Counter-anecdote: over several years and across multiple installs, I've experienced intermittent stuttering, multi-second latency, and random crazy-high CPU usa

Counter-anecdote: over several years and across multiple installs, I've experienced intermittent stuttering, multi-second latency, and random crazy-high CPU usage. Uninstalling Pulse and going back to alsa in each case completely fixed the problem, with no noticeable loss in functionality. I've used Linux exclusively as my desktop OS since 1999 - I'm happy to mess with things till they work. I've never had a piece of software frustrate me so much. It made me feel like I was taking crazy pills; everyone else seemed fine with such an obviously broken addition to Linux, worse yet they standardized around it. Basically, you got lucky, I didn't. Leads to a very different perspectives!