[ne0phyte]

I never had a laptop where plugging in headphones didn't disable the speaker (and nothing I could do about that in software).

If that really is the case you could use dmix and have audio played on both the headphone and speaker output. You would still have to mute the speakers when plugging in the headphones though.

[pyre]

> If that really is the case you could use dmix and have audio played on both the headphone and speaker output. You would still have to mute the speakers when plugging in the headphones though.

You're stating that Pulseaudio isn't necessary because someone could do the same thing with a combination of dmix and manual intervention? Have you considered the possibility that someone might like the convenience of not needing to do manual intervention?

[ne0phyte]

Huh? I never stated that Pulseaudio isn't necessary.

I just pointed out a possible solution/workaround with ALSA and dmix for redirecting the audio output to two devices/pcm outputs.

After years of using just ALSA and messing around with its config on different computers I am now using Pulseaudio too. Once it's running it's a lot easier to use and more flexible, especially when it comes to hot-plugging and switching between inputs and outputs.

[khedoros]

I assume they're either using USB headphones or some other case of having multiple audio output devices, like my desktop with onboard sound and a separate PCI sound card.

[the_mitsuhiko]

That does not apply to non 3.5mm headphones and even those are software driven now in many notebooks.