Re: Fedora-7 rant #3: Sound

Skunk Worx wrote:

Timothy Murphy wrote:

I'm running F-7 with KDE,

Non-default install of a non-RedHat, non-Fedora project.

   I have the Fedora 7 DVD and it lets you use KDE if you choose to.

and I'm trying to get Skype working.

Non-default install of a proprietary non-RedHat, non-Fedora application.

   It is not even KDE approved :-(

The sound system seems designed for sound engineers,
not ordinary mortals.

The huge mess of linux sound infrastructure is shared across linux flavors and not specific to RedHat or Fedora.

   Well in fact it works a lot better on Fedora Core 4

KDE added a large sound infrastructure too at some point.

For example www.alsa-project.org supports many distros. Perhaps your comments directed there could help them prioritize things.

What on earth do all these symbols in KMix mean?
(I've left clicked on the loudspeaker icon in my panel,
and clicked on Mixer.)

Whoever designed the sound GUI seemed to have a love affair with triangles.

What on earth do these half-filled in triangles mean?

And why do they have a smaller triangle beside them pointing to the right?

Why am I given no hint of their meaning when I hover over them?

These are KDE apps right? Not designed by RedHat or Fedora, but offered as an alternative to gnome.

This is starting to sound like a KDE,ALSA,Skype rant...all things not developed by RH or Fedora.

   If this is the case why did all this work fine on FC4 Skunk Workx.

And why does input have what looks like headphones as icon?

I think KDE extras are supported through their SIG...maybe they could help with your design questions. Also kde.org

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/KDE
http://www.kde.org

When I try the CLI command "alsamixer" instead
I get 19 (yes, 19) controls,
none of them properly labelled.
I see one called Mic, set to 0.
It isn't at all obvious how to change this, or any, setting,
but I go to the Mic icon with the right arrow key,
and then use the up arrow to go from 0 to 81.
Was that a good idea?

Same here...see above. KDE is a third party/extras package set offered as an alternative, not designed or implemented by RedHat or Fedora, AFAIK.

I cannot tell, as I have no idea how to test the result.

Is there a simple introduction to Fedora sound somewhere?

When I get a new mobile phone, I take it out of the box,
put in a SIM card and it works.
There aren't 19 switches to adjust.

I bought a DVD player yesterday.
I connect it to my TV with a Scart connector,
switch on and put in a DVD.
I am asked one question - do I want to play the DVD?
I answer Yes, and it plays.

Sigh.

Regarding your DVD player and phone :

1) free?

2) designed and implemented by a worldwide network of people, often in their spare time?

3) released on a 6-month development cycle?
4) have all the source code available?

F7 does have a few regressions from what I can see. There are also a lot of great things.

The desktop and user switching in gnome, the livecd-tools...I am looking forward to the updates that will fix a lot of issues over the next few weeks.

One thing Linux people like is being able to read about a new linux feature on the web, then use it right away--whether it's a cool app or service or whatever. Fedora offers that, at the price of some instability.

Note : I am just another end user with no affiliation to RedHat or Fedora...please don't be frustrated with them over my post if it rubs you the wrong way!

---
John