a rant about soundcards and its endless dead-time

[Ralf Mardorf]

My RME HDSPe AIO PCIe card works better using FreeBSD, than using Linux,
while Linux is better for real-time audio usage than FreeBSD. In my
experiences the best a FLOSS audio user could do, is using Linux
instead of FreeBSD, with a class compliant USB audio device. I
purchased a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 2nd Gen for my iPad, actually
this prosumer device works better with my Linux audio workstaion, than
my professional RME card, so next time I'll get a professional class
compliant USB audio device for my Linux audio worksation. I don't have
a FreeBSD install anymore, so I can't test if class compliant USB audio
devices work under FreeBSD. Consider to get a cheap class compliant USB
audio device in the cosumer quality range of your EMU10K1 and test, if
FreeBSD is able to handle class compliant USB audio devices. Audio is a
niche, much more when using a FLOSS operating system. It's impossible
to provide a list without failure listing sound cards that work or don't
work with a FLOSS operating system, since there are too many pitfalls

-- 
$ pacman -Q linux{,-rt-securityink,-rt,-rt-pussytoes,-rt-cornflower}
linux 4.15.2-2
linux-rt-securityink 4.14.18_rt15-1
linux-rt 4.14.12_rt10-1
linux-rt-pussytoes 4.14.8_rt9-2
linux-rt-cornflower 4.11.12_rt16-1