My Audio API guide (http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/guide-to-sound-apis.html) got quite a few responses.

The Good

Takashi likes it. (http://mailman.alsa-project.org/pipermail/alsa-devel/2008-September/010862.html) And so does David. (http://www.schleef.org/blog/2008/09/24/clear-cutting-the-jungle/) Which is great because both are key people in the Linux multimedia community.

It made it to LWN. (http://lwn.net/Articles/300423/) I sincerely and humbly hope this is not going to stay the only news site picking this up. ;-)

The safe ALSA part of the recommendations will most likely be added to the ALSA documentation soon. The GNOME-relevent part I will be adding to the GNOME platform overview.

The Bad

Aaron basically likes it (http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2008/09/linux-audio-layers.html), although he appears disappointed that KDE’s and Qt’s Phonon wasn’t mentioned more positively. Aaron is very fair in his criticism. Nonetheless I don’t think it is valid. My guide is not a list of alternatives. It’s a list of recommendations. My recommendations. I do believe that my recommendations very much match the mainstream of the opinions of the key people in Linux multimedia and desktop audio. Of course I don’t nearly know everyone of the key hackers in Linux multimedia. But I do know most of those who are actively interested in collaboration, whose projects have a lot mindshare and who attend the conferences that matter for Linux desktop audio.

Also see Christian’s comments on Aaron’s post. (http://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/2008/09/25/in-the-land-of-silly-arguments/)

The Ugly

It wasn’t my intention to start another GNOME-vs.-KDE flamefest. Unfortunately a lot of people took this as great opportunity to troll at the various blog comment forums. I guess it is inevitable that some of those whose favourite software is not listed on a recommendation guide like this start to clamour about that. It’s a pity not everyone who thinks I am treating KDE unfairly criticises that as fairly and reasonable as Aaron. Anyway, I humbly take this as a sign that people do consider this guide to be relevant and much needed. ;-)