[tde-users] getting Logitech USB microphone to work with Audacity (or better solution) - off-topic

Okay, so here's another off-topic conumdrum for the more technically-inclined musicians and sound people out there. I found a Logitech USB microphone at a second-hand shop for cheap ($5), and want to get it working with my machine, so that I can do quick and dirty recordings of demos or just for my own practice. My machine does recognize the microphone, no problem. (I always seem to have good luck with Logitech products.) I used alsamixer, hit the F6 key, chose Logitech USB microphone, and there it is. I did not have Audacity installed, though I have used it a lot, when I have a much more complete mixing setup, sometimes with multiple instruments and microphones attached. Again, no problem. I've made many recordings using Audacity with different guitars and microphones. Now, however, while my machine recognizes the microphone, Audacity will not start up at all. I installed it from the repositories, everything seems right. When I run F2 and enter audacity, the logo shows up. But when I check top, it never appears at all, as if something is blocking Audacity from starting up. I checked what I could of config files, etc., but nothing seems amiss. I do have a backup of my system, including the folders for my previous working version of Audacity, so it's possible that I could solve my problem by just copying the old folder into my new folder, and overwrite everything so that my settings ought to be forced. But I'm wondering if anybody else might have a clue what's going on, before I go rogue and do something stupid. Also, over the past couple years I've been reading various complaints about the new "privacy" policies of Audacity: that it now snoops on users, even when it's not running, if it's installed on a system. I would like to find a better fork that respects our privacy, but so far I have found nothing to compare with it in GNU/Linux programs. Thanks for any help. Bill