LPC: Linux audio: it's a mess [LWN.net]

LPC: Linux audio: it's a mess

Posted Sep 22, 2008 2:11 UTC (Mon) by elanthis (guest, #6227)
In reply to: LPC: Linux audio: it's a mess by drag
Parent article: LPC: Linux audio: it's a mess

Less controls is not the right solution.

Sometimes you want the same thing in multiple places to help usability.
Where you might think to look first isn't where someone else might look
first. It's pretty clear that some people are going to try to adjust the
sound volume on the thing making the sound (the individual app) and not the
mixer control on the panel.

However, PA is what makes that possible. Note that I said "the same thing"
in multiple places. The volume widget in the app should modify the volume
of the PA stream, and be reflected in the desktop mixer utility, and vice
versa. Without things like PA, this becomes much harder. It's not even
possible without a lot of crap being shoved into the drivers.

(Log in to post comments)

LPC: Linux audio: it's a mess

Posted Sep 22, 2008 16:55 UTC (Mon) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]

> Sometimes you want the same thing in multiple places to help usability.

Not when those multiple things do very different and conflicting actions in very very non-obvious manners.

If you have:
1. Mozilla Browser volume control and mute.
2. Gnome Volume Control and mute (that ties into your volume icon and multimedia buttons)
4. Low-level Alsa volume control and mute.
5. Speaker volume control and power.

Now you open up a youtube video. You get no audio.

Tell me, with certainty, which control, or combinations of controls, you will have to use to make the sound audible.

There is a difference between having 3-5 different places to control volume vs having 3-5 different controls you have to use.