Kubuntu 10.10 default with Pulse Audio

[linuxwizard]

Re: Kubuntu 10.10 default with Pulse Audio

[quote=claydoh ]
Please let us know which major linux distro you use which doesn't use Pulse.

I don't worry about if it a major distro or a small group of people putting together a good distro. But it has to be a Debian base distro only thing I like to use. My main systems are Pure Debian Sid and Testing. Sid KDE, Gnome, and Xfce. Testing Gnome only. Sidux KDE,Xfce. Epidemic KDE. Worthless pulse audio free all of them by default. I am sure their are many more out there, have not looked at some of the other Distro for a few months.


[quote=claydoh ]
Not everyone has your experiences with this

Pulse audio issues you can look at any Linux Forums for all the issues and all the upset/mad user over it. I am sure you could find a few thousands posts in Ubuntu Forums. Most user don't want it and most will uninstall it to get their sound working and for the better quality of sound. Look at KDE Forum tons of issues, when you post a sound issue the first reply usually ask first if you had installed pulse audio or using it. KDE does not need or require Pulseaudio or use it, but will create issues.


[quote=claydoh ]
If pulseaudio was sooo worthless, then why do Fedora, Suse, et al use it?

That is nothing to brag about. And if I remember right I have seen alot of Suse pulseaudio issues on KDE Forum.

IMO pulseaudio will be one of the major down falls of Linux. very sad

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Kubuntu 10.10 default with Pulse Audio

I am having a hard time finding/understanding the differenced between alsa and pulse, but it seems that many of the channels that are "disappearing" may be virtual or abstract channels, and not actual physical ones.

My understanding is that alsa is a driver, pulse is a server. Alsa is still there, it's what pulse uses to "talk" to the hardware. Pulse manages audio data, routing it back and forth to various client applications (mplayer, for example) and target drivers.

Seems to me, and this is only my rather narrowly focused opinion, that most desktop users don't need this functionality. If you want to play audio on your desktop, and have it come out on a system on the other side of the planet, pulse will do that. But how may desktop users need to do that, or need the added layer of complexity that they may never use?

Yes, it should be an available option for those who need and want it. But as far as being a default, it does cause unnecessary problems all too often. The other problem is that the responses from Ubuntu about it, at least that I have read, have been more defensive than explanatory. Instead of saying, "This is the way it's going to be," why not explain why, and maybe we will have a better understanding of how it works and what it can do, that we can't do in its absence.

As far as the channels are concerned, on my system at least, they are actual channels available on the hardware. I use some digital communications software that is much happier talking directly to the alsa drivers, and controlling the channels directly, than going through pulse. Now as long as alsa is there, and it has to be for pulse to work, it should be possible for the software to get to alsa and bypass pulse. The problem is that pulse has been implemented in such a way as to bypass some of the user controls (kmix, for example, and phonon) for manipulating the alsa drivers. Maybe not -- if alsamixer still works, then maybe this can all be made to mesh together. Further experimentation required...