If you are interested in such things, head over to the Funkyware blog and read a rant about conflicting audio server standards in Linux. Martin-Éric Racine proposes we all adapt NAS, which he describes as the "one sound server standard..., which has been supported by HP, NCD and every other commercial X device manufacturer for ages". Typically NAS support is rolled up into the Xserver itself. Until today, however, I didn't know NAS existed, usually choosing between Esound or aRTS on a Linux box.
I've had a hard time googling up an authoritative site covering NAS, however, to find out more about it. Anyone care to offer a link covering the standard? I've been using Linux (and even admin'ing commercial Unix boxen, although never with sound support) for quite some time and I've never heard of this standard. Maybe the problem is exposure?