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> legacy OSS Are there actually programs that still use OSS? When I see OSS I think redhat rembrandt or picasso and kernel 1.2.12. I thought OSS was killed off

by dfc 13y ago

> legacy OSS Are there actually programs that still use OSS? When I see OSS I think redhat rembrandt or picasso and kernel 1.2.12. I thought OSS was killed off in 2.2.x or 2.4? > alsamixer is really intuitive even if it is ncurses based compared to pavucontrol. I don't mind ncurses; to be honest I have never really complained about an ncurses interface compared to the gtk equivalent. It is funny that you mention QT, I will put up with pulseaudio even though I do not think I need it installed. QT/KDE is another story. I would like to use rkward but every time I type `apt-get --no-install-recommends install rkward` I take one look at the list of dependencies and say forget it. I think its nuts that a stats program depends on kde-runtime. If rkward just needed some extra qt libs (similar to gnumeric grabbing some gtk libs but not gnome-core) I would probably bite the bullet and install it. I hope my reply did not sound bitchy, I appreciate you taking the time to explain the sound madness to me. Do you do professional audio work?

wtallis 13y ago
ALSA didn't get accepted into the kernel until the 2.5 series, so OSS was the default for all the Red Hat Linux releases and even the first Fedora Core release.
- dfc 13y ago
  Wow. It seemed like it was longer than ten years ago.
Sanddancer 13y ago
There are quite a few operating systems that didn't get dragged into the ALSA mess, like the BSDs. OSS versions of late have managed to solve the complaints people had which led to alsa, plus added things like virtual audio channels, so that apps think they're getting the full audio device. OSS support is more than a bit useful because everyone uses it.
- dfc 13y ago
  Can you think of any apps that need OSS? That is not snark, I am genuinely curious what applications require OSS.
  - selectodude 13y ago
    I know WINE used to work a lot better with OSS than ALSA a few years ago, but I can't think of anything else.
    - dfc 13y ago
      I never even thought about WINE. I remember having trouble a long time ago with rossetta stone in WINE. I just checked the winehq sound wiki page[1] and it does not even mention OSS. I also just read that Ubuntu dropped OSS completely. That was news to me. [1]: http://wiki.winehq.org/Sound http://wiki.winehq.org/Sound
asveikau 13y ago
I always thought alsa was kind of overkill from the client program's perspective. There's something very appealing about your sound interface being a simple open(), ioctl(), and write(). Make whatever enhancements you need under the hood, but don't kill the simplicity of interface. Given that the kernel ships with a compatibility layer I wouldn't blame someone for sticking with the old interface.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

by dfc 13y ago

wtallis 13y ago

ALSA didn't get accepted into the kernel until the 2.5 series, so OSS was the default for all the Red Hat Linux releases and even the first Fedora Core release.

dfc 13y ago
Wow. It seemed like it was longer than ten years ago.

Sanddancer 13y ago

There are quite a few operating systems that didn't get dragged into the ALSA mess, like the BSDs. OSS versions of late have managed to solve the complaints people had which led to alsa, plus added things like virtual audio channels, so that apps think they're getting the full audio device. OSS support is more than a bit useful because everyone uses it.

dfc 13y ago
Can you think of any apps that need OSS? That is not snark, I am genuinely curious what applications require OSS.
- selectodude 13y ago
  I know WINE used to work a lot better with OSS than ALSA a few years ago, but I can't think of anything else.
  - dfc 13y ago
    I never even thought about WINE. I remember having trouble a long time ago with rossetta stone in WINE. I just checked the winehq sound wiki page[1] and it does not even mention OSS. I also just read that Ubuntu dropped OSS completely. That was news to me. [1]: http://wiki.winehq.org/Sound http://wiki.winehq.org/Sound

asveikau 13y ago

I always thought alsa was kind of overkill from the client program's perspective. There's something very appealing about your sound interface being a simple open(), ioctl(), and write(). Make whatever enhancements you need under the hood, but don't kill the simplicity of interface. Given that the kernel ships with a compatibility layer I wouldn't blame someone for sticking with the old interface.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]