Re: [2.6 patch] schedule obsolete OSS drivers for removal

Hannu Savolainen
2006-01-06T01:36:47Z

On Fri, 6 Jan 2006, Marcin Dalecki wrote:

>
>
> No I do not. How do you dare to assume I do?
> I never ever did ask for any support on behalf of the ALSA bunch...
> We are just discussing the merits of one sound system design
> over another one (without design).
Which is really a good subject to discuss about (LKML may not be the right
place for this). ALSA has been in the official kernel for two years now so
might this be a good time to look back?

There are two very opposite approaches to do a sound subsystem. The ALSA
way is to expose every single detail of the hardware to the applications
and to allow (or force) application developers to deal with them. The OSS
approach is to provide maximum device abstraction in the API level (by
isolating the apps from the hardware as much as practically possible).

Both ways have their good and bad sides. During past years the ALSA
advocates have been dictating that the ALSA approach is the only available
way to go (all resistance is futile). But after all what is the authority
who makes the final decision? Is it the ALSA team (who would like to think
in this way)? Or do the Linux/Unix users and audio application developers
have any word to say?

Btw, about the current OSS drivers in the kernel. They are really obsolete
because they are based on some 10 years old API version. For this reason
it's necessary to remove them in the nearish future (maybe at the same
time when we release the OpenOSS version). Comparing ALSA against the
kernel OSS drivers is pointless because current OSS has very little
common with that code.

Best regards,

Hannu
-----
Hannu Savolainen (hannu@opensound.com)
http://www.opensound.com (Open Sound System (OSS))
http://www.compusonic.fi (Finnish OSS pages)
OH2GLH QTH: Karkkila, Finland LOC: KP20CM