26 Jan
2004
26 Jan
'04
6:48 p.m.
Patrick Shirkey wrote:
3. Difficult and complicated. Very true. It
doesn't bother me, infact
I think it is good for my DJ persona. (Apparently everyone in Korea
thinks I play abstract music ;] ) Did anyone complain when they
couldn't play a Jimi solo the first time they picked up a guitar????
Intereseting analogy, because of course Hendrix introduced no new
technique-having-to-do-with-playing-guitar (it's all blues modes and
very few other scales). He did introduce a lot of
technique-having-to-do-with-USING-the-guitar, most of which was pretty
easily acquired by anyone with the same or approximate gear.
But WRT our beloved Linux audio software: it's really still a bit of a
problem with Linux generally. I still get a fair amount of mail from
people who are truly confused about ALSA...
5. Installation: Maybe (for the trade show) we need a
really big sign
with:
--------------
3 steps to Linux audio happiness
./configure;make;make install
--- it's that simple! ---
---------------
Well, as long as nothing fucks up, I suppose you're right. But of
course, things do fuck up, frequently and opaquely, and unless you're a
seasoned Linux audio veteran you are likely to be left out in the cold
when it comes to system analysis and fix-it time. I'm not saying any of
that is inherently difficult, only that a procedure utterly unknown to
the user might as well be written in Etruscan Linear B. All of which
argues strongly for the promotion of better turn-key systems a la
PlanetC or AGNULA.
Improving the ALSA install would be a big plus too.
I've heard of OSS
being very user friendly a few times in the past year. The problem
seems not to be installing ALSA but getting it working after install.
The install process could provide a flag to write the
/etc/modules.conf file and the .asoundrc for a start.
Maybe someone just needs to explain to me what the alsaconf utility
does so I can write it up :)
Indeed, I've witnessed the ALSA installation getting better all the
time, but it's still not as straightforward as the OSS/Linux system. I'm
not complaining though, and I agree with Patrick that most problems
people have with ALSA have to do with using it optimally (or even just
getting sound out of it). I'm still helping people who didn't know that
ALSA automutes the mixer channels at first start.
Best,
++ dp