Re: [GD-Linux] ALSA/OSS today

[Ryan C. G. <ic...@cl...>]

>>>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?

1) You can't count on ALSA being available right now, since there are 
gaps where OSS provides drivers and ALSA doesn't, and not everyone has 
upgraded to 2.6 (and won't for quite a while).
2) You can't count on OSS being available, since OSS Compatibility in 
ALSA might be disabled.
3) There're still wackos using ESD or ARTS.

There's really no away around the fact that audio is still a mess on 
Linux. Best plan is to use either SDL or OpenAL and let that deal with 
the lowlevel.

--ryan.