No sound for second user in Fedora 11?

[Michael Hannon]

Howdy.  I'm trying to teach my (nearly-adult) son some things about Python and, as sort of a side effect, about linux.  We're using Fedora 11 on an x86_64 system.  Of course I gave my son his own account on the system.  He noticed that he's getting no sound in his account, even though sound works fine in my account.  Note that I'm always the first person to login to this system after it reboots, and I retain my session when my son logs in (via "Switch User").

I gather from browsing the web that this is a feature, not a bug.  I.e., it appears that the first one to login to a Fedora box after a reboot gets the sound, and nobody else does, or at least not without some serious shenanigans at the system-wide level.  Can someone with more knowledge of the situation confirm or deny this?  If it IS the case that only one user gets sound, what are the prospects for relaxing that constraint in Fedora 12?

As our focus with my son's sessions is mainly Python, and as I'm the primary user of the system (hence, always have sound), this is not in any way a critical issue.  I'm just curious.

Thanks,

-- Mike