I think the use cases you're describing are quite distinct from a "Linux on the desktop" user. The audio experience for this kind of user (myself included) has improved dramatically in the past few years.
I'm a desktop Linux user; I preferred the old way. I do get that most people like multiplexing (I don't; I want exactly one sound source at a given time), and I'll grant that has improved.
I banged my head against my desk for a couple of days when Slackware switched to Pulse with 14.2, allegedly because it was needed for bluetooth. I still have difficulty believing that people actually use bluetooth for audio, but apparently some people love it.
I hate app feedback and notification sounds. I hate notifications in general; I prefer to poll for information I need on my schedule. This is also why I hate desktop environments and use a simple full screen window manager. One task at a time. Hell, lately I don't even bring up X every day if I don't need to. Tl;dr: I'm old.
Or wise, and you take control of your own attention.
Multiplexing can be handy if you like gaming, and having music from another application at the same time.
Also sometimes it's useful to have a reference manual in one side of the screen and your text editor in the other, or a PDF viewer on one side and a LaTeX editor in the other.
I'm with you regarding the value of multiplexing. I don't use it much, but it was really annoying back in the day when one program would block another program's sound.
> Also sometimes it's useful to have a reference manual in one side of the screen and your text editor in the other, or a PDF viewer on one side and a LaTeX editor in the other.
True. An emacs which supported the framebuffer could do this (but GNU emacs currently only supports vt100, X, macOS & Windows, IIRC).
There's nothing quite as jarring as having a pleasant piece of music turned up, only to have some off-key and out-of-time bell ding because an email arrived. Want to let me know there's a new email? Put a little envelope on the task bar so I can see it. Don't invade my music!
Exactly. Why would you trade something that doesn't require power, has the most reliable, secure, and lossless transmission channel known, and is "configured" by plugging in hardware for something that requires power, has a less reliable transmission channel that can be easily snooped or forged, has to be configured in software? I literally don't understand why anyone would ever choose the latter.
I don't: wireless headphones seem strictly worse in every way than wired. They require batteries and charging; they introduce lag; they are expensive; they are easier to lose; they don't have a convenient cable to hang on to.
I am completely and totally flabbergasted by their popularity. It's as though millions of people were turning their noses up at fine, free homemade French food and paying for McDonald's instead.
Although...different use-cases there, for me. I've got a dozen audio sources, either connected to speakers (the TVs) or within a couple feet of me when I'm using it (phone, media player, tablet, laptop). So, a bunch of sources, a couple of which I might be listening to at once. All either in short enough distance for cords, or loud enough that it's moot.
Wifi: The internet comes from one (inconvenient) place in the home that I can't choose. I've got a couple of powerline ethernet adapters, but I've also got a lot of devices that handle wifi, but not ethernet. The choice is between using wifi or skipping the network connection. It's great as a last- (or only)-resort connection option, and it's usually sufficient, but then my uses for it are usually pretty tame anyhow.
Bluetooth was originally encrypted, but gained the option of non-encrypted channels with version 1.1.
On top of that Bluetooth use frequency hopping.
Until recently there was no real hardware for scanning/sniffing Bluetooth traffic, at least not anything easily available compared to a wifi card in promiscuous mode.
As a matter of fact, my desktop & my laptop are both wired, and I hate how flaky WiFi is on my phone & tablet. Just moving to different rooms in my (small house) does horrible things to my network connexion speed — but Ethernet keeps on chugging along.
The bluetooth stack dropped support for ALSA with Bluez 5.0. About a year ago, dev started on a "bluez-alsa" or BlueALSA package the re-integrates an ALSA backend. I've used it briefly; it seems to work as advertised.
I think that Bluez 5.0 came out about the time that Slackware 14.0 did, so it makes some sense that versions before 14.2 would've provided Bluez 4.x for the bluetooth stack.
Well, it improved years ago (like, ten!) and I haven't had to worry about it in recent years.
I still remember buying a hardware sound card (soundblaster emu10k) to enable ALSA to mix multiple sources (game audio + teamspeak or whatever voice chat people used back then) back in the early 2000s.
I banged my head against my desk for a couple of days when Slackware switched to Pulse with 14.2, allegedly because it was needed for bluetooth. I still have difficulty believing that people actually use bluetooth for audio, but apparently some people love it.