1. In the past sound server contention (artsd with other stuff) has been a real pain. I'm not sure what changed (I went from Mandrake 9.0 to Mandrake 10.1) but I don't see as many problems. Maybe it's the apps that I use most now (rosegarden, ardour, xmms, audacity) just don't need servers that contend? 2. Audacity is my editor of choice, but it's not happy with JACK. 3. Some really great programs, e.g. snd & pd, are really hard to learn. 4. Some really great programs, e.g. Jazz++, are orphaned by developers. 4. Some really great programs, e.g. Jazz++, depend on libraries and toolkits which march forward without regard to supporting legacy programs. I steer clear of any WxWin (what do they call it now?) applications because of this. 5. Easy integration into distributions isn't mature yet. Mandrake has been improving a lot in this area with each version. In fact I usual choose to upgrade when they support something new in the sound area. It's great to have things like CCRMA, and previously Thac, but distributions should really get on board here. 6. Successes with Linux audio haven't been publicized to the point where people outside the Linux world pay attention. 7. Acceptance of great formats, e.g. flac & ogg, needs to happen in everywhere so that I can download audio files in those formats. For instance, in the USA archived audio of public broadcasting programs should be done with an open format. I'm thinking of allowing my bands' songs to be downloaded for free in ogg, but for a fee in mp3. 8. Vendor, e.g. soundcard makers, support of Linux is not universal. Many vendors are moving to firewire, and Linux doesn't yet support that via open or closed drivers that I'm aware of. I might think of more later. Cheers.... -- Kevin
