I haven't had a sound issue since I unplugged the speakers

I did but that was mostly my own doing.

I want to like pipewire but configuration is a hell scape of configuration files that bare no resemblance to any I've dealt with before, and doesn't recognise my audio interface probably so I have to just fully stop all pw services and use jack for Ardour.

I will make sure to post truly funny and intellectual content next time like "windows bad haha"

Because it's unfortunately still true. I have a video-card that I can't upgrade because it nvidia drivers keep breaking my display. I've had to swap distros because some don't work well with my audio-card, or my wifi-card. I was able to get them working eventually, but pretending that it wasn't a pain in the ass would be a lie.

This attitude of "everything works fine, and if it doesn't that means you are doing it wrong" is why people don't like trying Linux. We have to be realistic about the experience. It's massively better than it used to be, but pretending its flawless is just dishonest.

it's a funny reference to more broken times

i sometimes struggled with alsa and pulseaudio, especially in more niche or diy distros, and at the time it was frustrating as hell, but looking back it's a nostalgic memory.

I ran into an issue last night with HDMI failing to be assigned as the audio output. a reboot fixed it but idk what the problem really is it how to prevent it.

been full time on Debian 15 years, and full time on Linux 21 years.

That's not true.

I've also had a lot of success on most hardware, but the worst device I ever touched was a 2016 Macbook (one of the last with normal ports) and that thing was a total mess.

Arch: Video, no sound. Debian: Sound, no video. Ubuntu: Everything works, reboot, nothing works.

Probably heavily related to hardware, but still, very inconsistent. I was never able to find the actual issue after weeks.

The final somewhat working configuration was Debian+Liquorix for the video firmware.

So no, it's not guaranteed.

geez you sound insufferable, i wonder why so many people have negative opinions of the linux community…

also damn I don’t envy anyone who has to use a screen reader to read your first paragraph

Memes are not necessarily meant to be funny. They're meant to represent a common experience within a group. The horrid failure rate of PulseAudio just a couple years ago fits that definition perfectly, and in fact it's why I gave up on Ubuntu 14.04 in 2015.

If you're using supported hardware, sure.

My wifi keeps freaking out, my 2.5G nic simply doesn't work, my Bluetooth acts up constantly, the razor kernel module made my whole setup unstable and I just wanted to change the stupid RGB lights, HDMI support is unpredictable, Nvidia drivers are a shitshow.

I still don't miss Windows, but Windows 11 is stable on the same hardware.

Beginner distros are even worse, once you're past the absolute beginner phase and start to notice what I call "the fuck you features" you start to hate linux as much as windows, for example, sound always starts with a fade in so notification sounds get muted, that's because there's an energy savings option active by default, you'll find dozens of forum posts telling you how to fix it except, fuck you, none of them work anymore because that configuration file is not there anymore and you must create it and figure out what to write in it.

Another example, celluloid opens subtitles by default, you don't want that? Fuck you, create a configuration file somewhere and good luck finding out what to write in it. You end up installing vlc.

Things like these has been my experience with linux for the last 15 years.

It will stay true as most computers are optimized to windoze-only. Just some of us are lucky because our computer wasn't optimized to it.

Well, don't use both at the same time... Seriously though pipewire/pipewire-pulse have fixed all of the already pretty infrequent audio problems I've had

Well, the song is from 1996. And Linux definitely was having trouble with sound then.

It got a lot better in the last 5-10 years

But having functional audio in all applications was quite an archivement before that

I think it's just old tribal knowledge that people have turned into a meme at this point, just like people thinking all versions of Linux are so arcane and obtuse, you need to be a master programmer or hacker to be able to make it run without crashing. When I was first starting out with it, around 2009, I remember having somewhat regular issues with my sound and my wifi just randomly deciding I was unworthy of either sound or wireless internet access. That was across distros when I was initially checking things out, as well as across releases of the same distro once I (mostly) settled down.

These days, I can't remember the last time I had such problems that weren't either the result of a specific bug that was shortly fixed, or the fallout of something stupid I did myself while tinkering with something and not paying enough attention.

In the beginning there was oss, and then there was alsa. In the alsa days it was easy to get any given thing to work, but sometimes it was hard to make two separate things work at the same time.

Pulseaudio fixed this, but it took a long time, distros didn't start adopting it until 2008 or so, and back then it wasn't all that solid.

The meme makes no sense now that we have pipewire, but it'd have been fair between 1998 and 2009, depending on your configuration and usage case.

Lot of issues with sound cards in the past. Also screw creative.

Tbh? I just set up Bazzite on my PC and it was the first time i had (some) sound issues too. Mostly related to my pcie soundcard, but my Mainboard aux ports aren't working either. I think it's driver related, just to many different vendors.

install tldr and run it on the command and it should give you a general idea what the command is doing.

Pipewire is amazing.

At least for Linux-Reaper:

Use Jack. Install the "Pulse Jack Module", route Pulseaudio through Jack to simultaneously connect Reaper and everything else to the Jack System out. Always autostart Jack and use the Pulse Module "autoconnect" parameter as a startup script (QJackCtl helps here).

Should fix 1-3, 4 I'm not sure.