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poettering08 [The Plumbers]
 

Audio

The current audio infrastructure we have on Linux is fragmented, balkanized. There are different driver APIs around, some well established, some less well established. There are incompatible sound systems, incompatible sound servers, incompatible sound libraries and other incompatible interfaces in wide use. We need to clean up this chaos, and we need to be able to a give a clean and simple answer if someone asks us which audio API he should be using when he wants to write an audio application for Linux.

In this MC I'd like to figure out how the status quo of audio on Linux is perceived by people, where our infrastructure sucks the most, on which areas we should be focussing, how a complete audio stack on Linux should look like, and how a complete multimedia stack, where we can integrate our pieces of infrastructure better, what the road ahead is, and what we should reply if someone asks the aforementioned question.

Format

I'm planning to do the first presentation myself, giving an overview on the status quo of Linux audio, and how I think how the cleaned up audio infrastructure should look like. Then, Takashi will give an overview about ALSA's status as a second presentation. We haven't received any proposal for further talks on audio (yet?). I plan an open discussion to identify where people think audio on Linux sucks the most, what features they are missing the most. After the break I plan a second open discussion, about how people would like to see the future audio stack on Linux look like.

I don't think coding time would make sense for audio.

Among the questions we should be discussing are:

  • Can we get rid of OSS? How can we get rid of it?
  • Which is the PCM API people should be using?
  • GStreamer as a PCM API?
  • How to get rid of too many mixers and controls? How to find good defaults for them?
  • Cooperation between pro audio and desktop audio infrastructure?
  • What can Vista/MacOS do that we cannot do right now?

Sample Microconf Schedule

Total time: 2 hr 30 min

Time Session
0:00 Presentation: Status Quo and the Road Ahead (me)
0:30 Presentation: ALSA Status Quo (Takashi)
1:00 Discussion: Where audio on Linux sucks the most?
1:30 Break
1:45 Discussion: The Road Ahead
2:15 Next Steps and Summary (me)
2:30 End

Takeaway

People should get some overview on the different parts of our current infrastructure and maybe find a way through all the chaos right now. More importantly however I'd like to make sure that the people working on fixing the chaos have a common idea where we should be headed, what should be part of our infrastructure, and that we have similar priorities. Meeting people face-to-face is very important too.

 
poettering08.txt · Last modified: 2008/07/29 16:36 by lennart
 
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