if I were a newbie how would I get sound?

[Douglas Tutty <dtutty@porchlight.ca>]

I'm gradually getting Etch installed on my new box and I'm ready to get
sound working.  I figure I'll try out vlc as an all-singing-all-dancing
media player.  However, looking through the package lists none of the
media players depend on alsa.

There's no mention of sound in either the installation manual or
debian-reference.

I'm assuming I need alsa so I installed it and note that lsmod shows the
sound modules are loaded.

If I was a total newbie, how would I know how to play sound?

Am I missing something or shouldn't there be some discussion of sound in
the debian-reference?  

Doug.