[LAU] Looking for distro recommendation

[Rick Green]

I've been running UbuntuStudio 8.04 with a self-compiled beta of jackd and 
ffado.  With the release of a new LTS version of UbuntuStudio, I thought 
it might be about time I did an upgrade.
   While my main audio machine is an AMD64 laptop, I built up some spare 
parts into a machine to evaluate the new distro before commiting my main 
hardware to it.  I'm doing the testing on an old Socket A MB with an 
Athlon MP 2100+ (1.6Ghz) and 2GB of RAM.  I've got a Ti-based Firewire 
card.
   I've managed to get US 10.04 loaded and running.  I had to swap around 
video cards a bit, because my first choice would only start up in 
'emergency recovery mode'.  I ended up with a 128MB Radeon 9100, but it 
seems to ba a little heat-sensitive, so I have to keep the cover off the 
case if I don't want the video to go black unexpectedly...

   Before I got far enough to even think about plugging in my firewire 
interface, I'm seeing reports of bugs and mis-configurations both here 
and on the FFADO-users list in US 9.10, that makes me think I should also 
investigate Planet CCRMA, but then I discover yet another choice, whether 
to overlay it on Fedora or Centos, and I see a new Fedora 13 is only days 
away!  Too many choices!

   So hopefully without starting a religious war, can you share your 
experiences, and advise me on what direction to go?

   Ubuntustudio 10.04 and tweak until it works?
   Planet CCRMA on fedora 12?
   Wait for fedora 13?  How long before Planet CCRMA will have a f13 
repository?
   Planet CCRMA on Centos 5.4?

-- 
Rick Green

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
                                   -Benjamin Franklin

"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our
safety and our ideals."
                                -President Barack Obama 20 Jan 2009