On Wed, 2006-12-20 at 19:39 -0500, Chuckk Hubbard wrote: > > Windows outperforms Linux on marginal hardware. This will probably > > always be the case because such hardware is not designed to be correct, > > it's designed to work with Windows. > > > > On good hardware Linux should win. > > I heard the opposite, that Linux's advantages are especially > noticeable on less fancy machines. But: that is true in the general sense that linux will run on h/w that windows has abandoned. but its not the case where the problem is that the h/w is relatively new, the chipset vendor has done nothing to facilitate a linux driver, and nobody has had the time or motivation to reverse engineer one. this is true for some significant bits of audio h/w. then there is the problem of the Intel HDA "specification", which is that in name only. it seems as if almost every new laptop that emerges into the market has found a new way to wire the pinouts of a supposedly "standard" HDA chipset, thus requiring more driver hacks. > http://www.gateway.com/home/products/ret/ret_MX6447.shtml > Will this work? If I can't use Linux audio on this machine then I > can't afford Linux! there isn't enough information there to decide. the chances are good, but without knowing the actual audio chipset, nobody can say. --p