On 2004-01-24 18:29:03 +0000 Syd Hancock syd@toufol.com wrote:
What are the differences and relative merits (or otherwise) of ALSA and other ways of producing sound in linux? Is that even an accurate description of ALSA etc?
The ALSA Sound mini-HOWTO says "The ALSA sound driver was originally written as a replacement for the Linux kernel sound for Gravis UltraSound (GUS) cards. As this GUS replacement proved to be a success, the author started the ALSA project for a generic driver for several sound chips, with fully modularized design."
I find that ALSA gives me access to more of my sound system's features than OSS/Free (the old kernel drivers) did. People doing more sound-intensive work have reported better performance from it. It is the main sound driver system for kernel 2.6, but the ALSA project's own introduction didn't seem that good to me. They've recently moved to a wiki, which seems to have much better documentation in it.
References
Valentijn Sessink - "ALSA-sound-mini-HOWTO" 12 November 1999, currently available at http://webdocs.essex.ac.uk/LDP/HOWTO/Alsa-sound-3.html#ss3.2
Various - "ALSA HOWTO Wiki" currently available at http://alsa.opensrc.org/