I have written my first Linux program in 1993 as a 2nd year student and have written one Windows program since as opposed to how many lines you can write for 14 years working 12 hours a day 5 days a week with perhaps 2 weeks break per year under Linux and various other flavors of Unix. I can truly say that I have explored the outer rims of the Unix programming galaxy writing programs pertaining to OpenGL, Oracle, Java, C++, sound, kernel, numeric academic stuff, html stuff, flash, threads, sockets, rpc etc. I don't think there is something that I did not explore. At one stage in my life I would have killed for Linux and Open Source. After spending two days now trying to achieve something as stupid as recording a sound via microphone on my Fedora Core 5 system without success I have finally allowed myself to question the rationale of the road less traveled that I have taken. Thinking back on the suffering over the years of getting to grips with all the unpolished quirks I had to deal with it has finally started to dawn on me that I have waisted away valuable months and perhaps cumulatively years on unnecessary plodding along with the Open Source no money - no guarantee mentality (to which I have contributed a number of times in the form of programs or fixes). I have come to the realization that the TCO reports stating Windows much cheaper than Linux could after all be true and not a conspiracy funded by MS. I realize now that the couple of bucks one saves on OS costs and development tools costs and the mild feeling of freedom as indoctrinated by Stallman et al. gets eaten up quickly once you start wailing away your precious time of your once in a lifetime opportunity on earth figuring out why the f*ck /dev/dsp is there and usable by Skype and only Skype even after applying 20 odd mailing list suggestions on how to remedy the problem. This becomes even more exacerbated once you steel a quick glance to the left to see your colleague smiling as he/she has absolutely no concept of what suffering with getting hardware to work under their pretty MS Windows black sheep box is. Today is like the day I realized that I could no longer question the evidence of evolution and that perhaps my religious beliefs was not the only possible explanation on how I came to find myself on this planet and why the hell I am waisting my time with this crap in the name of freedom of spirit etc. whilst the competitors on MS Windows brings home the bacon. Am I suffering under the curse of 'with sweat on your face you will earn your bread' or am I a descendant of a genetic line which managed to survive only because my ancestors were willing to ignore suffering and in the end will become extinct to the likes of the clever genes that chooses the tools which brings less suffering ?
Flame away or become enlightened. This post is not sponsored by MS. In fact, by reading this you witness real and original culmination of true albeit unnecessary suffering.

wow that was fast, one thing i know is that if you cant run things perfectly, then try something else, by the way no body is perfect right?

cheer up and be happy. i salute you man

As opposed to the shrink wrap license of most commercial software that only guarantees the media the software comes on?

Thank You!

Once at work, I had to use linux to copy files from a USB pendrive because the 2003 server didn't recognize the device. It was a freebie pendrive given away by Disney at a convention. Another time, the NT 4.0 installer wouldn't install because the hard drive was too big. So I used a Mandrake install disk to partition the drive.
I use cygwin to produce PDF catalogs of dvd backups. It takes only a few lines of bash and common text utilities. If there was software that did the same on windows, I wouldn't dare install it on the encoder.

I bet your coworker isn't using Vista.

I don't think that some large internet companies that can operate on very slim profit margins because they use linux would agree with you.

Take Care!

How about using audacity?

All computer systems take time away and it is easy to think the grass is greener - the truth of the matter is that unix based software that is open source is only now getting into the multimedia arena.

You can always buy software that does the job in unix and tends to be at the top of the market with an equally top end pricetag.

Your mic problem has been solved a long time ago though, and it is free

YouTube is perhaps the thing currently pushing for more multimedia applications to become available in opensource.

Cinelerra, Kino, Lives are getting there but are not ready yet.

Mainactor though is available pricetag of $199 but will allow you to make film clips.

You don't really mention the ins and outs of the problem of getting an audio recording using a mic working for you, bar the fact that you have put 16hours (assuming working days) into the problem with no result.

You may need to reinstall your alsa utils - perhaps alsa is not configured correctly in the kernel - who knows your sound card/hardware may be shot.

All I know is that I can do things a lot quicker in the unix environment then I can in the windows environment - sure time is invested on learning the structures but that learning translates to a lot of realms.

Perhaps you should go to the windows environment for a while, you may have forgotten just what were the limitations imposed there.

Wow ... OP, that was an interesting statement!

As a DOS/Windows person I definitely understand the problems migrating between Windows and Linux.

I've been a Windows user/programmer/webmaster/server guy for about 15 years. During this time I've mostly programmed in QuickBasic and Visual Basic, and never in C. VB allows me to add modules easily, to add functionality to my apps quickly. I don't know if Linux's C can do that.

Also during this time, I've lightly "played" in Linux, until about a year ago, when I've really been attempting to dive in deeper to see what she's got! In the early days, the functional difference was too much, and I was unable to break the Linux/Windows barrier, mostly due to time constraints.

Recently Linux has moved into a forum that I can more easily digest, with its updated desktops. Therefore I have found that I can better utilize the desktops with their more familiar feel. At the same time, I'm able to more easily learn more about the system, as my needs arise. I have learned the CLI, conf files, logs, file systems, etc. and am working on apache, mail servers and C for fun. I've also seen the extensibility that Linux has compared to Windows, in its scripting capabilities alone.

From what I've seen just in the past couple of years, it looks like Linux is moving technologically up in the world very quickly, and I'm glad to be able to watch it grow up.

My point: I understand the frustration that the OP is having, because I've experienced it myself, with the OS as a whole. But I also believe that purserverence will bring you through.

Another Linux Bashing Post. My recommendation to you is this: Go back to your Wizard Driven "I don't have a clue what I'm doing unless I click Next" LIFE; and leave us Linux Hackers alone. Linux is for hackers and not for Windroids like you... Neither for people who think they are programmers by coding from examples in books. Linux is for people with ingenuity and freedom. It is set apart from everything else and from the common way; and because of that is the reason why it is surpassing Windows in thousands of ways. Oh, and explain this to me: Why is it that most, if not all, Linux Admins can fix Windows but not the other way around? I think that says it all. You don't know what you're talking about.

Oh well, sure, it can get pretty frustrating at times but if you have that sort of experience with Linux/Unix, I find it hard to believe you should suddenly go nuts over something as trivial as a dysfunctional micorophone. As for the /dev/dsp not being present, that took me exactly 5 seconds to fix: mknod /dev/dsp c 14 3; if you know how to google, you know how to linux.

And once more, windows such a great thing? I invite you to come and tweak my XP64 so that it can handle AHCI. I invited MS themselves to do so and I got their second most original answer (the first one being "have your tried reinstalling?): why don't you get Vista? Duh! I got myself Linux instead!

Please contribute to the existing threads just like this one. I'm closing this, I didn't see a Linux technical question anywhere, so next time it belongs in General with the others.