Thanks for the thoughtful reply Ralf. I'll try to "digest" this, and
follow up later.
On 10/27/24 7:41 PM, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
On Sun, 2024-10-27 at 18:29 -0500, Seamus de Mora via Alsa-user wrote:
What role does 'alsa' play on my systems?
Hi,
in simple terms, it can be said that ALSA is responsible for the
hardware level and provides the kernel modules/drivers. Pipewire is a
soundserver that works on top of ALSA. I can't comment on pipewire, but
some soundservers provide features, such as resampling or at least one
other soundserver provides kind of a virtual patch bay for real-time
audio applications, but it doesn't provide resampling.
I can't comment much on the audio players mpg123 and cmus, but seemingly
you can use cmus without the need to install a soundserver such as
pipewire. Some GUI applications, at least audacity need mpg123.
$ pacman -Si cmus | grep Optional
Optional Deps : alsa-lib: for ALSA output plugin support
You seemingly can use cmos by directly connecting to ALSA.
Simplified summary
1. To use the Hardware you need the thing that handles the hardware
level. It's ALSA.
2. A soundserver such as pipewire does provide "features" that aren't
necessarily needed.
3. Apps not necessarily need a soundserver, some can use plain ALSA.
IOW you need an audio app and ALSA, but not necessarily a soundserver.
Some distros don't install apps such as audio players or web browsers at
all.
That one of your installs does default to cmus and another to mpg123 is
comparable to distros that install different web browsers by default.
Firefox, Chromium, Vivaldi, Falkon ...
Some apps are based on other apps or at shared libraries. There are
countless of possible combinations, but ALSA is the base that is quasi
always needed.
Regards,
Ralf
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