I currently have a Vostro 200 running Ubuntu that allows me to output to 7.1 audio using a bunch of 1/8 stereo to rca cables. This works perfectly, all I had to do was adjust some pulse audio setting for the number of channels, but it is kind of a mess cable wise.
I would rather just have a sound card that supports optical and/or coxial digital out (Is one better than the other?). Is there a sound card that will do this that works well with recent ubuntu installations? Would rather not have to worry about adding any drivers, modifying a lot of alsa configs, etc... I would like something supported by the stock kernel. Also, don't think this should matter, but I want it to play nice with xbmc for Linux.