The Open Sound System (OSS) is an interface for making and capturing sound in Unix or Unix-like operating systems. It is based on standard Unix devices (i.e. POSIX read, write, ioctl, etc.). The term also sometimes refers to the software in a Unix kernel that provides the OSS interface; it can be thought of as a device driver, or a collection of device drivers for sound controller hardware. The goal of OSS is to allow the writing of sound-based applications that are agnostic of the underlying sound hardware.
OSS was created in 1992 by Hannu Savolainen and is available in 11 major Unix-like operating systems. OSS is distributed under four license options, three of which are free software licences, thus making OSS free software.
Read more about Open Sound System: API, Free, Proprietary, Free, Other Implementations, OSS/3D, OSS in Relation To ALSA
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