Re: [LAD] Anyone have experience with OSS (3 or 4)?

On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 6:47 AM, Kjetil S. Matheussen <k.s.matheussen(a)notam02.no> wrote: Kjetil, although you're absolutely welcome to your own opinions on this, I would note two things: 1) ALSA has long provided "dmix" user space mixing without a server. Its a very, very clever solution that is, unfortunately, so clever that it often doesn't work for the most demanding situations. For normal desktop use, it has always worked well. However, as well as it works simply goes to emphasize all the desirable details of a desktop sound system that dmix by itself does not provide: per-app volume control, easy device switching, and more. As a result ... 2) many people would say that its not ALSA's job to provide this kind of functionality but instead to act as a kind of HAL for audio. The job of mixing should (and can) be done by a user-space implementation (PulseAudio or JACK depending on your workflow needs), and ALSA can simply be "the device drivers". This is certainly how the audio ecosystem is shaping up on Linux now, particularly with the increasing emphasis among those paying for system development because their work generally involves low power mobile devices where the desktop issues are absent. --p