I must admit, I had to double-check that I really am reading the year-2005 folder of linux-audio-dev, and not some old mails from the archives. ;) Now that SuSE, Mandrake, Fedora and others have started to use dmix as the default output plugin, basic desktop sound stuff should finally start to work, as people expect, out of the box.
it would be great to counter the jwz diatribe with a mass of 'well, sound works just fine for me' posts from those who do have, and use daily, a working audio sub-system under linux..
perhaps folks on LAD know of sites which have a positive linux audio experience slant to them? what LAD needs, maybe, is a tiger campaign (as in PR, not OSX) to fully push the -successes- and very interesting audio stuff?
i mean, we should take this jwz thing as a call for jihad against non-working audio, including the perception of non-working audio, and such a jihad may be best served by those examples of no-problem systems coming forward and being demo'ed.
i've mentioned this before, but i think that the front-line promotion of such wonderment as Ardour and Audacity and Rosegarden needs BOOT CD-style .iso downloads for the pimps to use in overcoming peoples 'fear of linux audio'. if i can just boot a system on a very well configured distro and immediately start using Ardour from it, it won't matter what the config hassles are, later, once i decide to build my own Linux Audio Workstation: i'll have a standard to compare to "Which Just Works" (tm). (i know about the Apodio and Demudi efforts.. so what else are there?)
i'm sure there are LAD'ers whose systems are superlative examples of well-oiled, finely maintained, working audio workstations. what are your configs? what distro are you using? what do you do to get it going?
maybe the fact is: linux audio is in far better state than most people think, its just that hardly enough of the right kinds of people know about it. jwz doing his soapbox thing could be considered destructive in such light, and in fact we may use this to our advantage to really pimp linux audio, if we have the organized -facts- and not just feelings..
my latest distro-de-jour is MEPIS. it gives me a boot-up chime on my DELL Inspiron 8200, whose sound-card 'just works', tho' i have to be sure not to have any MIDI interfaces or USB Audio gear plugged in until after KDE gets loaded, or things get numbered incorrectly and it moans about not knowing where its audio device is any more.
Details like configuring dmix and other plugins, making sure the aoss-wrapper is used with OSS apps, etc are important...
as i've only really been very peripherally involved in LAD development (lurk), i'd be quite happy to volunteer to collate all the successes and come up with a summary of 'what works well' to pimp around the neighborhood.
i work in the pro audio industry, it'd sure be nice to have a collection of boot CD's that i can take, know that work, and slip into an occasional demo system now and then .. and not just one authoritative CD experience, but a few others from various sources. nothing says 'working just fine' more than multiple distro's all singing the same tune.
As for the API-jungle, yup, that's a problem, but it's something really, really hard to avoid in the FOSS world. Just look at the amount of options for video output when you type "mplayer -vo help" -- no unified API there either. That's not to say that we should give up, but getting majority of developers behind a single API will not be easy...
a lot of times i think that the API mess happens because those who wrote great API's don't promote them well enough, new folks come looking for similar scratches to itch, don't see behind the curtain, and thus re-invent their own wheels. itches, curtains and wheels. all good for something, but the fat lady hasn't sung yet.
But, but, this is just part of the whole package developers and users see. Fortunately there are other areas where FOSS systems have strengths over the closed competitors. And at least for me, FOSS systems still provide better overall value... (also for desktop use).
for me too, in fact my life has revolved around using FOSS-based systems for the last 20 years now, so i'm quite sure of the value to be gained from actual -use- of these systems.
so, the question i have is: what are the shining examples of audio setups in linux which work well? might it be something we can make a list out of, and pimp far and wide? who has some interesting "Known Working Config" details to provide a counter-example to the jwz mess?
-- ; Jay Vaughan
