[anonbanker]

JACK is a (better) alternative to PulseAudio, works in BSD, works with ALSA and OSS, and is superior in every way.

The reader is encouraged to download a KXStudio LiveUSB image, and see all the cool things JACK allows that PulseAudio cannot/will not catch up to.

[microcolonel]

JACK doesn't have Bluetooth support, nor array microphone support. It is also terrible on battery, and doesn't perform correctly on a non-realtime kernel.

That's not to say JACK isn't useful; but it isn't a solution to the desktop audio problem, it's a solution to the professional audio problem.

JACK also doesn't have the semantics and auto-configuration code which makes Pulseaudio work out of the box, and it is considerably more difficult to make JACK control clients. These are more reasons why even though JACK existed before Pulseaudio, it was not integrated with common user applications.

[the_mitsuhiko]

> JACK is a (better) alternative to PulseAudio

For some things, but not for others. They are really not even competing to be in the same space. Such blanket statements do not help.

[david-given]

I've played with JACK a bit, and I've always found it pretty obtuse, but that was a while ago.

The obvious question, though, is: is there a emulation layer for JACK that supports the PulseAudio API?

[the_mitsuhiko]

There is some limited interoperability by nesting PA within JACK: http://www.jackaudio.org/faq/pulseaudio_and_jack.html

[pyre]

JACK existed pre-Pulseaudio and it wasn't used by very much software. Most things only supported ALSA / OSS / eSound / whatever KDE's sound system was.