Re: pulseaudio related problems....
On Mon, Feb 17, 2014 at 7:57 AM, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
<glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de> wrote:
> On 02/17/2014 08:37 AM, Chow Loong Jin wrote:
>> It might just be that DDs/"computer experts" just have more customized setups
>> that break in interesting ways when effort isn't spent porting the configuration
>> changes to a new system. What follows is "$new_thing sucks because $feature in
>> $old_thing that I customized half a decade ago and forgot about doesn't work. If
>> I, a DD/'computer expert' can't get it working, how could it ever be suitable
>> for a layman?"
>
> Exactly what I have been thinking all the time. And I find the argument
> "all DDs are computer experts, so if they can't get it working it
> must be broken" a particularly bad one.
>
> Just because someone is a computer expert doesn't mean they
> automatically understand how each peace of new software works. And
> people who are advanced with computers usually tend to follow their
> own old pattern when trying to fix problems instead of being open
> to new methods. Thus, chances are they are trying to fix a problem
> the wrong way.
>
> As an example, most users who use systemd probably still restart
> services using "/etc/init.d/<service> restart", just because it works.
>
> It's also noteworthy that complains about PulseAudio usually come from
> advanced users. I haven't heard my mom complain about sound problems
> on her netbook running Ubuntu, for example.
>
It is also noteworthy that when most of average users getting this kind
of problems would go back to Windows (hey, at least audio works there)
instead of fiddle around with audio configuration or starting debugger.
And most people simply need audio - today practically everyone is doing
$Something while listening to music. And surely you don't expect your
$Average_Joe to know about reportbug{,-ng}, or do you?
Why would anyone want to debug software when simple solution to problem
is getting rid of said software? Unless someone has some interest in using
said software (or just wants to fix the bug) I don't see this happening.
My personal experience with pulseaudio is that it works - as long as
I'm listening
to only one audio stream at once (I have only one audio device) - which means
that for me pulseaudio doesn't work (I'm notoriously listening to more than 2
streams at once). And I'm NOT interested in debugging it - I have
better things to
do with my time than to fix buggy software created by others and for some
reason forcefully shoved (if not spoon-fed) onto users (especially
when alsa just
works).
I'm not saying that pulseaudio has no use case but most users don't need it.
>> (Speaking from my own personal experience here, with a 6-year-old Ubuntu
>> installation upgraded ~12 times with ~3 botched upgrades, and an even older
>> $HOME).
>>
>>> I'm also convinced that it should be possible to have a working default
>>> pulse setup. Emitting sound on all available sound output by default,
>>> and making sure that the level isn't zero upon install, seems like a
>>> sensible thing to do.
>>
>> Ubuntu appears to get it right. I haven't seen a fresh Ubuntu installation that
>> had broken sound for a very long time now.
>
> Exactly my second argument. If Pulse-Audio was actually broken as it is
> often described, Launchpad's bugtracker would be full of complaints, is
> it?
>
When very simple workaround that fixes this issue in 99% percent of cases
exists I would expect this to happen.
--
darkestkhan
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jid: darkestkhan@gmail.com
May The Source be with You.
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