LinuxQuestions.org - Application problems with Intrepid Ibex

I decided to switch to Linux from Windows for a number of reasons, but I'm still getting used to it. I'm having a few -particular- problems I'd like some help with if it's alright.

1.) The immediate problem is with the applications . . . I run a third party chat client called YahElite instead of Yahoo!, which in Windows, when you minimize it or hit 'exit', it doesn't actually minimize like a browser would as a box, rather an icon in the system tray which you have to right click and access again. Yesterday, Intrepid functioned the same way. I would hit the 'x' and it would minimize to the system tray where I could right click and hit 'Chat' to bring it up again. I turn my computer off at night, and we turned it back on this morning. My fiance opened an instance of YahElite, and it would look like it would minimize to the 'workspace' switching area, but no icon would show up. I opened my own instance and minimized it instead of x'ing it, and the same thing happened. The process must still be running (it is, I checked htop, although I don't know how to terminate an application from there, if you can) because if I open a -new- instance and try to log in, it tells me I'm already logged in, yet there is no icon other than the quick-launch icon near the menus. . . .

I'd like some help with this particular program's minimizing problems, as well as how to terminate applications quickly and easily in the future (similar to terminating a process in Windows with CTRL ALT DLT I hope).

2.) I use Logitech headphones through a USB port, but we can't get the sound to come through them; it comes through the speakers in the monitor instead when we use anything like YouTube or Pandora. I can get the sound to test through the headphones in 'System' and 'Sound' . . . but I can't get actual applications to play music or anything else through them. It recognizes the device, because when I hit volume control on the cord of the headphones, it registers that I'm changing the volume, but no sound still. I don't know what the problem is, and sudo alta reset / reload didn't work in Terminal (my friend had me try that). He said it should do it automatically, but it won't. Help please!

3.) One more YahElite problem that seems to be happening is that when I'm in chat, and someone or myself types, the text doesn't come up smoothly, the screen seems to wiggle a little as if the text can't immediately fit in the box and the application has to adjust itself to allow the text in, as if it's lagging (but it isn't). When I first installed YahElite, I had to also install Wine Doors, Native Rich Text Editor 30, DCOM 98, and some VB and C++ runtimes to make the program work correctly with Linux (otherwise, the fonts were smooshed, there was a scrolling issue where it wouldn't scroll at all when someone typed, et cetera). It worked beautifully, except that I can't fix this problem with what I call fake lag . . . since it seems to mimic a chat lagging in Windows appearance-wise, but something is slightly different about it that tells me it isn't lag, it's something else.

ANY help with any of these problems would be wonderful. Thank you!