Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by choffman 4459 days ago
Competition certainly sounds nice on paper, but think of the problems that the various sound servers/api's have caused. OSS(+ 4Front's version), ALSA, PulseAudio, Jack.
1 comments
fuzzix 4459 days ago
Currently, OSS compatible APIs are what you have on (*nix && !Linux).

ALSA is monstrous to configure, but capable.

JACK serves a very specific purpose for music production.

I'm still not sure what pulseaudio is for, but I don't think I'm the target audience for it.

Point is, they don't exist contrary to each other, but in parallel and often in concert.

link
Crito 4459 days ago
Pulseaudio is typically used with ALSA as a sink. You know how ALSA is a bitch to configure? Pusleaudio makes you not have to give a shit about it.
link
fuzzix 4458 days ago
I get that, but Pulseaudio has also ruined my day more times than ALSA has... so as far as my specific requirements go, I'm not sure what exactly it's supposed to achieve. It's just sort of foisted on me if I pick the wrong distro.
link