As you might know Skype has been out for GNU/Linux for a very long time. It supports video and all kinds of stuff, which is very useful. It is all good, and works pretty well. Some might know the fancy feature that comes with Windows Vista per default. That is the possibility to turn the volume up and down for single applications, which is where Pulseaudio comes into the picture. This is a simmilar soundsystem for GNU/Linux that has existed for quite a while now, and ships with many of the big distributions.
Most applications work out of the box with Pulseaudio, some does not. Yes you are right, Skype does not work right out of the box with Pulseaudio, but with a quick configuration it works perfectly fine.
If you have not already a ~/.asoundrc file, make it. The following should go in this file:
pcm.!default {
type pulse
}
ctl.!default {
type pulse
}
pcm.pulse {
type pulse
}
ctl.pulse {
type pulse
}First two sections make Pulseaudio the default audio system. The two last sections are making Skype able to select Pulseaudio. This might work for other applications also. When this is done and alsa and pulseaudio is restarted, start Skype and go to Options>Sound Devices
And change all the settings to pulse. Starting the Pulseaudio volume manager and trying to call a friend or making a testcall, shows that Skype appears in the list of applications using Pulseaudio.