However, it seems that things will be more complicated with the new pulseaudio system which is totally new for me as an openSUSE user.
The chance that all software components are bug-free is 0 – either some of them will dropped or we will never see good sound support on Linux.
]]>Pulseaudio is easier to work with? Ever since it came out, I have been having problems that took weeks to fix. Granted, now it works, but I’m still seeing artifacts of the system hiccuping from time to time (that one, I don’t know if it was pulseaudio that did it or something else), once in a while, I will loose sound (to “fix” I have to wait around for a bit of time).
But, the biggest reason I hate it, it is an added layer that is not needed in music production. Why must I now have to deal with the added system lag of having yet another audio sub system? Something where system latency means everything, by forcing another audio layer, this just makes things worse. I was forced reconfigure jackd for days, trying to find the right settings, all because Ubuntu wanted to force me to use pulseaudio.
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And stories from (my) real-life:
1. Install openSUSE 11 – ok
2. plugged in a second audio interface (USB) – ok
3. change the order of the audio interface on my desktop (KDE4)
3a) no effect on LGP games
3b) no effect on skype
3c) no effect on RealPlayer
4) the correct effect on Amarok – YES – but no mp3 sound (d’ooh)
5) an very old game (bridge builder) has not sound at all (broken openAL)
6) sometimes the external interface crashes the whole system..
YES – there are different reasons and probably many solutions for each problem, but who has the time to elaborate all the stuff?
Above all Linux is a very good OS and many things on the desktop improved in the last time, but there is still “no light at the end of the sound tunnel”.
]]>Another issue related to audio involves Flash or Java programs stealing control of audio, so if I try to run a game while Firefox is still running, I’ll find that my games or music players are silent and unstable.
I’m told that all of these issues might be related to PulseAudio or at least Ubuntu’s implementation of it, so I can’t wait to hear more about LGP’s struggles with it.
]]>As for the pulseaudio, what do you have against it? It’s much easier to work with and much more reliable for desktop system.
]]>I myself love OSS (v4 of course) because “it just works” for me.
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