You can throw stuff like that into perplexity.ai as a starting point (it’s free):

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/before-i-fully-make-the-switch-OTEQ6b5xTIiOL1J5avEKyQ#0

You can then continue to ask about stuff you want to understand. It’s a great learning tool.

Fake it till you make it

The problem with audio interfaces is that they function very different internally and have different kind of settings. Alsamixer does usually a decent job of listing all parameters but it is an old TUI tool and not nicely embedded into the desktop so I guess people just don’t find it. Stuff like latencies just have to do with buffer sizes that are configured in your machines audio system, usually pipewire, pulseaudio or jack, which all work on top of alsa (which is where the drivers run). You can reduce the buffers there (in config files) to get lower latencies. This however means that your system needs to have a very tight scheduling for your audio processes, because if it fails to fill the buffer in time there will be glitches. Professional low latency audio does definetly not work out of the box on linux. It got a little better with pipewire, but I don’t think it works well without a little bit of tinkering. If you decide to tinker I recommend you read this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Professional_audio

I don’t remember which tool I use for my Scarlett (I’m travelling). But I googled a bit and this looks good:

https://blog.rtrace.io/posts/fedora-support-focusrite-scarlett/

This all would be better if manufacturers would provide Linux config tools like they do on windows or at least information of their protocols. Until they do we have to be greatful for people reverse engineering that stuff (e.g. by analysing USB traffic on windows) and then writing uis for it. Edit: this site seems to make more sense as the arch wiki page (it is linked there):

https://this.ven.uber.space/docs/computer/pro-audio/

No but now we get closer to the real problem. Meaning there is an accessibility problem, which is different than the (in my opinion wrong) statement that I wanted to correct.

They work but you can’t set the sample rate or enable any custom features on ANY of them.

Not in my experience. I have a RME card that can be configured via alsamixer (which should work for most cards) and a Focusrite Saphire USB interface that someone wrote a little UI for in which you can even freely route audio to/from different channels and mix busses.

They named a function slightly poorly. As if Linus has never done that.

Not only that. They introduced a obscure function, which inner workings are not clear and that is only used by their new code into a global header which is used by many other code parts, which means other people could start using it. This could lead to bugs since the semantics are not clear from the function name or if they change the function in the future. Also they added their pull request much too late to be properly reviewed.

If you don’t see your windows games in steam on Linux you have to enable Settings/Compatibility/‘Enable Steam Play for all other titles’, then just install normally from the Library screen.

And that’s a very good answer to a provocative message.

I prefer flatpaks that work.