Comment 9 for bug 28805

This is just for devices that don't yet work with PulseAudio, correct? With devices that do work using the new Sound Preferences window. (Wow, until now I hadn't appreciated how incomprehensible the current preferences window is.)

If you keep with the horizontal arrangement, Bill's screenshot shows zero spacing between the top, right, and bottom edges of the right section and the edges of the tab. All of those spacings should be 12 pixels instead. One way of making that window arrangement a bit narrower would be to change "ALSA - Advanced Linux Sound Architecture" (currently the widest item in the menu) to just "ALSA".

An alternative way to make the window shorter would be to keep the vertical arrangement, but reduce redundant labels:
1. Instead of a "Sound Events" heading plus a "Sound playback:" label, have just a "Sound events playback:" label.
2. Instead of a "Music and Movies" heading plus a "Sound playback:" label, have just a "Music and movies playback:" label.
3. Instead of an "Audio Conferencing" heading plus "Sound playback:" and "Sound capture:" labels, have just "Audio conferencing playback:" and "Audio conferencing capture:" labels.
4. For bonus points, use checkboxes instead of multiple selection for the devices in the "Default Mixer Tracks" list. This would let you get rid of the "Use the Shift and Control keys to to select multiple tracks if required" text, freeing up the space that text used.