[ale] Distro Opinion

[Jeff Hubbs]

I would like a Linux distribution for my new system - the one that will
be my "main" system and I'd liek to hear opinions on what distribution
you'd think I would have the most success with given its architecture and
desired roles.
It's an Athlon 700, based on an Asus K7V mobo with onboard sound that,
at the time I got it at least, required the ALSA drivers to get the onboard
sound (AC97) to work.  There are two ATA-66 IDE controllers on the
mobo with a 20GB disk on each.  I've got Ethernet, narrow SCSI-2,
and 3Dfx Voodoo3 3500 TV video cards (the version that has NTSCÂ  video
I/O).  I have my oen partition scheme worked out among the two drives
that does make use of some software RAID, so I want the installation process
to utilize the scheme I set up.
This machine is going to be one of several behind a firewall attached
to DSL.  In addition to being my primary "sit-at" system, it will
also act as a Samba server for any and all Windows machines on the house
LAN.  I will want to have FTP and NFS serving take place as well.
I also want to get on a good path to be able to get the Voodoo3 3500
TV card supported someday for NTSC video I/O and also to get the onboard
sound supported.
I started out with Mandrake 7.0-2 on this machine, and I got real frustrated
because there was a lot of stuff like Samba, wu-ftpd, and so on that appeared
to be present but not functioning, and although I probably
could have figured out how to eventually get all that stuff working, I
would do so in fear of missing some sort of prerequisite and I had and
still have plenty to figure out as it is!
The machine is now running Red Hat 6.2, but it's a bit long in the tooth
already and I'm interested in the ATA-66 and ReiserFS support I've read
about in Mandrake 7.1.  I am most comfortable with Red Hat and its
derivatives but I am open to suggestions.  I would be interested in
a distro that has a good mechanism for regular updates that won't go around
breaking stuff, and IÂ would appreciate having really useful documentation.
I generally download distros but I am open to suggestions regarding
paying for tech support, whether by paying for a boxed distro or by buying
support services separately.
Â