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On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 6:13 AM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com> wrote: |
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[snip] |
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> Like an earlier poster suggested, PulseAudio looks like a hammer in search of |
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> a nail. |
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|
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I have a bluetooth headset. I set it up with gnome-bluetooth, and with |
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PulseAudio I can dynamically redirect the output in my laptop from the |
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speakers to the headset and back; it also redirects it automatically |
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when my headset gets disconnected or runs out of battery. |
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|
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Good luck doing that with ALSA. |
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|
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PulseAudio is here to stay, and for a very good reason I say. It's not |
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"too complicated" or "overkill"; a modern sound architecture for |
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desktop computers was in dire need for Linux, and PulseAudio was the |
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first complete and (more important) correct designed solution. Don't |
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even mention OSS4; the sound architecture goes in user space, not the |
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kernel. |
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|
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This is why *ALL* the Linux based mobile phones use PulseAudio: it |
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*works*, and it *makes sense* from a technical point of view. It |
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sucked for a long time? Indeed it did; just like KDE 4.0 sucked |
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immediately afer KDE 3.5; just like X.org sucked at the very |
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beginning; just like ALSA sucked when it replaced OSS; just like GNOME |
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2.0 sucked. Innovation is expensive. |
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|
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I have PulseAudio running perfectly in my laptop, my desktop, *and* my |
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MediaCenter connected to my 5.1 system. Via HDMI, by the way. I thank |
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for PulseAudio; now, after the initial (and very annoying) problems, |
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it works, it doesn't get in the way, and it's flexible enough to adapt |
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to new hardware and new sound solutions. Bluetooth headsets it's just |
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one example (but a very good one I believe; everything is going |
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wireless); there are USB sound cards, transparently output the music |
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from my laptop to my MediaCenter, and, of course, little beeps from |
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the GUI when I click a menu item. |
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|
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I repeat: PulseAudio is here to stay. You can purge it out of your |
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system, but more and more applications will make use of it, and |
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eventually you will not be able to have a desktop without it. Right |
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now it works flawlessly in the majority of hardware; I highly |
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recommend to start using it now (it's stable in Gentoo since a couple |
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of months ago, I believe); and better get used to it. |
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|
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Because it's not going anywhere. |
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-- |
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Canek Peláez Valdés |
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Instituto de Matemáticas |
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Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México |