DragonFlyBSD Decides To Drop PulseAudio

[starshipeleven]

I've had nothing but problems everytime I try to use pulseaudio and nothing but success with alsa over the past few years since I began using Linux. I always got the impression pulseaudio was trying to fix something that isn't broken, and in turn just makes matters worse. A lot worse (added complexity is not doing anyone any favors here...)

On what hardware? because if it is on the same hardware it might be that your hardware got dodgy drivers that work decently only in ALSA.

[septianix]

Hm, btw, the title of the article is an obvious clickbait.

A more realistic article would have been:

"DragonFlyBSD Developers Lack the Manpower To Port Linux Stuff Properly So They Decide To Drop PulseAudio"

To be fair, they have done a great job when it came to porting Linux stuff where it matters. (e.g. kms graphics drivers). However there is little point in maintaining a port primarily needed to overcome a Linux design flaw. PA make senses in a Linux environment, not in BSD. You can like it or hate it in Linux. In BSD it's mostly irrelevant.

[starshipeleven]

To be fair, they have done a great job when it came to porting Linux stuff where it matters. (e.g. kms graphics drivers). However there is little point in maintaining a port primarily needed to overcome a Linux design flaw. PA make senses in a Linux environment, not in BSD. You can like it or hate it in Linux. In BSD it's mostly irrelevant.

Yeah, a server does not need a modern sound system.

[atmartens]

Back in the mid 2000s I had a USB soundcard for my speakers and ALSA was a huge pain. The documentation was lacking, the configurations obtuse, and constant problems of not being able to get sound from more than 1 program at a time. KDE Phonon looked really promising, but PulseAudio stole the show. At first I hated it, because my PCI soundcard wouldn't work, but they eventually fixed the bug and now I have no complaints -- sound "just works." (at least, well enough for typical desktop stuff)

[SaucyJack]

Even basic multi-client/mixing is missing from about half of audio chipsets (and thus not exposed through ALSA); so good luck hearing a system sound while your youtube video is playing.

Though I figure it wouldn't be a terrible idea to just add software mixing to ALSA, it might be the right place to have it for a variety of reasons.

Seriously, what the fuck are you people on? ALSA doesnt have any issues playing sound from multiple sources.

[septianix]

Yeah, a server does not need a modern sound system.

So that means you're either ignorant or just bad faith.

Pulseaudio is not a modern sound system, it's band aid for a badly designed audio driver.

The fact is with the stock FreeBSD kernel, you can get multi-channel audio with per application and/or global volume control. No audio sound server needed. Only Linux needs PA to achieve the same result (with inevitably more latency). Because without PA, Linux sound is pretty much broken. and even with PA, it's still broken for some people. In FreeBSD, once properly configured, sound just works.

And btw, this is one of the reasons that led me to choose FreeBSD over Linux many years ago. I never regretted it.

[starshipeleven]

So that means you're either ignorant or just bad faith.

No, only that BSDs are more commonly used in server roles, so none is giving a fuck about most other usecases. Yes I know DragonflyBSD is about PC users and not servers.

Pulseaudio is not a modern sound system, it's band aid for a badly designed audio driver.

It is both actually. You cannot make a modern sound system without trying to keep shitty drivers in line.

The fact is with the stock FreeBSD kernel,

Others have already said ALSA could do that fine. Can your OS do these things too?

https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/phoronix/latest-phoronix-articles/892213-dragonflybsd-decides-to-drop-pulseaudio?p=892323#post892323

because that's what PA really brings to the table, and the reason why it is called "modern sound system", and not "ALSA bandaid"

[beast]

Hm, btw, the title of the article is an obvious clickbait.

A more realistic article would have been:

"DragonFlyBSD Developers Lack the Manpower To Port Linux Stuff Properly So They Decide To Drop PulseAudio"

A better headline would be: "PulseAudio is unmaintained and broken for many platforms". The same problems you can find on NetBSD.

[anda_skoa]

KDE Phonon looked really promising, but PulseAudio stole the show.

Two very different things though.
Phonon is a high level media player API, PulseAudio is a sound server.

Cheers,
_

[makomk]

Argh, my arm itches and hurts.
Let's cut it off...

If you'd ever tried to track down bugs in PulseAudio this would seem like a perfectly reasonable solution. Awful code.

Also called the "don't fucking blow away my ears when I connect the headphones, thanks" feature. Yeah, this is crucial for anyone living in 21th century.

Unfortunately, this is disabled by default in favour of flat volumes a.k.a "fucking blow away my ears every time I start an app with headphones connected that was last used with speakers". Even more unfortunately, sound hardware generally already had a separate headphone volume control that was available in ALSA but overridden by PulseAudio. To add an extra cherry to the shit sandwich, some pre-flat volumes apps like to set their application volume to 100% at startup.