On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 2:32 PM, Alan Mackenzie <a...@muc.de> wrote: > Hello, Gentoo. > > I've just removed pulseaudio from my main Gentoo system. Why? Several > reasons: > > (i) It's a "sound server", a description I don't understand. What does > it _do_? Why do I want it? It seems to be an unnecessary layer of fat > between sound applications and the kernel.
Take a look at this: https://plus.google.com/photos/115256116066287398549/albums/5778609034682831121/5778849461325756466 That's me selecting with a click of the mouse if I want to use Skype with the analog speakers from my laptop, or with my bluetooth headset. Of course, the BT headset doesn't appear in the combo box until they are actually connected; my USB speakers don't show up there because they weren't connected. With PA, I can switch soundcards for programs individually, without the program in questing noticing at all: you have your sound coming from the laptop speakers, and after selecting my BT headset, the sound starts coming out from them, all instantaneously. No config files editing required, everything "just works". And of course all the other sound applications just keep working, and the sound for them it's routed to the laptop speakers, but I can also change them on the fly to go to my BT headset, or my USB speakers, or even other machines using PA connected in my LAN (with proper permissions). You can probably do all of this without PA, but it will require to edit $HOME/.asoundrc, and files under /etc/bluetooth/, and probably testing different configurations for permissions, and... And I just don't care. PA just works, in all my machines and media center. And it's all very nicely integrated with GNOME and it just works with a couple clicks from my mouse (if at all). So if you don't need it, good for you that you can remove PA from your system. For the *general case* (not necessarily the *most used*, but the one that covers the *most* use cases), PA is the best solution available. And all the distributions seems to agree on that. Regards. -- Canek Peláez Valdés Posgrado en Ciencia e Ingeniería de la Computación Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
