[Gllug] Fedora Core 4 sound - just an observation

[Nix]

On Sun, 30 Oct 2005, Henry Gilbert said:
> yes
> 
> try OSS

This operates at a level below ESD: the problem is almost certainly ESD
itself. ESD is a horrific little piece of bugware notable, at least in
my experience, for gratuitously stopping me hearing anything thanks to a
busted `authentication' system, for producing jolting and gap-filled
sound with a vast interrupt load, for insane latencies in the sound it
does produce (at times >2sec!) and for not providing access to most
capabilities of the underlying sound system (its `volume scaling' and
software mixing systems don't work and are fundamentally broken, so
you can't even change the volume via esound!)

In addition, the kernel was *using* OSS until recently (2.6), but has
now shifted off onto ALSA (which is much more actively maintained and
immensely flexible): you're recommending switching *to* something
perhaps best described as obsolescent.

Might I recommend polypaudio? Trivial to configure, with a lovely
pluggable architecture; supports the ESD protocol so ESD clients
can continue functioning; and also provides heaps of extra things
like low-latency communcation and sound synching and authentication
using X auth and so on which ESD never dreamed of providing.

-- 
`"Gun-wielding recluse gunned down by local police" isn't the epitaph
 I want. I am hoping for "Witnesses reported the sound up to two hundred
 kilometers away" or "Last body part finally located".' --- James Nicoll
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