Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 PCI Sound Card
 

I'm running WinXP Pro on a Dell XPS 710 with a Creative X-Fi sound card. Been away from Linux for a year or so since I got this machine and would like to come back. Can you suggest/recommend a sound card (5.1 preferred) that has a high success rate with the Linux OS. I will probably install Open Suse or Kubuntu. I'm more than willing to dump the high end sound card for less flash. Appreciate any feedback. Beers all around...

What you're looking for is a hardware compatibility list and most distros have them. For example, I use Ubuntu, so there is the Ubuntu Hardware Compatibility List:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport
http://www.ubuntuhcl.org

Also, most drivers list hardware with which their driver should be compatible. You can find the drivers and their compatibilities at http://www.linux-drivers.org. Hope this helps.

Sound card
 

Many thanks. Killian's on tap.

Give me a thumbs up :D