Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] Scratch-built DAW - what's your favorite?
From: Lee Revell (rlrevell_AT_joe-job.com)
Date: Wed Dec 01 2004 - 18:41:00 EET
On Wed, 2004-12-01 at 07:19 -0800, Brad Fuller wrote:
> I want to understand how the design of these (Win-centric) mobos are a
> hindrance to running Linux.
As you examine cheaper hardware, you will find that vendors cut corners
by stripping away anything not needed to run Windows. Often they do
this by making the hardware dumber and pushing more functionality into
the driver. You saw this in the past with Winmodems. When Winmodems
came out I don't think you could even have used one on Linux if you had
a driver, because they require an RT task to do the DSP and Linux could
not have scheduled such a task reliably enough to keep from getting
booted and the kernel was not yet capable of that.
For example many of the cheaper onboard AC97 sound chipsets have no
hardware mixing and no hardware volume control - they rely on the
Windows kernel mixer. Since the equivalent technology on Linux is not
as mature we have problems. And since the crappiest hardware is
disproportionately affected, and requires the most work, many of the
issues don't get fixed.
Lee
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