Re: [Linphone-users] Please include native support for PulseAudio

[Alastair Johnson]

On Tuesday 04 May 2010, Xavion wrote:
> > Thank you for sharing your views regarding pulseaudio.
> > For  you what is the main advantage of using pulseaudio compared to
> > standart alsa ?
> 
> Some people might dispute this statement, but PulseAudio is the Linux sound
> server of the future.  For me, its biggest strength is the GUI approach
>  that makes configuration much simpler.  Since Linphone is a GUI
>  application, it makes sense to liaise with a sound server that has a
>  native GUI.

linphone is also a CLI app used on embedded devices, often without a display. 
In this case it is often started from an init script. PulseAudio is a _very_ 
bad fit in this situation as it expects a logged in user to be the only user 
of the sound devices, and the only way to get it to work is to use it in a 
mode that's deprecated by the developers because it presents a security risk. 
This problem isn't limited to embedded systems either - I use the squeezeslave 
squeezebox client as a daemon on most of my boxes at home which makes 
PulseAudio a nonstarter for me. 

> > In my opinion pulseaudio has a too big latency and is not appropriate for
> > VOIP.
> 
> Any current latency issues will probably be resolved in future releases of
> PulseAudio.  If there are no other significant problems, I think it'd be
> wise for Linphone to support PulseAudio now, rather than continuing to lag
> behind the times.  Thanks for taking my opinions on this matter into
> consideration.

Then wait until they fix the latency. I would have to reevaluate PulseAudio to 
see if its CPU-hogging tendencies on integer-only cores like older ARMs have 
been cured, another problem that made it a nonstarter for embedded users.

If PulseAudio support is included it should be as well as ALSA, not instead 
of.