[arch-general] Muting internal speakers

[Heiko Baums]

Am Fri, 15 Jun 2012 13:00:56 +0100
schrieb Mauro Santos <registo.mailling at gmail.com>:

> Have you actually tried using the latest pulseaudio for a couple of
> weeks? For supported hardware it sure does something somewhat similar
> to what the OP wants.
> 
> It sure seems you have some gripe with pulseaudio and/or pulseaudio's
> upstream and are on a personal crusade to bash it every time you can.
> Pulseaudio is not perfect but neither is alsa, if alsa only solves the
> problem then fine, if some user has better luck with pulseaudio+alsa
> so be it, the user will decide for itself if it sucks or not so just
> let it rest.

I haven't tried using the latest PA for a couple of weeks, because I've
got an M-Audio Audiophile 24/96. And this is one of those
(semi-)professional audio cards which are not supported by PA. So, yes,
I have made my experiences.

It's not a personal crusade, and it's not bashing. It's just my
personal experiences with PA, which totally doesn't work with my audio
card.

The problems that I have in those discussions, why I "bash" it (as you
call it), are those:

1. PA may work with some certain sound cards (only consumer sound
cards), but not with every sound and audio card. Still it always gets
hyped as the ultimate sound server by the PA fanboys, which allegedly
solves every problem and question. But unfortunately those fanboys are
usually only those users who only know their own SoundBlaster or AC'97
onboard sound card and simply ignore the fact that there are some
other, more professional audio cards. So they think if PA works for
them, it has to work for everybody else, which is totally wrong.

2. Those PA fanboys ignore the fact, that PA indeed is an additional
layer which can indeed cause additional issues, which make it harder to
find the real reason for those issues.

3. Even the PA developers blame ALSA, which works perfectly with those
more professional audio cards out-of-the-box, for the bugs in PA, even
if it was clear that it is PA's fault.

4. The PA developers try to having made PA to a new de facto
Linux standard - that's at least my impression -, even if it doesn't
support every sound and audio card. From a de facto Linux standard it
can be expected that it supports every hardware of that kind. Until
this is not the case it just has to be called crap, if it's treated as a
standard.

5. It's somehow related to 4. At least the GNOME developers and some
distribution developers force the users to install PA as a dependency
of GNOME or the whole distro. This probably isn't a problem for those
PA fanboys with some consumer cards. But it is a very big problem for
people who own a better sound or audio card, which doesn't work with
PA. Those people not only want but even need a working sound output.

6. The PA fanboys always answer every sound related question by
suggesting to install PA, regardless of the question and if the problem
can be easily solved in other ways.

7. The PA fanboys seem to be persuaded that PA doesn't have and never
will have any bugs.

8. PA is just overrated regarding its features. Maybe there are use
cases for PA, maybe it can make some things a bit easier for some
people. But it's in most cases not necessary as some PA fanboys are
always claiming.

And this is not bashing. Those are just facts.

If PA would be treated as a normal and optional piece of software which
can be installed or not, and if it would not be treated as a de facto
Linux standard, and if the users would not be forced to install PA as a
dependency, I would have absolutely no problem with PA.

But as long as the situation is as I described above, you always will
read such comments, if someone mentions PA.

Either PA has to support every sound and audio card incl. the
(semi-)professional audio cards as they are meant to be used (not
crippled down to stereo cards) or PA has to be removed as a dependency
from every desktop environment and distro.

And the PA fanboys should consider if it's really necessary to install
PA to solve a problem or to answer a question, or if there are easier
ways (in user friendlyness and in KISS). And they should ask before, if
PA would even make sense for the questioner.

That's the point.

Heiko