Keyboard Magazine, 5/2007 p.30-31, "Linux: It's Not Just For Computer Geeks Anymore"
We recommend Fedora ( http://www.fedoraproject.org ), because you can then install the Planet CCRMA package ( http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software ), which includes just about every Linux audio application in existence.
As a long-time geek -- Redhat User (since 1.0) and long-time Fedora User (also since 1.0), HPUX, SunOS, BSD 4.2/4.3 -- I second Keyboard Magazine's recommendation! Now that I've got a stable qtractor (
http://old.nabble.com/Qtractor--0.4.5svn1517-td28566597.html#a28567324 ), I can heartily assert there is no need for Windows or Macintosh platforms anymore for music making. (IMHO, Until PlanetCCRMA and Fedora, Cakewalk under DOS/Windows was the last time making music was any fun... and I'm very glad I'll never even consider upgrading my long-lapsed Sonar "subscription", and leave my windows XP box powered down most of the time, powering it up only to do my taxes or to see how my JavaScript and DOM AJAX gui code gets broken and mangled by Internet Explorer).
I personally think "distro wars" are not helpful to the cause -- previous "distro" wars (e.g OpenLook vs. Motif) have helped set Unix back against competitors that offered worse-is-better solutions across-the-board. And if you look at the fate of those leading distro wars -- it's death. c.f. Sun Microsystems and SGI, which IMHO got killed by Linux and the fact that they tied their OS to proprietary hardware, "RISC", that was ultimately a trendy hack based on current fab limitations. I think it would be wise to take note of the rotting computer industry carcasses and what got them there.... Too many distros (of essentially the same thing) means we're divided and conquered before we even get out the gate.... Perhaps if there was binary-compatibility so that I can install "noobuntu" :-) apps in Suse or Fedora, we could enjoy a wide ecology of distros and share all the latest apps After all, applications, and not "distro" is what it's all about.