PipeWire 0.3 Released

PipeWire 0.3 Has been released. Fedora 32 is looking to set it as default or at least as an option (citation needed). What are your thoughts about this? Does PulseAudio give you problems? How is working with Jack? What are your thoughts about a sound service to replace PulseAudio and Jack that promises to have the features but not the weaknesses? Too good to be true? Do you think it will actually be an improvement or just trading issues for new issues?

I am fine with PulseAudio, I haven’t experienced it “breaking” on me in several years. I have never used Jack but I do feel like I am somehow missing out on the wonderful headaches and benefits it provides.

I am hoping to get some community feedback about this to discuss on the next DLN Xtend.

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It sounds like the option is coming based on:
https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/2019/09/23/fedora-workstation-31-whats-new/
There are builds for 0.3 on Bohdi already for Rawhide and Fedora 32 so I’m assuming it will be available.
Bohdi Search for Pipewire

I don’t see anything listed here as an official change.
Fedora 32 Change Set

It’s obviously early days for this project but having Fedora committing to including it should hopefully move things forward. I would personally love to see a better option than Pulse, not because it doesn’t work well for simple audio but because it’s not easy to go beyond that. Yes, there are lots of ways to configure things beyond the standard GUI options but I haven’t found it to be a worthwhile effort. JACK is fine but there is a steep learning curve and the quality of tools is all over the place. Once you get past that, it’s actually very robust. I have a basic understanding of PipeWire but I have yet to understand exactly how it improves the situation in practice.

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I will probably stay on PulseAudio for a LONG time yet. Just like I am still on X! @EricAdams Get off my lawn about your Pipewire and Wayland!!!

:slight_smile:

If you want to go old school then uninstall Pulse and go ALSA. Or better yet, OSS. You remember what that was like. :scream:

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Man, those were the days when I’d spent hours getting a game like Quake running with my video drivers only to spend the next few fiddling with my audio. No gracias.

Oh, I lived through OSS and ALSA was fantastic. Do you remember the KDE sound system that attempted to make OSS not crap? It was so irritating trying to get games to have sound. I fiddled and fiddled too.