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f33e652
(Get the code!)
Luke,
I don't understand your logic. We can modify the startup session for PulseAudio; instead of immediately launching "pactl load-module module-x11-xsmp" via GNOME Session Preferences, use a script that checks for/propagates the proper .asoundrc configuration per-user upon login (asoundconf set-pulseaudio), then launches PulseAudio normally. Since this script will be part of the PulseAudio package (and perhaps can be configured get automatically unset if the pulseaudio package is removed), Kubuntu and Xubuntu will be unaffected. I would only suggest that "asoundconf set-pulseaudio" is extended to define "pcm.pulse" and "ctl.pulse" for the sake of slightly non-compliant ALSA apps that otherwise work correctly with PulseAudio (e.g. Skype).
Of course, PulseAudio is incompatible with some* applications (off the top of my head, I can only think of JACK, WINE's ALSA driver and PortAudio applications such as Audacity). There's simply no avoiding these specific issues at the moment, though an obvious solution is to exclude PulseAudio from the UbuntuStudio distribution in the case of Audacity and JACK (won't help everyone, but at least we're targeting the appropriate audience).
Flash since v10 beta 1 (and now the release candidate) works with PulseAudio's pcm_pulse plugin. WINE and ALSA developers have been collaborating to fix issues in their software to help make PulseAudio work (not expressly for PulseAudio; rather, PulseAudio helped expose flaws in ALSA and buggy use of the ALSA API in some applications). These issues will be fixed in time.
PulseAudio is a half-hearted dmix replacement in its currently configured form. Its needs to be configured properly so that we can deal with real issues such as PortAudio/Audacity, or else it should be ripped out and Esound put back in its place, because 90% of the PulseAudio issues experienced by users will disappear upon fixing this bug.
An appropriate quote by Lennart Poettering, the main PulseAudio developer:
"Some distributions did a better job adopting PulseAudio than others. On the good side I certainly have to list Mandriva, Debian, and Fedora. OTOH Ubuntu didn't exactly do a stellar job. They didn't do their homework. Adopting PA in a distribution is a fair amount of work, given that it interfaces with so many different things at so many different places. The integration with other systems is crucial. The information was all out there, communicated on the wiki, the mailing lists and on the PA IRC channel."
See this blog entry for the rest of his comments: http://