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I have always found PulseAudio to be difficult to use and overcomplicated. Recently I also discovered that it is written by Lennart Poettering, whom I dislike. I am now very motivated to use something else. But configuring sound is also not my passion, I just want sound to work on my computer as I plug in/out various audio devices (like headphones and tvs).
Sounds like PipeWire is the cool new thing now. But it describes itself as a replacement for PulseAudio *and* JACK. My impression was that JACK is much more complicated than PulseAudio, and only worth it for audio professionals. And PulseAudio is already too much for me. This makes me suspicious that PipeWire could improve matters for me.
If I replaced PulseAudio with PipeWire on my Arch Linux system, would I find it easier to use and configure? Or is it even more complicated in practice?

I have always found PulseAudio to be difficult to use and overcomplicated. Recently I also discovered that it is written by Lennart Poettering, whom I dislike. I am now very motivated to use something else. But configuring sound is also not my passion, I just want sound to work on my computer as I plug in/out various audio devices (like headphones and TVs).
Sounds like PipeWire is the cool new thing now. But it describes itself as a replacement for PulseAudio *and* JACK. My impression was that JACK is much more complicated than PulseAudio, and only worth it for audio professionals. And PulseAudio is already too much for me. This makes me suspicious that PipeWire could improve matters for me.
If I replaced PulseAudio with PipeWire on my Arch Linux system, would I find it easier to use and configure? Or is it even more complicated in practice?

arch-linux sound