Back with another question, this time a Linux based question. I don't think I've ever had a Linux related question but here it is.

Q:
I'll shoot you a question. I've been using linux for a little while now, because I had to do a clean windows install, and when I did, I can no longer use the cdkey I used before(which is stupid.. I'm not buying ANOTHER copy of windows...)

So .. anyway .. I, like most fairly inexperienced linux users, am having trouble with sound. As of now, I can play one sound at a time, but can't figure out how to have more. Say I'm listening to music, I no longer hear the sound notifying me of new messages or whatever. How might I go about fixing this?

- userfriendly

A:
Thanks userfriendly for your question. I'll give u a quick idea of what the problem could be as it could be more complex.
You say you can only play one sound at a time which sounds like a sound provider issue. Linux uses 3 major sound providers namely GStreamer, Xine and ALSA. Your system will be configured to use one of these three providers for audio in/out. I think ALSA has this issue with only 1 audio output channel while Xine and GStreamer can process many origins of sound. I myself used to use Linux all the time and only just got back into using it late last year but im sure your problem is related to this.

If there are any Linux guru's out there who want to add to this, please feel free and comment the post.