14 DAY TRIAL // PulseAudio, a sound server capable of running on pretty much all operating systems, including Linux, Mac OS X, BSD, Solari, and even Windows, has just received a big update and is now ready for download.
PulseAudio is not the kind of package that you download and install, although if you're savvy enough, you will be able to pull it off. More likely, this is a major upgrade that you should look for in your distribution in the future. PulseAudio is becoming more and more used in today's OSes, so it's likely we'll get to see the 8.0 branch soon integrated by default.
The PulseAudio sound server has been around for more than a decade, so its developers really know what they are doing. They have been preparing for this upgrade for a while now. We're not all that far from the previous release in the 7.x branch, just a couple of months, so they must have been working on this for quite a while, given the last number of changes and improvements.
What's new in PulseAudio 8.0
"PulseAudio is a networked sound server, similar in theory to the Enlightened Sound Daemon (EsounD). PulseAudio is, however, much more advanced and has numerous features.
"The PulseAudio daemon and utilities are still under development but are generally considered stable. API, ABI, and the protocol are considered release worthy, so effort is spent to not break these. Application developers should not feel uneasy using the client library at this point," developers explain on the official website.
According to the changelog, automatic routing is more likely to change profile, the OS X, and NetBSD support has been improved, Systemd journal logging for clients is now provided, a new LFE balance programming interface has been provided, a new script for measuring memory consumption has been implemented, and more changes have been added.
You can download PulseAudio 8.0 right now from Softpedia, but please keep in mind that only the source packages are available.