Very Computer

Hi hi hi,

I've dabbled with Linux before and am about to do so again.  Before I
do, though, I want to make sure I have everything in order.  

So while I was reading up on various things, I found out that there
are several different sound drivers.  It seems to me that I can choose
to use ALSA, OSS, or OpenAL(?) which Creative has developed a driver
for.  

My question is, which would be best?  I'm not a gamer and I have a
stand-alone DVD player so the most sound I'll need is playing MP3s.
Which one of these has the lowest CPU overhead?  Will any of them be
incompatible with some or all programs?

It's all so confusing ;-)  Thanks for your help.  Could you send a
reply to my email address too?  I don't read this ng too often.

Thanks again,

Dave

dloose at double-you pee eye dot ee dee you

they're all well supported, alsa might be a little more popular.
and your creative sb will be supported any ways.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Michael J. Tobler: motorcyclist, surfer,  #    Black holes result
 skydiver, and author: "Inside Linux",     #   when God divides the  
 "C++ HowTo", "C++ Unleashed"              #     universe by zero

Quote:

> Hi hi hi,

> I've dabbled with Linux before and am about to do so again.
> Before I do, though, I want to make sure I have everything in
> order.  

> So while I was reading up on various things, I found out that
> there are several different sound drivers.  It seems to me
> that I can choose to use ALSA, OSS, or OpenAL(?) which
> Creative has developed a driver for.  

The kernel has emu10k1 (SBLive) support builtin.  You don't need
to hunt for drivers (this 'aint winders ;)).   A few months ago
I reconfigured the kernel sound card support and evaluated ALSA
but found it disappointing with my SBLive.  The mixers aren't as
descriptive, any XWindowed mixer (kmix, gmix, etc.) has the rear
speakers missing (unaddable) and I found the performance was
degraded.  Getting rid of ALSA is annoying too if you compiled
your entire system from source (because so much stuff links to
its libraries).

Quote:> My question is, which would be best?  

Do nothing.

[..]

Quote:> It's all so confusing ;-)  

It's really not.  Provided you use a (recent) distribution with
a 2.4 kernel, your SBLive will be supported.

--
Lee J. Moore
http://www.leej.dsl.pipex.com
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