Re:[Alsa-user] shittiness

[Steve Conrad]

It's not really about money. It's about time. And I'm not getting my time's worth out of this. The time invested to setup a second scratch machine to establish that the original machine the fried card came from is in itself significant. The time spent scouring this list for any hint as to why alsamixer refuses to run with this card is also significant. The time wasted entering data into Rosegarden only to have it in effect lost owing to Rosegarden's inablility to export its files to a generic midi format despite claims to the contrary is the part that really burns my ass. I don't buy into the PBS-begathon line of reasoning that because it's free I should be greatful for any limited functionality if offers. The fact is,  that while Linux offers a very powerful selection of software tools, the sound support has always been week and more confusing to deal with than the average sound oriented user would have any motivation to willingly contend with. If alsa were presented as something that might work if you're lucky and rosegarden were presented as something that hopes to someday manage to export files to a standard midi format, then I would decide in advance that this is not the setup for me and that would be that. By overselling the maturity and functionality of these products it is possible to offer something which isn't a good deal even for free. I appreciate that alsa developers can accept no responsibility for the lameness of rosegarden, but as for the frustrating mess of alsa itself I must complain.