ESD, aRts, ALSA, OSS, and GStreamer

["Debarshi 'Rishi' Ray" <debarshi ray gmail com>]

Hi,

Recently there has been a lot of talk about GStreamer
replacing ESD and aRts as the primary media framework. Now I had been
seeing this discussing from the sidelines from the beginning itself and
find it extremely interesting. But the problem is that I am a bit
confused regarding the relative positions occupied by ESD, aRts, ALSA,
OSS and GStreamer with respect to each other.

I do know that ESD is GNOME based just as aRts is KDE based;
that ALSA multiplexes the /dev/dsp device allowing multiple
applications to use the sound-card simultaneously, while OSS does not.
Now if ESD and aRts are desktop environment specific why is ALSA not
so? I mean what is the fundamental difference? Does not aRts and ESD
also allow multiple applications to use the sound-card?

FAQ at the GStreamer project page says : "Streamer is not a
soundserver. GStreamer does however have plugins
supporting most of the major soundservers available today, including
ESD, aRTSd, and to some extent Jack. Support for MAS is also planned".
If that is so, then how can it replace ESD? Are they not entirely
different things? Would it not be better to replace aRts and ESD by
ALSA and improve GStreamer support for ALSA, resulting in a single
well-polished sound architecture.

Looking forward to your replies,
Debarshi