It doesn't seem to have gotten any mention on the lists, but over at
LinuxMusicians FalkTX has announced a new Ubuntu10.04/KDE4 based liveCD
tailored to audio production. I can't comment on the performance of it, but
he has certainly put alot of effort into centralizing and streamlining
things like audio system settings and plugin management (it probably has
more options for plugins than any distro I've checked out, with guis for
managing installation of linux and win vsts, for example.) It also has
things like Ardour and ArdourVST installed in parallel.
Anyway, I'd say it's worth checking out if people are looking for
alternatives:
http://kxstudio.sourceforge.net/
-michael