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> Audio on Linux is such a total shitshow that Android replaced ALSA with a total workaround called "tinyalsa" and ChromeOS replaced pulse and half of ALSA's ro
by jancsika 7y ago
> Audio on Linux is such a total shitshow that Android replaced ALSA with a total workaround called "tinyalsa" and ChromeOS replaced pulse and half of ALSA's routing behaviors with cras.
Cras is great. When I run into problems with it I know that they aren't due to mis-configuration of an ugly, overengineered API but instead due to a bug in a sexy, streamlined replacement for it.
- PaulDavisThe1st 7y agoCRAS doesn't "replace" ALSA's routing behavior: ALSA doesn't have any of the kinds of routing behavior that CRAS embodies? Why not? Because ALSA is a kernel driver stack and CRAS is a userspace audio server designed explicitly to provide functionality on top of ALSA. From the CRAS docs: "Put an audio server in between Chromium and ALSA that can change how audio flows on the fly. " You might think ALSA is "overengineered" but that's probably because you have no familiarity with the hardware or workflow that it is engineered for.