A number of users have reported that running "rm --no-preserve-root -rf /" not only deletes all their files (as expected), but also permanently bricks their computers (which is not). Tracing the issue revealed that the ultimate cause was that SystemD mounted the EFI pseudo-fs as read-write even when this FS was not listed in fstab, and deleting certain files in this pseudo-fs causes certain buggy, but very common, firmware not to POST anymore. A user reported this bug on SystemD's GitHub issue tracker, asking that the FS be mounted read-only instead of read-write, and said bug was immediately closed as invalid. The comment thread for the bug was locked shortly after. Discuss.
Links:
https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/2402
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/02/01/running-a-single-delete-command-can-permanently-brick-laptops-from-inside-linux/
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Tuesday February 09 2016, @04:47PM
PulseAudio
TBH, Pulse Audio source code is poorly documented, difficult to understand. But what it does is work the way audio on linux is suppose to work under ALSA. The problem with ALSA is ALSA had NO USABLE DOCUMENTATION. For a project that important, WTF?? To write .asoundrc config files, you needed a PHD in brainfuck and half the time something was broken anyway because device detection order changed. At least with Pulse Audio there is pavucontrol allowing people to switch stuff around and for audio to work out of the box.
I love command line, but audio on Linux definitely was a PITA before Pulse Audio came around.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2016, @07:48PM
There was already JACK if you needed more than controlling the speaker volume on your motherboard DAC.