http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10495
--- Comment #291 from Ben Shadwick benshadwick@gmail.com 2011-01-08 10:37:42 CST --- Ben Klein: Please stop sputtering nonsense like that. The simple fact is that most Linux end-users are now using PulseAudio, and Wine doesn't work properly with it at all.
Killing Pulse to allow Wine to have direct Alsa access is simply not acceptable either; it is beyond what is appropriate to expect from the average end-user, and it also cuts off the ability to control volume via keyboard or laptop built-in controls while in a full-screen Wine game.
There's no need to defend this sorry state of things either, as the Wine developers themselves are working (slowly) to obsolete the current situation with a new audio back-end.
In the meantime, WinePulse is the currently-available solution that offers a superior end-user experience.
Stefan: Actually it would be better to move away from X11 to something cross-platform like SDL or Qt, as the X11 dependency causes all sorts of silly problems on Mac.