Ingo's solution gets my vote. I AM a programmer, and I have written kernel code, hotplug scripts, etc. Nobody is taking those away. The default is simply being made more sensible. Writing a new script for every sound card, or figuring out a nice regex to write one script for multiple cards, is something I really don't want to mess with just to listen to some music or when I'm writing my own music. Nobody says the default cannot be changed. It is very easy for GNOME, KDE, XFCE, etc. to provide a configuration application with a checkbox saying "Make new sound cards the default" - I believe that KDE is already working on something close to this. The other solution of allowing a fallback default device is VERY sensible. Sometimes I don't have my Tascam US-428 plugged in, maybe because I'm using it with my laptop or I just didn't want to turn it on. Or, if my default device is set to a jackd PCM device, and jackd isn't running, I want to fall back to plughw. I disagree that all sound applications should be able to select the device independently. Yes, it's a nice feature, and not difficult to implement, but ALSA provides the "default" PCM construct, so that users can choose to change just one setting (possibly through a GUI) instead of having to specify "-D plughw:1" on several different command line settings scattered through various places. One may also argue that ignoring the common user is discrimination based on intelligence or past experience, which sounds a little like the definition of fascism that was quoted previously. My final point is that saying that ALSA shouldn't be similar to something that might possibly be done right in Vista because it is written by Nazi-like individuals is very closed minded. Microsoft certainly doesn't have a monopoly on good ideas, but neither does anybody else. ALSA could benefit greatly from providing better defaults for users and distribution makers, and tools for changing those defaults (even if those tools are just templates for hotplug scripts). I don't like Windows, but it is possible to change a lot of default behavior by changing registry entries (not unlike modifying files in /etc) - I don't think Linux or ALSA is well-served by making exaggerated statements about the ineptitude of Vista. I doubt the OP wanted an ideological debate. Let's please stick to facts, focusing on improving ALSA (even if the ideas weren't our own) instead of calling names. Mike ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Alsa-user mailing list Alsa-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user
