[linux-audio-user] Fedora and ALSA drivers.

[Daniel James]

> So I suspect, but I can only guess here, that your kernel source
> has a patch that introduces this PDE thing (I have no idea what it
> could be used for).

I think Red Hat have publically stated that what used to be the stable 
distribution will now be a test bed for the Enterprise distros, 
breaking compatibility on a regular basis.  From my point of view, I 
don't want to be an alpha tester all the time - there's enough to 
keep track of in Linux audio as it is.

I regard the situation as unfortunate, because I think stable, free 
as-in-beer distributions that can be installed and used by the 
average person are important. The number of distributions that meet 
this criteria seems to be shrinking, not growing. Red Hat and SUSE 
have become the new proprietary UNIX with 'enterprise' pricing, 
Debian and Gentoo (and to a lesser extent Slackware) retain their 
tech elitism - and then there's Lindows, Lycoris, Xandros, Libranet 
etc competing for the pay-to-play market. 

At least Mandrake is still interested in taking free software to the 
general public, and dyne:bolic has that vibe which I suspect got most 
of us interested in Linux audio in the first place.   

Cheers

Daniel