>lose the sound applet in their panelThey can install several different ones and try and see which one suits them better. I recommend 'volti'
>and volume buttons might not work unless they are specifically mapped to amixer commands or something.
This was not the case on my system. They can try and see.Older versions of pulseaudio are very buggy from my experience. One is better removing it. You lose nothing after all.
