In Progress

The FreeBSD audio stack, much like FreeBSD itself, has garnered a reputation for its quality, reliability, and stability over the past two decades. There is still ample room for improvement, particularly in addressing a lack of audio development frameworks, missing userland utilities, and kernel driver bugs. Additionally, the Open Sound System (OSS) lacks native tools beyond mixer(8), leading users to rely on tools from multiple different audio systems (ALSA, PulseAudio, sndio) to compensate. To tackle these challenges, the FreeBSD Foundation is supporting Christos Margiolis to improve FreeBSD’s audio stack. The project aims to equip FreeBSD audio developers with the necessary tools and frameworks to streamline sound development. Upon completion, FreeBSD will boast a more stable audio stack, a broader array of userland audio programs, and a more coherent audio ecosystem overall. The introduction of new development frameworks is expected to stimulate native FreeBSD audio development, which will be particularly beneficial for those interested in using FreeBSD for music production.