[oh8eleven]

there really isn't any good reason to ever pay for a desktop Operating System again
Free is good, but it's not without a "price." I just installed Kubuntu 11.04 yesterday and the first thing I noticed was no sound. Ten - fifteen minutes of trouble shooting and still no sound.
I'm a long time Windows user (since day 1) and while I understand there's a learning curve for any SW, finding a solution is not just intuitive or simple with this new OS.

[ShadowAce]

I've never been a fan of Ubuntu or its variants. I find it harder to work with than Red Hat or Fedora.

But it could just be familiarity. :)

[3Fingas]

Yes, there is a learning curve associated with Linux. One of the biggest drawbacks to Linux is hardware support. A good strategy when considering installing Linux is to use a slightly older computer with common device cards. You should research, the specific device card and see if it’s on the supported hardware list of that particular distribution. If you stick in the latest and greatest sound card or video card, you may have problems.

Here’s some a sound card troubleshooting link:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshooting

Another approach is to download and create an .iso image (bootable version of Linux) and run it on your machine. You don’t have to install the operating system, just boot your computer to run it from a cd rom or thumbdrive. If you don’t notice any hardware problems while running the OS from a cd or thumbdrive, you probably are safe to permanently install it on your pc.

Often times, changing the card in question is an easier fix.
Let us know how it turns out.