Linux had a reputation for lacking good support for sound and multimedia
applications in general. However, great strides have been made in recent years
to correct this, and support is now a lot better than it used to be. (It might
make you smile to know that Microsoft no longer supports the Microsoft
Sound Card, but Linux users still enjoy support for it—no doubt just to annoy
the folks in Redmond.) UNIX, however, has always had good multimedia
support, as David Taylor, UNIX author and guru, points out:
The original graphics work for computers was done by Evans and
Sutherland on UNIX systems. The innovations at MIT’s Media Lab were
done on UNIX workstations. In 1985, we at HP Labs were creating
sophisticated multimedia immersive work environments on UNIX
workstations, so maybe UNIX is more multimedia than suggested.
Limitations in Linux support doesn’t mean UNIX had the same
limitations. I think it was more a matter of logistics, with hundreds of
sound cards and thousands of different possible PC configurations.
(Reprinted with permission by Dave Taylor)That last sentence sums it up quite well: UNIX had a limited range of
hardware to support, whereas Linux has hundreds of sound cards. Sound card
device driver support has been long lacking from manufacturers, and there is
still no single standard for the sound subsystem in Linux.
In this section, you learn about sound cards, sound file formats, and the sound
applications provided with Ubuntu.
Sound Cards
Ubuntu supports a wide variety of sound hardware and software. Two models
of sound card drivers compete for prominence in today’s market:
ALSA, the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture, which is entirely open
source
OSS, the Open Sound System, which offers free and commercial driversUbuntu uses ALSA because ALSA is the sound architecture for the Linux
kernel, starting with the 2.6 series, all the way to the current 4.x series. OSS
might still be found here and there, but it is no longer in widespread use and
should be considered deprecated.
ALSA supports a long list of sound cards. You can review the list at
[http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Main_Page if you are interested, but](http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Main_Page if you are interested, but)
Ubuntu detects most sound cards during the original installation and should
detect any new additions to the system during boot. To configure the sound