OpenSuse had interesting audio options. I just learned that I can change the quality of the audio codec on the fly by selecting the pancake menu in the quick system tray/taskbar sound icon. That is awesome!
Now I can hear many of you thinking, why would I want to do that? For several reasons. First, when a headphone or audio output is set up it may not set up the highest quality that it is capable of. You can choose what sounds best to you or your equipment. Now my headphones aren’t expensive so I don’t hear any difference in my High Fidelity options between SBC or AAC but I can tell the difference between a low-quality codec like HSP/HFP. The difference is dramatic. It’s the difference between AM and FM radio roughly.
It brings me joy to discover little things like this each day. I don’t think that I ever changed the codec in use on Mac/Windows in my life. I never heard the difference between them until a few minutes ago. I didn’t lack the hardware to know the difference, but the software to give me the choice. Can you imagine how a curious person likes the freedom of choice? Not being given a choice is being treated as a child with the adult saying “You will like the UI and you will convince others to like it.”
I don’t have to change the world. I only have to change myself. That is enough of a job to make the world a better place. Linux is interesting to me and kind of fun to be able to try things that I haven’t tried before. It exposes things that you otherwise wouldn’t know or see and for that I am grateful.
It also has this very neat visualization in the sound icon when you click on it that shows the relative intensity of the sound compared to the sound level you have chosen. It is, in essence, a mini-virtualizer like the old stereo systems with flashing up/down lights. It is a thoughtful touch and delighted me when I saw it. I was like “No way, they didn’t do that.” That right there is some level of attention to detail. Whoever did this has my and other people’s sincere thanks. I’m not a virtualizer lover but it is still remarkable. I never saw that in Mac/Windows. Sure they had a screensaver that responded to music, but not the sound volume control itself. It is classy without being over the top.
Very nice OpenSuse. You continue to impress.