Soundcards
FireWire cards use ffado and the supported devices list is here.
"M-Audio Firewire interfaces are not supported under linux. And if M-Audio continues to
not provide the necessary information to write drivers this won't change."
There's also the Alsa Soundcard Matrix, for USB and PCI devices.
USB MIDI Devices have a list here.
Laptops
LinLap is a place to read or share experiences with Linux on laptops.