&gt; where other Linux distros had rock-solid and professional-quality audio subsystems and software integration<p>Such as? Remember we&#x27;re talking Linux in the 2005-era (~2.6.10-ish), not Linux today. JACK was still fairly new at that time. ALSA was still mostly broken at the time. Most stuff still wanted OSS. Basic &quot;does sound come out of the speakers?&quot; was often broken, and god help you if you wanted two things to play audio at the same time.<p>And you still need to solve the driver problem, which JACK, etc... don&#x27;t help with at all.