to linux or not to linux...

[Stephen Adler]

Guys,

My new notebook is on the fedex delivery truck and should be in my
hands within hours... :) But, now I have to deal with the inevitable..
loading linux, getting the damn thing to properly dual boot linux and
windows XP etc. etc.

But, looking on the bright side, this would be an ideal opportunity
to do something radical.. like switch distro's for example. So,
I'm wondering if anyone would care to chime in.

1) Should I load fedora core 3 (which is what I was planning on
doing...)
2) Switch to enterprise linux 4
3) Switch to SuSE
4) Mandrake?
5) Debian?

Here is the goal and a bit of motivation on why I'm actually considering
switching from the Fedora Core sect. (Different distributions are
basically like different sects of the linux religion...)

I use my notebook for my job and it does need to work and be stable.
When I loaded fedora core 3, evolution started causing stability
problems which made me switch to thunderbird. Also, on my home
PC, I had lots of trouble with my dual LDC xinerama setup. (I
chased it down to a bug in X.org which manifested itself in
the fedora core 3 release.) In short, I use my computers for
my profession and I don't have time to deal with these kinds of
problems. (The dual LCD display problem basically chewed up a
day which I would have spent doing productive work for my clients.)

So, I would like stability, but at the same time, I would like to
as current as possible with desktop software, (i.e. either gnome
or KDE, internet connectivity tools, etc.) This sounds a bit like
an ad for Red Hat enterprise, but before paying for that distribution,
maybe there are some other options out there for me.

BTW, yes, I'm willing to pay for a linux distribution. Something
I think the linux community should learn to get comfortable with...
;)

Looking forward to reading the suggestions.

Cheers. Steve.