[Godel_unicode]

This entire post is completely missing my point. I am, and have been been for the entirety of this discussion, talking about what the situation is today. Today, audio is broken on desktop Linux. Other OSes might have the same problem or they might not. Tomorrow might be different. I'll even go so far as to say it will probably be different.

But today, if you download the most popular Linux distro from Canonical and install it on your PC, you are going to have audio issues out of the box. Saying anything else is gaslighting, and it is the main reason desktop Linux fails. People are told "it's good now, trust us!". So they install it, their headphones don't work, they roll their eyes and say "Linux gonna Linux" and go back to their previous OS.

[smoldesu]

You're also missing the other side of that coin: that's not my problem. I don't care how you're coping with getting things configured or set up correctly, I sure as shit don't care if people aren't getting it working on their box, and I definitely don't care about how "other people" view Linux. Why should I be afraid of anecdotal desktop Linux failures if it works fine for me?

Linux is not a desktop operating system. By default, it has no audio configuration. Distros package whatever software is considered "current" at the date of their LTS cutoff; Ubuntu is one of them. Ubuntu is using outdated software, and will be stuck that way for a couple years. Currently, Linux audio is fine. You're the one using broken software and blaming others.