What is an audio driver in a laptop, and how does it work?

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I am into music production, and I always see that macs are better for this than PCs, even when the on-paper specs of the PC are better.

Often, people refer to the audio-driver and something about coreaudio. They say that the audio is on top of the OS for PC, and within the OS for Mac. I am so confused.

Please explain like I am five.

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6 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

I can’t speak to what you’ve heard people say.

But a “driver” is a piece of software that tells the OS how to interact with the hardware. In this specific case, it would tell the OS how to talk to and use the audio hardware in a laptop.

The big difference you’re referring to between Macs and PCs in this regard is that Apple controls all of the hardware AND the OS. There are still drivers, but things are more tightly controlled by the Manufacturer, in this case Apple.

By comparison, Microsoft writes the Windows OS and it gets sold along with a wide array of hardware. Same OS/Driver process, just less controlled by the OS maker.

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