Good points. Although I do have the impression that, because of the rise of less tech-savy people using Linux, there also is a rise in forums/documentation whic

Good points. Although I do have the impression that, because of the rise of less tech-savy people using Linux, there also is a rise in forums/documentation which is more aimed towards those users and hence easier to digest in most cases. I mean, basically I am one of those users since I don't use linux daily and apparently not enough to get solutions to common problems wrong stuck in my head, and I do have the impression that if I have problems these days the answer is in one of the first search results encountered. (alternative explanation is that search just got way better :) Unfortunately that also means sooner or later we might find ourselves in the too-many-unrelated-crap-answers situation which exist now already for a myriad of Windows/Mac problems. Distilling the correct answer for your specific problem where the OS tells you 'error C0000005' or so seems to get harder every year. Add 100 different distros to that and it won't get any better. Though sites like stackexchange seem to do a pretty good job of keeping it to the point. re: Audio: I actually asked the same question here last year or so and IIRC the answer was 'still the same mess'