I haven't even read this entire (huge) thread, but it seems strange to me that KDE applications don't work with arts.
Can it be that the apps are misconfigured to use ALSA directly but you are running arts? You should either: 1)Leave arts on with application set up to use it or 2)Set applications to use ALSA directly and turn off arts. I have heard somewhere that it is possible to use at the same time arts and applications that use ALSA directly if you use something called dmix or something like that. Anyway, what I mean is, if you are having this problem than I think that your apps are set up to use ALSA directly, and it should be possible to set them up to use arts. -- Software is like sex: it is better when it is free.
