From my limited experiences in the last few days the GUI sound tools
in FC are woefully inadequate. It's been a while since I played with sound in any serious way, but just looking at a recent Dell PC I can see there are multiple audio outputs and inputs and getting it all configured with the tools at hand would seem beyond the non-tech user. I think some sort of discovery tool is required. BTW: is it possible to detect form the hardware which outputs have a speaker attached? If so the GUI should show a diagram of all the outputs, its current status (mute/unmute) and volume level and (if possible) which outputs have a speaker/headphone attached. There should be a play tone button next to each output in the diagram to force a tone on that output. Likewise with the inputs. On the same diagram all the inputs, status and volume setting. Also a level meter. That should quickly allow you to figure which input (line in, mic front, mic back etc) you are using. Also the tools should use more descriptive names. Terse terms like "Mux" and "ADC" are fine for those that understand the tech, but most people don't. They just want to play music or call their friend on Skype. (The Skype secenario seems next to impossible with FC6). I think this is part of a general trend in the Gnome desktop: The GUIs are nothing more than a thin layer over the existing command line tools. You still need the same level of understanding of the underlying technology as you do with the command line tools. So why bother? Instead the GUI design should start with the users expectations and work back to the technology. Eg with the network management tool: I think a diagramatic approach would be more intuitive in this case also. A box representing the PC and pipes representing the inputs etc. Interfaces should be descriptive (visually and in text). Eg "Onboard Ethernet" not "eth0". (of course all that info should be available in an "advanced mode"). Joe. On 4/19/07, Anne Wilson <cannewilson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In most cases it is found that some of the sound channels have been muted. In my opinion the easiest way to tackle this is to open a terminal and then type 'alsamixer' (without quotes). This gives a clearer and better picture of what is going on than the gui tools.
