Sound Through Apps

i think if i could get over the learning curve to be able to get everything going myself, i would be sold on the linux world.[/b]

How about taking a step back, and just learn some very top level openSUSE Linux concepts:
http://en.opensuse.org/Concepts

That page is very top level, and it is very condensed. Most the time I find I need to read a line 3x and think about it, before I can appreciate what was stated. But it covers a lot of material, and IMHO explains why many things are done the way they are in openSUSE.