Re: [Bug 623] New: Volume not remembered.

[Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org>]

On Wed, Apr 23, 2003 at 10:29:05PM -0400, Pat Suwalski wrote:
> Werner Almesberger wrote:
> >So you're claiming that users will find it more difficult to add
> >one line to rc.local than upgrading their kernel ?
> 
> No.
> 
> I believe he is saying that ever since 1984 and the Mac Plus, it has 
> been expected that sound works right away without adding any lines anywhere.
> 
> I have not seen a computer in the last year and a half that has not had 
> either onboard sound or a card. It is very standard hardware these days. 
> Therefore, your soundcard should work just like your keyboard does. You 
> do not have to add any lines to any rc script to get the keyboard 
> working, do you? Sound should not have to be any different, in an ideal 
> world.

Sound may be a standard feature, but it does not get driven by a
standard interface like PS2 or HID keyboards do. It's also not as
straight forward as "sound or no sound". There's many different levels
of sound hardware, from the 2-channel basic stereo, to the 6-way Dolby
Digital 5.1.

Whether or not a line is needed in an rc script is really a shortcoming
of userspace, IMO. It's the responsibility of userspace to setup the
user's environment in the most friendly way.

-- 
Debian     - http://www.debian.org/
Linux 1394 - http://www.linux1394.org/
Subversion - http://subversion.tigris.org/
Deqo       - http://www.deqo.com/