[LAU] linux audio: confusing as ever

hollunder at gmx.at hollunder at gmx.at
Mon Dec 22 08:02:43 EST 2008


On Sun, 21 Dec 2008 19:45:36 -0500
sam javor <zekthedeadcow at hotmail.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> 
> > Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:27:38 +1100
> > From: gurusonic at gmail.com
> > To: linux-audio-user at lists.linuxaudio.org
> > Subject: Re: [LAU] linux audio: confusing as ever
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Florin Andrei wrote:
> > > http://www.matusiak.eu/numerodix/blog/index.php/2008/12/19/linux-audio-confusing-as-ever/
> > >
> > > What can I say - the author does have a point. :-/
> > >   
> > Guess they don't have a profanity filter for comments. It sure
> > generated a few flames!
> > To the point of the blogger - yes pulse audio has problems,
> > especially for new users.
> > _______________________________________________
> > Linux-audio-user mailing list
> > Linux-audio-user at lists.linuxaudio.org
> > http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user
> 
> 
> Maybe I'm weird... but I've never had any unusual problems besides
> dealing with priority with multiple soundcards... (which isn't
> unusual)  but I switched to Linux using an Edirol FA66 from XP using
> an Aardvark Q10... and the aardvark, for the first couple months, was
> CONVINCED it was an ethernet card... had to disable DHCP to record! :)
> 
> My
> point is.  No system is 'right'... look what happened to OSX with
> AppleUSBaudio.kext earlier this year - talk about a disaster - If I
> owned a Mac I'd have run into a Mac Store to slug the first salesman I
> saw. - (summary is all USB audio devices older than a year stopped
> working and Apple didn't do anything for about three months... people
> were pirating older versions of the file to get it to work)
> 
> peace
> sam

This is very much a distribution problem. As the PulseAudio developer
put it: Ubuntu didn't do it's homework when employing PA as standard
soundserver. It also comes down to the user, as always. Sure, there are
lots of soundsystems and whatnot on linux, which can get confusing, but
you don't need to care about most of them. PA is just another layer
that attempts, among other things, to make things easier for the user.
The problem is: if it doesn't work the way it is intended it's even
more complicated than without PA.

Personally, I used PA on ubuntustudio 8.04 and it worked well enough for
me once I figured out how to use the quite unusual gui controls.
Anything production-like was done over jack anyway.
Now I'm on Arch Linux, using plain alsa, which worked without trouble
out-of-the-box (as far ootb as possible with arch..).
So IMHO, with the features PA currently has it's not really worth the
trouble and not necessary. It's also not worth page-long rants,
especially when it's really a distribution problem.

pue




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