ALSA vs. OSS vs. OSSFree

scenic writes "I was wondering what experience the /. community has had with ALSA vs the sound drivers that are part of the Kernel and the various other choices (such as the 4Front OSS packages). I've used the commercial OSS drivers as well as the "included" Linux drivers. I've started to look to ALSA for better sound response (for example, I've noticed with esd and the basic linux drivers, there is sometimes a lag when playing back video files through esd. I understand that esd is part of the issue, but it's sort of important to be able to multiplex sound). What have others' experiences been? What other solutions are there aside from things like esd?" Which sound systems do you find work for your system, and which don't? If specific hardware / software combinations can be endorsed or critiqued, it'll probably help a lot of people.

Comments

Read "Programming Linux Games"...

[wrinkledshirt]

John Hurt does an interesting breakdown of six different methods of programming sound for games, and talks about the advantages and disadvantages of each (not just the programming part).

According to him OSS is a pretty entrenched technology, but ALSA's continuing to grow. The fact that ALSA's retaining nearly 100% compatibility with OSS probably means that at some point you'll be able to make a full shift from OSS to ALSA...

Don't know if that's helpful (or even relevent).