removing esd - seems possible now?

[Matthew Lenz]

I think the big issue people have with ESD is that it historically has 
been configured to hold onto the audio device and not let it go.  I 
assume its possible to configure the system to use software mixing with 
alsa (dmix) and force ESD to use ALSA.  This way the applications that 
want to use ESD output modules for NTA (network transparent audio) can 
do so without imposing that requirement on other applications which want 
to use ALSA directly or ALSA OSS emulation.  The real question is to 
whether or not ESD still tryies to hold onto the audio device directly.  
If it does then a new sound server that doesn't exibit that behavior is 
to a great advantage.  What it all comes down to is sound on most all 
linux distro's "Just doesn't work"(tm) most of the time and it should.

-Matt