PipeWire Hits 1.0.0 with Improved JACK and Buffer Optimizations

posted by Rianne Schestowitz on Nov 26, 2023,
updated Nov 28, 2023

PipeWire, the cutting-edge audio and video server for Linux systems designed to provide a modern and versatile multimedia processing framework, has reached a significant milestone with the release of version 1.0.0.

This update represents a significant step forward in Linux audio technology, promising improved performance, reliability, and a host of new features while maintaining API and ABI compatibility with its 0.3.x predecessors.

Read on

Fedora Magazine:

• PipeWire 1.0 – An interview with PipeWire creator Wim Taymans

  So many! We’ve done more than 40 releases since then.

  A big part of the work was to close the gap between pulseaudio and PipeWire. We did the transition in Fedora 34 with quite a few missing features that were not enabled by default but that people often used, such as the various network sinks and sources. We also added echo-cancellation and many of the other missing modules and finally we added S/PDIF passthrough, Airplay support and multiple sample rates. Most of these new modules now have more features than the pulseaudio equivalents.

  We’ve also added something that I wanted to do for a long time: a filter-chain. This allows you to write a graph of filters to do various things. We’ve been building filters for 3D sound, reverbs, delays and equalizers with this.

LWN:

• PipeWire 1.0 released [LWN.net]

  PipeWire, the audio/video bus meant to replace PulseAudio, JACK, and other systems, has reached 1.0. In celebration, Fedora Magazine is running an interview with PipeWire creator Wim Taymans.

GamingOnLinux:

• PipeWire 1.0 is out now for modern Audio and Video on Linux

  The day finally arrived! PipeWire 1.0 has been officially released, marking the real start of properly modern audio and video handling on Linux. While it's been fully usable for a long time now, this is still an important milestone of course.

  "PipeWire represents the next evolution of audio handling for Linux, taking the best of both pro-audio (JACK) and desktop audio servers (PulseAudio) and linking them into a single, seamless, powerful new system." - Paul Davis, JACK and Ardour author

  "What exciting times! PipeWire 1.0 is the culmination of 15 years of Linux audio expertise, blending lessons from PulseAudio into a high-performance, flexible, and user-friendly foundation for audio and multimedia on Linux. I'm looking forward to the next decade of progress in the free software consumer and professional audio space!." - Arun Raghavan, PulseAudio developer/maintainer.

Linux Magazine:

• PipeWire 1.0 Officially Released

  Most likely, you use a Linux distribution that employs PipeWire, which is the subsystem that handles audio and video on modern Linux desktop computers. It has been a long time coming, but the release of version 1.0 is finally here.

  Version 1.0 enables jackdbus support by default; retains API/ABI compatibility; solves the jitter issue in ALSA (when using IRQ mode); offers plenty of module bug fixes; vastly improves Bluetooth LC3 codec compatibility as well as JACK transport and time handling; optimizes buffer re-use with JACK; better socket permissions; MIDI event recording preview in Ardour; improved resume from suspend in ALSA; and much more.