[LAU] Anyone has experience with OSS (3 or 4)? (fwd)

[Ng Oon-Ee]

On Sat, 2009-12-12 at 00:42 -1000, david wrote:
> Peter Nelson wrote:
> > On Fri, 2009-12-11 at 21:53 -1000, david wrote:
> >> 64-bit could be the problem. Particularly the shortage of 64-bit device 
> >> drivers? I have nothing here running 64-bit, although the desktop 
> >> machine's Sempron could run 64-bit.
> > 
> > Why do you think there is a shortage of 64-bit drivers? Linux is not
> > Windows XP.
> 
> Because that's what I've been told by people who presumably know better 
> than I do. I don't run 64-bit OS of any sort, so don't know.

The only major problems with 64-bit are google-earth, skype (both
closed-source) and wine. Driver support is exactly the same between
32-bit and 64-bit, since most of the drivers we care about are already
in kernel and open-source. You may only have problems with proprietary
linux drivers from, perhaps, camera/printer manufacturers and the like,
but any manufacturer who wants to support linux would generally have
32/64-bit available.

> > The problem is generally with older software or closed source software
> > that still uses OSS (sadly some brand new closed source software still
> > does this) or tries to use 'hw:0' instead of 'default'. That kind of
> > thing. 32- or 64-bit is not a problem at all.
> 
> Or even modern stuff like JACK where if I specify "default" it comes up 
> trying to use my laptop's built Intel modem as an audio output device. 
> Sure, there are ways around it, but specifying something like hw:2 works 
> easily.
> 
JACK is meant to directly access your hardware through alsa, so
specifying hw:x makes sense. Specifying that in a user app isn't smart,
because that app grabs the card. JACK is the family driver you trust
with the keys to your car, other sound apps are the small children you
want him driving around, not at the wheel.