SALSA Back In Development As A Small ALSA Library For Linux Systems

[phoronix]

Phoronix: SALSA Back In Development As A Small ALSA Library For Linux Systems

Linux sound subsystem maintainer Takashi Iwai of SUSE is back to hacking on SALSA, the "small ALSA" library that he started a decade ago but hadn't seen a new release in six years or any code activity for the past four years... until this week...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=SALSA-Linux-Audio-2021

[M@GOid]

I still remember the whole OSS fiasco. ALSA is one of the examples of, if you try to screw the Linux community for delusions of self-importance, they will turn away from you and your precious piece of software will end up forgotten*.





*yes, I know BSDs stuck with it, but come on...

[RealNC]

Aren't people using tinyalsa now? (https://github.com/tinyalsa/tinyalsa)

[uid313]

What about PulseAudio?

[V1tol]

What about PulseAudio?

Keyword "small"

[timofonic]

Aren't people using tinyalsa now? (https://github.com/tinyalsa/tinyalsa)

Why SALSA when there's tinyalsa?

Why alsalib instead impove tinyalsa/SALSA and provide extra features as optional ones?

Linux needs faster, better and more optimized audio subsystems.

[er888kh]

I still remember the whole OSS fiasco. ALSA is one of the examples of, if you try to screw the Linux community for delusions of self-importance, they will turn away from you and your precious piece of software will end up forgotten*.

What's the story? Something happened to audio subsystem?

[M@GOid]

What's the story? Something happened to audio subsystem?

OSS was the audio foundation for all UNIX operating systems until the developers decided to turn it closed source. So on the Linux camp, people rolled up their sleeves and created ALSA as a substitute. Some time later, the fine folks at 4Front software realized their mistake and re-released OSS as opensource, but it was too late. ALSA was already shipping on Linux distros and the big ones stuck with it.

Now, as always happens, the first versions of ALSA were lacking stability and functionality compared to the latest versions of the mature OSS, and some users understandingly asked for OSS to be put back on the front seat, but no distro wanted to be caught with their pants down again by 4Front, so ALSA stayed. Later, to manage some of its limitations compared with OSS, Pulseaudio was created, acting as a intermediate between applications and ALSA. Again a big backslash occurred, because again distros forced immature software down users throats, but in the end Pulseaudio become stable enough that people forgot about it.

BSD distros stuck with OSS tough, I imagine because the lack of manpower, after all BSD had a smaller community compared to Linux and the main focus was not in the desktop, and ALSA was made exclusively with Linux in mind.

[geearf]

Why alsalib instead impove tinyalsa/SALSA and provide extra features as optional ones?

Linux needs faster, better and more optimized audio subsystems.

I was wondering the exact same thing when reading the article, if it's good for embedded it can't be that bad for desktop no?

[tildearrow]

Keyword "small"

There is pa-simple but not that flexible.