The sad tale of sound in Linux. - Tracy

interesting background, though much has since changed - Mike Chelen

It's true, much has changed, but not necessarily for the better. Pulseaudio _promises_ to fix various issues and become the standard Linux sound server ... but at the moment it's still a source of grief for many Ubuntu users (myself included). I've followed the evolution of Linux sound as an end-user since the OSS-only days, waiting, hoping, that it will stabilize - it hasn't happened yet. Linux distros seem to get lots of things right, and so it's puzzling why sound has been so consistently stuffed up. - Andrew Perry