"Part 2 of "Webcams in Linux" is going to appear later, as there are a number of kinks and roadblocks to work out. So today we're going to dig into ALSA, the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture, because I think it's the best tool for managing your Linux sound devices. It's good for managing multiple sound devices, and it works in all Linux environments including other window managers, or no X Windows at all.
"Yes, I know that Gnome has ESD (Enlightened Sound Daemon), and KDE uses aRtsd (analog Real time synthesizer daemon). Aside from the annoying problem of having to cope with multiple sound subsystems, both ESD and aRtsd introduce complications, such as conflicts with ALSA and latency. Latency is the enemy of sound quality, especially over a network. So when you're streaming audio (either by itself or with video), using a software IP phone, or playing online games the first thing to do is turn off ESD or aRtsd and use only ALSA..."
