Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Sound card is only usable by one application at a time

[Jesús Guerrero]

On Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:44:50 +0200, Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@×××××.de>
wrote:
> On 12/04/2009 03:12 AM, walt wrote:
>> Most people don't have any need for more than one application to use
>> the sound card at the same time.
>
> I was under the impression that it's quite the opposite.  For example I
> would still like to hear my MSN messenger go *ping* when someone talks
> to me while I'm listening to some mp3 and/or am playing a game.

Definitely, *most* do need support for software mixing. I am not on the
boat of notifications or system sounds, but most users are, and all the
major desktops do enable sound notifications by default, and all the major
IM programs do as well. 

I like austerity so I don't use these little things, but even for me this
is a must. I might have many sound tracks playing at a given moment while I
practice with my guitar. Heck, even for youtube this is a must, because the
plugin likes to trap the sound card, and you can't even listen to another
video if you have another tab with youtube on it, even if the video in that
tab is not playing nor even paused.

So, yes. Definitely, 99% of the users need software mixing.

However, it is not true that you need pulse for that. That's what the dmix
alsa plugin is for. The problem is not that alsa can't do it. The problem
is that alsa is buggy as hell and should really be fixed. Or, it should be
simplified to provide only the basic functionality, rip out all the crap
and do it in user land, with either pulse, jack or whatever. The problem is
that there are many layers like alsa and pulse that don't have a clear
delimitation, they overlap functionality, duplicate code and bloat the
system making it prone to bugs and stuff like this. The sound system in
linux is in a pitiful state right now :P
-- 
Jesús Guerrero