On Apr 10, 2010, at 9:16 AM, Bert Freudenberg wrote:

> Can you try different sound options?

Excellent point, and just reminded me of something that might explain  
why I see no problem with audio CPU usage.

I'd been having persistent and widespread audio problems in many apps  
since Ubuntu 9.10, with various ugly workarounds needed to get sound  
out of several apps, not just squeak.  Finally I found the ultimate  
solution that makes audio "just work" again, like it always used to,  
on Ubuntu.  Two trivial steps:

apt-get remove pulseaudio
apt-get install esound

Perfect, flawless audio ever since.

Cheers,
Ian

Pulse Audio?  Just Say "No"!