Polypaudio, discussion on gnome-devel

[Michael Donaghy]

> If the audio-framework supports the audio-output specified first, it opens
> the output device after the colon.
>
> The point is there is no reason to have a soundserver like polypaudio or
> artsd if  you are only playing audio locally, but being unix desktops we
> should also support network transparency.
>
Don't you need one to be able to play multiple sounds at once on cheap 
consumer soundcards? I know arts and esd have been the only way I've ever 
been able to play two sounds at once on my via82c686b.