From the top... how do I get sound working in F11 ?

[Marko Vojinovic]

On Sunday 26 July 2009 22:29:32 Bill Davidsen wrote:
> The scary thing is that you don't see anything wrong with this picture,
> seven volume control, mixers, and device selectors, and also two config
> files.

Have you ever visited a radio station studio or a TV studio? Do you know how 
many mixer tables and boards are there, and how complicated they can be?

I, for one, would *want* to have a volume control and mixer app for every 
sound card I have on the system, and in addition another set of such apps for 
every sound source app I use. That way, I can fine-tune all the 
playback/recording I might wish for.

If you want simplistic setup (the one-volume-knob-for-all setup), go install 
Windows and click the small speaker image in its system tray --- a single 
slider will show up for you to turn the volume up or down. That is simplistic.

Fedora (and Linux in general) is about ability to *have choice*, and that 
comes with the price of complexity. One could also ask the same question for 
the X window system --- why do we need a full-blown network-capable multi-user 
multi-output multi-this multi-that video server? An average user has one 
graphics card, one monitor, and doesn't use X over network. So one could say 
it would be better to have some lightweight graphics server that only does the 
typical stuff, while advanced users could install X optionally.

But this did not and will not happen in Linux, at least not in Fedora, because 
Fedora users *like* to have a full-fledged complicated server as default at 
their disposal to tweak as they see fit. Think pulseaudio. Think X. Think 
sendmail. Think apache. Think selinux. Think udev, hal, pam, ssh... All these 
complicated servers have more simplistic alternatives, but these more 
simplistic ones also limit the user's ability to configure complicated setups. 
And having this ability is what Linux is all about.

Imagine someone who has trouble setting up resolution or other parameters in X 
for his particular hardware. And he comes to the list and bitches that X is 
bullshit, way too complicated, lacks documentation, and should be installed 
only optionally, for users that have a need for it. Would you support him and 
advocate the removal of X from the default distro? I know I wouldn't.

Ditto for pulseaudio. It does have a steep learning curve, but so does X if 
you want to mess with it. And please don't tell me that X has only one config 
file.

Best, :-)
Marko