OK, you're right, it's kinda offtopic ;).

I'm using debian as the distribution of my choice. There are a couple of reasons why I prefer this distro above RedHat or Mandrake (used them both for more than one year):

• Great package-management system. It's easy due to it's front-end (apt-get) and has almost flawless dependency checking. Packages are generally of really good quality.
• Good bugtracking and fast updates
• Really responsive group of maintainers

Debian is more troublesome to set up, than RH, but this really pays off in te long run. You only need to run apt-get update && apt-get upgrade everyday, to have a the new versions of all the software installed on your system.

All of the programs you mention, will run on any distro, so that shouldn't be a problem.

With respect to your kernel requiments, you really should try to compile your own kernel. For one you learn a lot about your computer, and besides that, your kernel will be significantly faster.

Good luck with the penguin!