I commend Collabora's tremendous work on Bluetooth LE audio on Linux and their work in general, but I can't help being frustrated that it's volunteer contributors handling the implementation, while the Bluetooth Special Interest Group makes a ton of profit by licensing Bluetooth yet contributes nothing to implementing the standard on Linux. It's really typical of the "open source" spirit: volunteers are exploited, and the fruits of their labor are harvested as profit.
>On Linux, LE Audio support is implemented through BlueZ for the Bluetooth® host stack and PipeWire for audio routing.
Most Linux systems support Bluetooth LEA via Gabeldorsche. Google shipped LEA support in Android 14 and BSP providers offered the drivers needed for it in their Android 14 BSPs.
I commend Collabora's tremendous work on Bluetooth LE audio on Linux and their work in general, but I can't help being frustrated that it's volunteer contributors handling the implementation, while the Bluetooth Special Interest Group makes a ton of profit by licensing Bluetooth yet contributes nothing to implementing the standard on Linux. It's really typical of the "open source" spirit: volunteers are exploited, and the fruits of their labor are harvested as profit.
It would help if BlueZ had any hope of being commercially relevant. The Linux Wi-Fi stack, in contrast, is quite usable.
>On Linux, LE Audio support is implemented through BlueZ for the Bluetooth® host stack and PipeWire for audio routing.
Most Linux systems support Bluetooth LEA via Gabeldorsche. Google shipped LEA support in Android 14 and BSP providers offered the drivers needed for it in their Android 14 BSPs.
This Gabeldorsche is really only for Android. BlueZ is used almost everywhere else.
Most Linux installs that use Bluetooth with Linux are Android installs.
This is a big pain point for wireless headsets. Thanks for the post and linux overview of the progress.