ALSA
More info
- Creator
- Jaroslav Kysela
- Released
- 1998
- Type
- Sound drivers and API
- License
- GPL (kernel), LGPL (alsa-lib)
- Website
- alsa-project.org
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture — the Linux kernel's sound drivers plus the library on top, which every other piece of Linux audio eventually passes through.
ALSA started in 1998 as a Czech side project by Jaroslav Kysela and was merged during the 2.5 development series; with Linux 2.6 in 2003 it became the default and pushed out OSS. Where OSS was essentially a file interface to /dev/dsp, ALSA brought proper mixer control, MIDI support and one driver per sound chip rather than one per vendor who could be bothered.
The kernel half talks to the hardware; alsa-lib in user space provides the API and a plugin framework in which dmix finally let several programs play at once without a sound server. The API has a reputation for being hard to use correctly, which goes a long way towards explaining why almost nothing talks to ALSA directly today — applications go through PulseAudio or PipeWire, which in turn talk ALSA.