The nasd service probably shouldn't be enabled by default. It gets pulled in by arts (and thus many things), but isn't used without some configuration on the part of users. Having it automatically start ends up slowing boot
For Qt applications that play's sound, an running daemon is needed. So it is started by default. To reduce lazy bug tickets about missing sound in Qt apps.
Is arts setup to use nasd by default? It at least used to just go to alsa by default. And for the future, it should probably move towards PulseAudio. But sound requiring a system service daemon for it to work at all just sounds like a bad idea...
For arts, you're right. But that's not all. As Frank alluded, qt/qt4-only apps can use nas to play sound. If nas isn't running -> no audio. qt4 (already) includes nas support, qt(3) could too, it just hasn't been enabled yet.
(In reply to comment #3) > As Frank alluded, qt/qt4-only apps can use nas to play sound. If nas isn't > running -> no audio. qt4 (already) includes nas support, qt(3) could too, it > just hasn't been enabled yet. Can or has to? Functionality being available is one thing, defaulting to it is something entirely different. Especially since NAS only buys you something if you've actually set it up for remote use which also requires firewall tweaking, etc... at which point, enabling a service really isn't a big deal.
For qt-only apps that use it's audio class(es), "has to". I suppose the set of qt-only apps using audio is likely small (I can't think of any in fedora offhand), so we could consider sacrificing them "just working" so nas isn't started by default for everybody else.
(In reply to comment #5) > For qt-only apps that use it's audio class(es), "has to". I suppose the set of > qt-only apps using audio is likely small (I can't think of any in fedora > offhand), so we could consider sacrificing them "just working" so nas isn't > started by default for everybody else. Especially as pre-Fedora 7, we didn't ship NAS in Core, so those apps would have just been silent then. Please tell me that qt4 has a better sound backend than just nas....
> Please tell me that qt4 has a better sound backend than > just nas.... None that I'm aware, sorry. That doesn't mean qt apps can't use something else like, say, pulseaudio and/or gstreamer... Anyway, Jeremy has a point here, and I would tend to agree, esp since nas isn't actually used (by default) by anything in fedora... Frank?
No, because the default backed for Qt is nasd, so an running nasd is needed.
Agreed that it is the default audio backend, but our point is that there is currently very little value in enabling nasd by default (since, afaik, no apps in fedora currently use it). Perhaps this discussion can/should be taken to fedora-devel or fedora-desktop list? For example, would be nice if nasd could be turned into a service that starts on demand (via dbus or whatever).
fwiw, kde4 (and qt-4.4) will feature Phonon for multimedia support, based on xine-lib currently, but will have gstreamer backends soon, hopefully in time for F9, if not, shortly thereafter. See followup to this, bug #438547 , to introduce a -libs pkg split , as a compromise to make everyone happy.