Re: [GD-Linux] ALSA/OSS today

[Jan E. <ch...@in...>]

On Tue, 22 Jun 2004, Timothee Besset wrote:

>Brian Hook wrote:
>
>>Can anyone give me a quick summary of the state of ALSA vs. OSS today?
>> It's my understanding that ALSO is considered more modern but that
>>adoption is slower, hence OSS is a bit more reliably available -- but
>>is that still the case, and if it is, is it even relevant for the
>>fraction of Linux users that play games?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Brian
>>
>>
>>
>I am not a specialist on sound APIs, but most modern distributions come
>with ALSA. It has become the default API in 2.6 kernels, and is
>considered the default sound API these days. It provides a backward
>compatible OSS device emulation, but it's not always enabled at compile
>time ( and not always working right if you use DMA modes ). Writing
>directly for ALSA is a better choice I think.

My understanding is that OSS still supports some sound cards that ALSA
doesn't, so if you have such a card then OSS is the way to go. If on the
other hand ALSA support is available then that is the preferred way. For
me ALSA has been nice, and the Debian packages makes configuration a
non-issue.

-- 

             Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off.
                                              -- Terry Pratchett, Small Gods