Comments on: The Linux Chronicles – Day 4 and 5 http://www.johndearmond.com/2009/01/20/the-linux-chronicles-day-4-and-5/ My little pothole on the information superhighway Sun, 15 Jan 2012 02:53:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Nicholas http://www.johndearmond.com/2009/01/20/the-linux-chronicles-day-4-and-5/comment-page-1/#comment-249 Nicholas Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:11:31 +0000 http://www.johndearmond.com/?p=747#comment-249 "Googling around the net, I am learning that sound is the most poorly supported facility in Linux." I really don't think that's true. In all the years I've been using Linux I've found sound card support to be excellent. I remember the days of woe back when I used Windows NT 2000 on an SMP machine and the Creative Labs drivers for SBLive would constantly blue screen the machine. Never had that problem in Linux. For years I've been using these nice MAudio Delta 2496 cards which work very well. I also have excellent luck with *standard* USB Audio devices, Intel HD Audio (Azalia), Intel 8x0 compatible audio, etc. IMO there really isn't much point these days building an audio device which doesn't have a standard API that's going to work cross platform without custom drivers, like USB audio does when properly implemented. Do you have any special requirements with sound? Do you need to record, or just play back? If it's just play back you may want to try one of the USB sound boards I build. I can send you a kit if you're up for some surface mount part soldering and want to put one together yourself :) “Googling around the net, I am learning that sound is the most poorly supported facility in Linux.”

I really don’t think that’s true. In all the years I’ve been using Linux I’ve found sound card support to be excellent. I remember the days of woe back when I used Windows NT 2000 on an SMP machine and the Creative Labs drivers for SBLive would constantly blue screen the machine. Never had that problem in Linux. For years I’ve been using these nice MAudio Delta 2496 cards which work very well. I also have excellent luck with *standard* USB Audio devices, Intel HD Audio (Azalia), Intel 8×0 compatible audio, etc. IMO there really isn’t much point these days building an audio device which doesn’t have a standard API that’s going to work cross platform without custom drivers, like USB audio does when properly implemented.

Do you have any special requirements with sound? Do you need to record, or just play back? If it’s just play back you may want to try one of the USB sound boards I build. I can send you a kit if you’re up for some surface mount part soldering and want to put one together yourself :)

]]> By: Nicholas http://www.johndearmond.com/2009/01/20/the-linux-chronicles-day-4-and-5/comment-page-1/#comment-248 Nicholas Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:03:22 +0000 http://www.johndearmond.com/?p=747#comment-248 I like xzgv for image viewing. I've no idea how it works in a GUI since I don't use a GUI. I go to a command line and just do stuff like "xzgv -Z -F -d pictures" and hit space/backspace/pageup/pagedown to flip through the images in the "pictures" directory. Works great. For image editing I use GIMP. It's a bit clunky but it has much of the functionality of Photoshop and works OK. I just used it today to make a template which I printed out and then taped onto a piece of metal so I could drill holes in the right places. I like xzgv for image viewing. I’ve no idea how it works in a GUI since I don’t use a GUI. I go to a command line and just do stuff like “xzgv -Z -F -d pictures” and hit space/backspace/pageup/pagedown to flip through the images in the “pictures” directory. Works great.

For image editing I use GIMP. It’s a bit clunky but it has much of the functionality of Photoshop and works OK. I just used it today to make a template which I printed out and then taped onto a piece of metal so I could drill holes in the right places.

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