Re: [Gnewsense-dev] OSSv4 default sound on parkes?

[Karl Goetz]

On Sun, 15 Aug 2010 05:26:00 +1000
Steven McDonald <address@hidden> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I have recently been playing around with OSSv4 on Debian and Trisquel,
> and I think it would be beneficial to include it as the default sound
> backend in gNewSense 3.0. I would be interested in hacking on this if
> it is something that has the support of the gNewSense development
> community. OSS4's advantages over ALSA include:

How much work will it be for us? It sounds like a non trivial change.

> * [good points]
> 
> Some potential disadvantages of OSSv4 are:
> 
> * It is not included in the Linux source. At present, using it
> requires building it as a kernel module separately.

bit disadvantage, especially if its not going to be shipped by debian
with squeeze.

> * The binary distribution of OSSv4 includes some non-free drivers.
>   While these are not present in the GPL'd source distribution, use of
>   OSS may be misconstrued by users as supporting a project which
>   distributes non-free software.

This doesn't stop us with other projects - linux being the obvious
example.

> * I do not know of any user-friendly mixer widget that supports OSS.
>   The OSSv4 source distribution itself comes with a program called
>   ossxmix, which is exceptionally ugly and features unintuitive
>   controls.

Big negative.

> Given these advantages and disadvantages, I propose the following
> solution to including OSSv4 as the default sound backend in gNewSense
> 3.0 "parkes" (with ALSA available at the user's option, of course),
> which I am willing to hack on with the development community's
> go-ahead:

At this stage you don't have my support - this sounds like a lot of
extra work to carry, for no direct benefit.
kk

-- 
Karl Goetz, (Kamping_Kaiser / VK5FOSS)
Debian contributor / gNewSense Maintainer
http://www.kgoetz.id.au
No, I won't join your social networking group

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