Linked by Howard Fosdick on Thu 8th Nov 2012 02:24 UTC
Microsoft is discontinuing Windows Live Messenger in 1st quarter 2013, forcing users to switch to Skype. Most would want to switch to Skype anyway with its more advanced capabilities, and the switch makes sense to Microsoft, since they purchased Skype for $8.5 billion last year. However, the move may be seen as typical Redmondian high-handedness by those using Messenger with dial-up. Technically Skype works with dial-up but in practice most agree you really need broadband for decent use. Will everyone view Messenger as replaceable by Skype?
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RE[6]: Could it be fixed?
by lucas_maximus on Fri 9th Nov 2012 13:03
in reply to "RE[5]: Could it be fixed?"
Member since:2009-08-18
And yet, somehow, everyone else who uses the ALSA API manages to writes code that works fine when the ALSA client libraries talk directly to the ALSA drivers rather than having PulseAudio sitting between them.
Almost every major binary based distro uses PulseAudio now. Blame the problems on the fact that there is massive fragmentation because of the number of Linux distros.
Skype 4 is literally the only application I've ever found which uses the ALSA API but breaks on Ubuntu-based distros if you `apt-get autoremove pulseaudio` like they recommend for disabling PulseAudio.
Then don't remove pulse audio.
Edited 2012-11-09 13:04 UTC
RE[7]: Could it be fixed?
by ssokolow on Fri 9th Nov 2012 13:56
in reply to "RE[6]: Could it be fixed?"
Member since:2010-01-21
Then don't remove pulse audio.
If it actually worked, I wouldn't.
I don't know about you, but I really don't feel like babysitting my computer because, every time they claim to have fixed the "PulseAudio randomly starts consuming 100% of a CPU core" bug, nothing changes.
Also, it does nothing I need aside from locking my soundcard to only applications running in the current X session... and golly gosh isn't that a desired feature when it makes Timidity++ (I often play old Windows games in Wine) and system text-to-speech engines a pain to setup.
Every PulseAudio feature I actually care about is also done by ALSA dmix and dmix Just Works™ while being significantly lighter. (I have an old 2Ghz Celeron I keep around for minimum requirements testing on my own creations)
I think I'll probably just ditch Skype instead, bite the bullet, and spend a day or two figuring out how to get an open-source XMPP+Jingle VoIP client to interoperate with Google Talk. After all, all my friends are on that too.
Edited 2012-11-09 13:57 UTC
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2010-01-21
Last time I counted there was:
*ALSA
*OSS
*PulseAudio
Which one do you make it compatible with? Most distros have pulseaudio.
And yet, somehow, everyone else who uses the ALSA API manages to writes code that works fine when the ALSA client libraries talk directly to the ALSA drivers rather than having PulseAudio sitting between them.
Skype 4 is literally the only application I've ever found which uses the ALSA API but breaks on Ubuntu-based distros if you `apt-get autoremove pulseaudio` like they recommend for disabling PulseAudio.