> -----Original Message----- > From: linux-audio-user-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:linux-audio- > user-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Steve Harris > Sent: Friday, November 21, 2003 9:14 AM > To: A list for linux audio users > Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] Great news for JACK & KDE > > On Thu, Nov 27, 2003 at 11:06:28 +0100, Hartmut Z Noack wrote: > > > Anyone want to defend the use of artsd? > > > > i tend to say: "me not." but it ahhmmm... depends, > > > > 1.) would jack be "scalable" enough to run xmms and kolf with sound > > enabled at the same time on a Pentium1/166MHz as arts does with arts for > > my 9 year old Daughter ? > Sorry, couldn't help not to respond to this one. I understand that many people out there are still trying to squeeze the very last bit of life from their old hardware, but let's face it, if we want to see Linux on the desktop as a dominating force any time soon, then we need to stop worrying whether every single feature will run on our grandma's 486. We all know that Linux is about choice, but more importantly it is about understanding when it is appropriate to utilize particular features this choice offers us. In other words: If you want to run Artsd directly through the soundcard on your old thunderbucket pc just to hear that "you got mail," you can. But let's face it, you won't be using that computer for any serious DSP work. Hence you have no need for Jack, nor do you need to worry whether it will run on such a machine well (because it most likely won't and more importantly it shouldn't have to). OTOH, if you want a serious workstation that is still able to do silly blips every time your desktop wants to warn you about something, then with the artsd implementing Jack you'll be able to do that too. Some people have mentioned that they have really not missed these blips and beeps since they disabled the artsd. I happen to believe that such sounds are integral part of our healthy desktop experience (think people with disabilities, audible reminders from our calendars that make us be on-time for our appointments even though we are in the middle of our creative frenzy, or finally getting rid of that lousy and annoying built-in speaker beep), and as such it is a big stepping stone in having Linux desktop adopted by the mainstream customer base. Some people do not care if Linux ever gets adopted by the mainstream customer base. I tend to think that the adoption of Linux into the mainstream desktop environment will elicit more interest from the commercial audio companies and eventually bring us a winning combination of the OSS and commercial audio apps. Call me a dreamer if you want, but I think that we're very close to this. Now, if we could only get Gnome to do the same with their Gstreamer architecture, and make sure that Jack can run indefinitely without crashing, we'll be set! (please correct my ignorance if this has already been done) Ico
