Comment 38 for bug 198453

If all the Ubuntu desktop distros, Kubuntu, Xubuntu etc all used PulseAudio, this wouldn't be a problem to solve. However, since only Ubuntu, Gobuntu, and UbuntuStudio use pulseaudio for the desktop, things are a lot more difficult.

As Steve has stated, this needs to be done in alsa-lib/libasound2. However, not as the default device, as explained above.

An asoundrc configuration could be created for applications to use the pulse plugin, however not all applications either allow the selection of a custom asoundrc config in their UI or implement alsa support in such a way that using asoundrc configs is impossible.

Then there is the problem of these applications being used by people who don't use pulseaudio, which rules out per application configuration for using pulseaudio.

I think the best bet at this stage in the release, is user education/documentation, and mention something in the release notes about the current situation WRT audio.