Re: Well, Windows is back on the disk.

Lionel <lionelv@xxxxxxxxx> · Tue, 17 Jan 2006 15:03:26 +1000

Michael Richter wrote:

I'll cheerfully learn.

Where, exactly, is ALSA documented again?  And its interactions with
OSS and the other misbegotten software turds that seem to float around
the Linux multimedia bowl?

Give me docs--complete and coherent ones--and I'll gladly learn.

If you've been reading the LKML, there certainly aren't many. If you ask
the LKML, I'm sure you'll get a response like, "the header files". It
works in practice. :)

So much for Linux on the desktop.
If I have to read kernel code to make something work we're talking

about fifteen layers of information too far from the end-user

experience.  Were all other OSes this way it would be bad enough, but

in the arena Ubuntu wants to compete in sound cards Just Work<tm>. 
Having Ubuntu require reading of kernel source to get half-there

operation that Mysteriously Fails<tm> slightly less than the default

scenario is not going to give anybody a good impression.
Here's what you're competing against, for reference:
- In Windows, since '98 (and possibly earlier -- I don't have any '95
disks left anymore), sound cards either Just Work<tm> out of the box
or they work after installing an easily-found, easily installed
driver.
- In Windows, since '98 (or earlier), in a system with multiple sound
cards, telling the OS which one you want as the default device means
all audio activity goes to that default device.
- In Windows, you see the pattern, AC3-encoded (or DTS-encoded, etc.)
audio played on a system that doesn't support AC3 (for whatever
reason) gets converted intelligently through software into a format
which is supported.
- In Windows, if a format isn't supported it gives intelligent error
messages like "no codec for this file format" instead of "device
busy".  This means you can easily figure out you're dealing with a
codec issue and can Google on "<name> codec" to find the software you
need.
- In Windows, when the desktop starts, if it can't play the startup
noise (because of a hardware misconfiguration, say) it doesn't hang
the system.

You forgot at least one.

- Windows comes with a high price tag, is restrictive and is developed 
by highly paid software developers.
- Most Linux distro's are free and provide a flexible OS in an attempt 
to provide an alternative to blue screens, viruses and spyware. You are 
getting it for FREE. You are getting it for FREE. A lot of people put a 
lot of hard work into Linux and get nothing in return, consider yourself 
lucky that people are out there trying.

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Re: Well, Windows is back on the disk.

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