From the "Call For Help" department:

The new version of the 2.6.8 kernel brings APM back, but sound is still screwed.

At least Windoze works, but that's not the OS I'd rather use.

There is too much about Linux that is still in "sacrifice a chicken and shake its bones at the moon" mode. At least when you are working with a laptop.

Time to get my Athlon back up and running...it's been in pieces for a while. At least on desktops Linux is pretty spiffy.