>>>Do you use OSSv4? and if so what are your experiences with it so far? >>>I've heard that it's much better then pulse audio. >> >> No. I just use alsa-oss emulation. >> My one effort to install OSSv4 under UbuntuStudio Karmic ended in a broken system. >> I'd like to re-try, when I have time. It looks so simple, but I'm so worried because Ubuntu has the sound so tightly bound up with Desktop and Metacity. >> I HATE pulseaudio being mandatory and non-removeable. > >Tell me about it. I have been using OSSv4 quite happily on Jaunty. I >have been holding out from upgrading to Karmic because I have working >sound and understand Ubuntu have gone with PulseAudio at the exclusion >of everything else. > >I would like to easily switch between different sound systems without >breaking the system I have. > >Have you tried switching to a KDE version of Ubuntu (do they support a >KubuntuStudio)? As I understand it, KDE has its own sound system, and >last I tried I had working sound through it. > >- Reece There is no kubuntu studio. I understand KDE uses aRTs and alsa. I've never tried it. I don't like KDE because there are too many applications that I don't want, and the interface is klunky. (The joke used to be... Gnome is for people who think they're running a Mac; KDE is for people who think they're running Windows.) Lots of people have suggested Xubuntu because that's lighter weight with the Xfce desktop and no pulseaudio. But I hate the look. And I don't use the default applications. But why not just add apps? Studio is mostly about a clean look and default packages. Why not install your own packages? You know what you want. When it's off the ground, I'm going for the fastest system possible, which I think will be Lubuntu, based on LXDE. Then just install the apps I need (including the realtime kernel), and remove the ones I don't. It has a taskbar (I hope it's moveable, since it's on the bottom). And I run many of my apps using ALT-F2 anyway. Why do I wait for Ubuntu's rather than just going with the current LXDE Debian version? Well... that's for another time... but there's some news going around that I think I'll repeat... what I remember of it. So I guess consider this mostly gossip. Ubuntu Lucid Lynx has just been announced. Well, some linux kernel developer whose name I forget wrote some patches to make the desktop run much faster, but at the expense of non-desktop services. The linux-kernel team rejected the patches, but Ubuntu may have them as an install option in Lucid. Sound latency is supposed to improve dramatically. Rumor has it, these patches are not incompatible with the existing real-time kernel, but I don't think anyone's tried it. I'm very excited.
