hardly enough of the right kinds of 
people know about it.  jwz doing his soapbox thing could be 
considered destructive in such light, and in fact we may use this to 
our advantage to really pimp linux audio, if we have the organized 
-facts- and not just feelings..

my latest distro-de-jour is MEPIS.  it gives me a boot-up chime on my 
DELL Inspiron 8200, whose sound-card 'just works', tho' i have to be 
sure not to have any MIDI interfaces or USB Audio gear plugged in 
until after KDE gets loaded, or things get numbered incorrectly and 
it moans about not knowing where its audio device is any more.

>Details like configuring dmix and other plugins, making sure the
>aoss-wrapper is used with OSS apps, etc are important...

as i've only really been very peripherally involved in LAD 
development (lurk), i'd be quite happy to volunteer to collate all 
the successes and come up with a summary of 'what works well' to pimp 
around the neighborhood.

i work in the pro audio industry, it'd sure be nice to have a 
collection of boot CD's that i can take, know that work, and slip 
into an occasional demo system now and then .. and not just one 
authoritative CD experience, but a few others from various sources. 
nothing says 'working just fine' more than multiple distro's all 
singing the same tune.

>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...

a lot of times i think that the API mess happens because those who 
wrote great API's don't promote them well enough, new folks come 
looking for similar scratches to itch, don't see behind the curtain, 
and thus re-invent their own wheels.  itches, curtains and wheels. 
all good for something, but the fat lady hasn't sung yet.

>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).

for me too, in fact my life has revolved around using FOSS-based 
systems for the last 20 years now, so i'm quite sure of the value to 
be gained from actual -use- of these systems.

so, the question i have is: what are the shining examples of audio 
setups in linux which work well?  might it be something we can make a 
list out of, and pimp far and wide?  who has some interesting "Known 
Working Config" details to provide a counter-example to the jwz mess?

-- 

;

Jay Vaughan