Thanx in advance to everyone that is reading this. Your effort is greatly appreciated.

I have managed to install ALSA, get sound to play in XMMS (although i've always had sound), adjust volume, and enable Surround Sound.

If you've heard of eSound and how it can take multiple sources then mix them into one output then you'll understand what I'm talking about. I heard that you can make ALSA mix multiple sources just like that. That way, I don't have to set everything to use eSound. Thus, it'll be just like windows' sound. I wanna be able to hear my Yahoo Pool/Chess making sounds while I listen to my freeking Hip Hop music on XMMS and while some b** messages me on aMSN. LOL, sorry I got a little pissed there.

I've gotten everything to work on Linux since my last format and I want to keep it that way. I'm just getting tired of messing around with sound drivers and servers.

have a look at this thread

using alsa with dmix is one of the next points on my "todo-list", but I have still got some problems with xmms :/