A linear theory of laser heating is used to describe the coupling of optical waves to thermally induced acoustic and entropy perturbations of the medium. The analysis differs from those of previous authors in its treatment of entropy, dissipative effects, and active compensation of thermally induced laser-beamaberrations. An intuitively simple equation for the medium perturbation is derived, within the hydrodynamic approximation. The dimensionless parameters that characterize the diverse scattering regimes are discussed. The boundary-value problem is solved for specific cases of interest. Comparison with a nonlinear simulation verifies the linearized result in such cases.PACS number(s): 42.68. Mj, 42.20.Ji, 42.65.Es, 62.60.+v