I thought alsa was developed as a response to the OSS development becoming more closed. I've used OSS 4 for quite some time as it was the only driver available for the xfi cards that didn't blow chunks. As everything has 'just worked' I've never revisited the alsa/pulseaudio mess again. Sound in linux doesn't have to suck, sure seems like we work hard to make it so, however.

that so many people think things are owed to them. Mandrake puts together a wonderful distro, and it is available for free. They do it out of their own pocket in the hopes that they may actually sell some boxed sets, etc. The second they actually dare to charge for their services, people get upset. Mandrake doesn't owe it to anybody, if anything, it's owed them. You want Staroffice, buck up and pay up, otherwise, shut up.....