Irfan’s Corner on the Web On Mac, Linux, Grid, Virtualization and Software Technology

KDE’s default sound system is in the stone ages!

In in Software terms it is! And let me explain why.

KDE's default sound subsystems, aRts (Analog realtime synthesizer) has been part of KDE since ages. I really appreciate the quality of lots of software it comes with, however aRts is a real disappointment. Since Windows 98 I believe MS Windows's sound system had the capability of running multiple sound streams at the same time, this is 2007, and one of the most popular window managers for Linux lacks this capability.

I was yesterday running an online video conferencing application, based on Java, and due to some bandwidth issue it wasn't going so well. So I logged into Skype, and guess what? Skype couldn't open the sound device, because it was already engaged by the Java application, hence I could run only one sound application at once. I've been aware of this problem since ages, from a previous Slackware 9.0 experience, however when I encountered the problem again yesterday I was both surprised and shocked how this problem could have gone unaddressed since ages. It turns out that since Dec 2004 development on aRts has been abandoned.

And if your wondering? No! There are many sound subsystems for Linux, which do not have this problem, you can run Amarok on Xine, and play some DVD movies on Xine at the same time, and you'll face no problem or you can run two instances of mplayer without any issue, however mplayer is an application. And there is no way

Fortunately, in the next major KDE release aRts will be replaced by an engine which makes it easier use more capable backends like Xine. In the meantime while KDE 4.0 is not out, we have to bear with aRts!